In the report
Introduction
Why it was needed
The urgency of social and environmental crises and the growing backlash against sustainable investing calls for a collective response from values-based investors. Financial markets contribute to these crises through a focus on short-term increases in financial value and a lack of consideration of long-term social, environmental, and economic impacts. As participants in financial markets, charity investors and other values-based asset owners are highly likely to be investing in products and companies that are a detriment to their missions.
It doesn't need to be this way
Recent regulatory changes and the evolution of the impact investing market have created opportunities for an alternative approach, promoting charities aligning their investment capital with their missions.
An investing challenge was first run in 2020 with a mandate of £33.5 million from Friends Provident Foundation, The Blagrave Trust, and the Joffe Trust. A new investment fund was seeded by the winner Cazenove Capital, since growing to almost £1 billion in assets under management. It inspired similar exercises at least two further times across two continents.
For the Endowments Investing Challenge (EIC), we sought to push the dial more towards long-term impacts on future generations, driving financial value over decades. As such, we wanted to include the voices of those more affected by our investment decisions – the future generations themselves.
Our vision was big and bold: a request for proposals (RFP) focused on intentional positive impact on future generations alongside reasonable financial return; participation from those usually excluded from the process; and a big enough mandate to attract the attention of the investment industry.
What happened
Through late-2024, we brought together interested partner and supporting organisations to develop a transparent, collaborative ISP tender process that would prioritise positive impact on future generations alongside financial return.
To include the voices of those most impacted by our investment decisions, we recruited a Future Generations Panel (FGP) of seven 18-25-year-olds from across the UK. They all had lived experience of social, environmental, or economic marginalisation, for example multiple protected characteristics (including race, sexuality, and disability), housing insecurity, living in high pollution areas, and insecure employment/low incomes.
The FGP – Izzy, Jayden, Lok-Yi, May, Muhammed, Seth-Jesse and Viktoria – shaped and influenced key investment decisions throughout the process.
In September 2025 we published a public RFP and received 60 applications from 55 different ISPs. The applicants were based in seven countries, three continents, and represented over £11.5 trillion in existing assets under management.
Five shortlisted ISPs* were invited to an event at London’s Barbican Centre in March 2026, attended by charity staff, trustees, the FGP, and others. Following a presentation from each shortlisted organisation and questions from attendees, the FGP deliberated and made a recommendation to the audience: to vote for Triodos Investment Management. The audience followed their recommendation, with 46% of the “People’s Choice” vote going to Triodos. Octopus Capital were runners up, receiving a special mention from the FGP and 30% of the audience vote, followed by WHEB with 20%.
Since the EIC event, partners have committed approximately £20 million to the shortlisted ISPs, including over £12 million to Triodos. We expect further investment commitments from partners and others, but we do not expect to reach our initial target of £50 million, which reflects the state of the sector.
* The full shortlist was EdenTree Investment Management, WHEB, Octopus Capital, Impact Capital and Triodos Investment Management. These names are in bold throughout the document to highlight they were shortlisted. Friends Provident Foundation has a small minority ownership stake (1.54% at the time of the EIC event) in Tribe Impact Capital. For this reason, Friends Provident Foundation staff and Trustees were excluded from all discussions, assessments, and decisions about the inclusion of Tribe Impact Capital in the shortlist and did not vote at the event.