Aligning Your Investment with Your Values

As a ministry of the UCC, we believe faith-based investing should align with the principles of the UCC. To accomplish this, we use a multilayered strategy that leverages corporate engagements, exclusionary screenings and proxy voting to influence companies, improve the world in which we live and deliver better long-term performance.

UCF partners with faith and values-based peer investors to push companies in our portfolios to be more sustainable and responsible. We do this through the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, ClimateAction 100+ and other shareholder activism organizations.

UCF also develops and co-files shareholder resolutions for a vote at the Annual Shareholder Meeting and engages corporate management in dialogues via calls, meetings, and investor letters.

As a faith-based institutional investor, we favor securities of companies that demonstrate a commitment to promoting human health and dignity, environmental integrity and moral responsibility.

To ensure that the investment funds we offer continue to align with UCC teachings and the resolutions of General Synod, our screening policy excludes investments in companies with the following interests or characteristics:

  • Tobacco
  • Military and nuclear weapons
  • Coal and tar sands
  • Firearms
  • Private prison operation
  • Human rights violations, including in occupied territories
  • Negative environmental or greenhouse impact

Click here to download and learn more about the complete list of UCF’s exclusionary screens.

We use proxy voting guidelines to encourage responsible corporate citizenship in the companies in which we invest. These guidelines represent our stance on environmental, labor and equality issues and demonstrate faithful stewardship of our investments.

Proxy voting enables UCF to have a substantial impact on protecting the financial performance and maximizing the long-term sustainability of the companies in which we invest and to deliver added value to our clients.

Economic Leverage

We use stock ownership to engage corporations in dialogue and promote shareholder action towards more sustainable, socially responsible activities.

Beyond Fossil Fuels

We lead the way in excluding certain companies paired with shareholder activism around climate issues by engaging in discussions and co-filing shareholder resolutions to effect meaningful change.

Supporting Sustainable Capitalism

As one of the leaders in values-driven, responsible investing, UCF aims to make sustainable capitalism possible. Through shareholder activism and collaboration with key players on the global justice issue, we help companies forge new pathways toward responsible and sustainable operations – and create more opportunities to deliver greater long-term value to investors.

Over the last two years, there has been a spectacular increase in investments focusing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Accordingly, UCF has prepared a report that examines the recent explosion of ESG investing universally and how UCF has participated in and contributed to that growth on behalf of its clients.

Our Investments

We provide a family of 11 traditional funds and three alternative funds that offer the performance and flexibility to meet your timeline, risk tolerance and return objectives.
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News and resources

UCF Statement on Regional Bank Failures

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and the recent takeover of Credit Suisse Bank by UBS have sparked concerns of a more significant banking crisis and investment losses due to sudden events. David Klassen, Chief Investment Strategist, has prepared this statement to explain the event, market reaction and UCF’s position on our investment strategies. Click to read more.

United Church Funds Commits to Climate Justice

The Board of Directors of UCF has issued a Climate Justice Statement, declaring UCF’s commitment to addressing global warming through its investment policies and engagements and placing climate justice and racial justice as its highest organizational priorities. Click to read more.

An Interview with Xponance

As we celebrate Women’s History Month in March and International Women’s Day on March 8, Stacey Pettice, UCF’s Institutional Relationships Executive, sat down with Tina Byles Williams, founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Xponance, to discuss the importance of diversity in finance management, responsible investing strategies and which women have most inspired Williams herself. Click to watch the video.