By Chad Bailey
Seven out of 10 Americans say their personal values guide their investment choices.1 More investors are now seeking out investment strategies and products that reflect their values and what’s important to them. God has called us to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us — including our time, talent and treasure. Since our faith guides how we live, it should also guide how we invest. That’s where faith-based investing comes in.
So, what is faith-based investing? It’s an approach that allows you to invest the financial resources God has given you in a way that honors him and advances his Kingdom. Through faith-based investing strategies, your investment dollars go toward products, services and industries that align with biblical values while still pursuing competitive performance.
To help our members and ministry partners align finances with faith, GuideStone® has developed a multi-faceted approach to faith-based investing, focused on honoring our biblical values, engaging the culture for Christ and making a Kingdom impact. We advocate for the faith-based values of life, family, safety, health, stewardship and advocacy. These serve as the underlying foundation for our investment strategies and the GuideStone Funds®.
Three imperatives drive our unique faith-based investing process:
1. Screen for Incompatibility
For us faith-based investing starts with screening for potential investment opportunities inconsistent with biblical values. In accordance with our Christian values, our strategies do not invest in any company that is publicly recognized for offering products or services that are incompatible with the Christian values of GuideStone Financial Resources, including but not limited to those involving abortion, sexual immorality, alcohol, tobacco, or gambling.2
Our screening process is ongoing. We continually review and revise our criteria to remain faithful to Christian principles and honor the Lord as new products and services emerge and new investable opportunities are discovered.
2. Advocate for Change
Our faith-based investing process is more than screening investments. It also involves engaging with corporations to encourage and influence them to adopt more Christ-honoring and responsible practices.
GuideStone’s corporate engagement program consists of two aspects. First, we dialogue with corporate leadership — sometimes in conjunction with other values-driven advocacy groups — to urge positive change in their products, services, standards and practices that aim to benefit consumers, employees and the communities in which they operate.
We have also instituted a proxy voting program within the GuideStone Funds. Shareholders have the right to make their voices heard in matters of company policy. Proxy voting enables shareholders to express their opinions and vote when they cannot attend corporate meetings in person. To make the Christian voice heard, we have collaborated with a leading proxy advisory firm to develop proxy voting guidelines to pursue even more active engagement with companies, guiding them toward outcomes that advance God’s Kingdom.
3. Invest for Impact
Exclusionary screening and corporate engagement are essential aspects of our faith-based investing process, but we have chosen to go further through impact investing. Impact investing allocates investments to companies striving to make a positive difference in the world through their products or services. It allows Christians to use our money to achieve our financial goals while also investing in endeavors that promote change in the world for God’s glory and the benefit of those he created. The following three impact themes are the areas we purposefully seek to impact the Kingdom:
- The sanctity of life and the spreading of the Gospel
- Human dignity and advancement
- The stewardship of God’s creation
Make a Difference with Your Personal Investments
So, now that we’ve defined faith-based investing, it’s important for investors to know how they can participate and align their own faith and finances.
For more than twenty years, GuideStone has offered diversified mutual funds across most major asset classes — the GuideStone Funds. All of the GuideStone Funds incorporate the first two levels of our faith-based investing process.
Additionally, GuideStone has developed two impact investing funds: the GuideStone Impact Equity Fund and the GuideStone Impact Bond Fund. Both funds incorporate the third level of our faith-based investing process. Through these strategies, our investors have made a positive impact in the world for Christ through projects such as funding Christian higher education, providing housing to those experiencing financial struggles, and improving access to health care.
With our faith-based investing strategies and funds, Christian investors can remain true to their values, leverage investment returns for their financial goals and make a Kingdom impact at the same time.
For more information about aligning your faith with your finances through faith-based investing, please visit GuideStone.org/Individual/Investments or call us at 1-888-98 GUIDE (1-888-984-8433), Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT.
Chad Bailey serves as the president of the GuideStone Advisors® team, which helps GuideStone® members align their faith with their finances. Our goal is to help them finish well and make a positive impact for the Kingdom.
Chad first joined GuideStone in 2000, serving in a variety of roles in financial reporting and strategic planning before helping launch GuideStone Advisors and GuideStone Financial Services® (affiliated broker-dealer).
Chad holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Dallas Baptist University and a Master of Business Administration from Texas Christian University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth.
1Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Modern Wealth Survey conducted by Logica Research, February 2022. Survey consisted of 1,000 Americans, ages 21-75.
2Our full screening policy reads: “In accordance with the Adviser’s Christian values, the Funds do not invest in any company that is publicly recognized (as determined by GuideStone Financial Resources) for offering products or services that are incompatible with the Christian values of GuideStone Financial Resources, including but not limited to, those involving abortion, sexual immorality, alcohol, tobacco, or gambling.”
Important Information
Investment considerations: There can be no guarantee that any strategy will be successful. All investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal.
Impact Investing: The Funds’ impact investing criteria could cause them to perform differently compared to funds that do not apply such criteria. Successful application of the Funds’ impact investing strategies will depend upon the Adviser’s and each sub-adviser’s skill in properly identifying and analyzing impact investing issues. Investments made may not generate the amount of positive impact that was intended when the investment was made.
Funds invested in accordance with the faith-based investment restrictions of GuideStone Financial Resources may not be able to take advantage of certain investment opportunities due to these restrictions, which may adversely affect investment performance.
Impact Bond Fund: An investment in the Fund involves risks that can significantly affect the Fund’s performance, including Credit Risk, Below-Investment Grade Securities Risk, Derivatives Risk, Mortgage-and Asset-Backed Securities Risk, Faith-Based Investing Risk, Fixed Income Securities Risk, Foreign Securities Risk and Market Risk.
Impact Equity Fund: An investment in the Fund involves risks that can significantly affect the Fund’s performance, including Equity Risk, Faith-Based Investing Risk, Foreign Securities Risk, Derivatives Risk, Market Risk and Futures and Options Risk.
You should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the GuideStone Funds before investing. A prospectus with this and other information about the Funds may be obtained by calling 1-844-GS-FUNDS (1-844-473-8637) or downloading one at GuideStoneFunds.com/Funds. It should be read carefully before investing.
GuideStone Funds are distributed by Foreside Funds Distributors LLC, not an adviser affiliate. Foreside is not a registered investment adviser and does not provide investment advice.
GuideStone Capital Management, LLC®, a controlled affiliate of GuideStone Financial Resources®, provides investment advisory services for the Funds.