SUPER FUNDS PLAY A KEY ROLE

If you don’t have spare money to invest yourself there are superannuation funds that have embraced impact investing. The standouts include Christian Super, Local Government Super and Hesta, all of which feature in

Money magazine’s annual Best of the Best awards. (See our December-January issue for the 2018 winners.)

For close to a decade, Christian Super has been running an investment portfolio of projects for Indigenous, rural and urban communities and for people living with disabilities and child abuse. It has environmental investments as well as microfinance projects in Australia and overseas. The fund’s current community impact investments include Maths Pathway, which helps schools with a tool to structure the right course, assess students, automatically assign work and carry out fortnightly assessments.

Christian Super was a key investor in the first social bond from the NSW government, the Newpin Social Benefit Bond, which was first issued in 2013. It offers a therapeutic centre-based program to support families to break the cycle of child abuse and neglect.

Internationally, it has invested in the $510 million LeapFrog Fund II, which aims to improve financial services access to consumers in Asia and Africa.

To share its expertise with other big investors, Christian Super has set up Brightlight, a specialised asset consultant that will help institutions make impact investments.

Christian Super invests along faith-based lines and it believes there is a huge and growing demand for impact investing.