Peace, Justice and Money

By Melody Maravillas, Congregation Chief Financial Officer

My family always had opposing views about money. My dad valued simplicity and lived frugally. He often told us wealth invited problems. My mom, however, saw abundance as a vehicle for generosity, having more enabled her to help others financially. Working with the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace has allowed me to marry both philosophies. Budgeting and operating economically bring out my father’s values. Charitable giving and impact investments allow me to live out my mother’s. I have never felt such clarity and purpose in what I do.

Last October, it was a privilege for me to speak at a virtual conference hosted by the Resource Center for Religious Institutes (RCRI) and share how the Congregation integrates our values into our financial activities. Many other religious organizations are in the same boat as we are. More members are entering into retirement. Physical presence in our ministries has decreased throughout the years. Yet, the desire to carry out our charism continues fervently. As such, financial resources play an increasingly important role as our ministries shift.

Shareholder Advocacy is one of our earlier efforts in using our investments to create change. We push the envelope on corporate accountability and ask companies to do better. In 1976, we filed a resolution with Colgate-Palmolive to challenge the stereotypical portrayal of women in their advertisements. The Congregation is now fully divested from fossil fuels in both the United Kingdom and the United States. We continue to hold shares in corporations to advocate for climate change, racial justice, and human rights through corporate resolutions and proxy voting.

With impact investments, we started out providing low-to-no-interest loans to charitable institutions, such as Leviticus Fund, Mercy Housing, and Partners for the Common Good. One of our biggest shifts occurred in our UK region where 100% of the investments in that region are impact investments. We invest in Sarasin Partners’ climate-active fund, which has objectives that align with goals of the Paris Accord. Our other investment in the WHEB Sustainability Fund promotes clean energy, sustainable transportation and medical equipment that improves quality of life. The returns we receive from both investments are sufficient to meet our operating needs and is a strong testament to the viability of impact investments.

From our Resources for Mission Pathway (a direction developed by the Congregation on impact investing and best use of resources), we increased our efforts and made two direct impact investments. In 2021, we renewed loans to Global Partnerships and the UNICEF USA Bridge Fund for another five and seven years, respectively.

The UNICEF Fund was critical in providing immediate response efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. In their most recent annual report, $6 million (~ £4 million) was deployed to India for oxygen concentrators and personal protective equipment. Over 50% of the Bridge Fund is used to improve health conditions globally by accelerating the availability of routine and COVID vaccines in Africa and the Middle East.

Global Partnerships recently made a presentation to our Congregation Finance Committee. The organization continues to develop sustainable communities with 16 partners in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. As of their June 2021 report, they have impacted almost five million lives; 75% of the population they serve are women. They found that when women’s roles in the household were elevated, the condition of the entire family improved. Over 80% of the portfolio provides livelihood, thus helping their clients achieve financial resilience and weather challenging times. As seen in one of their clients’ testimonials: “Without the investment in my business, we would not have been able to survive [the pandemic].”

With so many avenues to use our resources for good, we are fortunate to be working with partners like our investment advisor, Concord Advisory Group. They have helped us integrate socially responsible investing practices in our portfolio. In 2021, we shifted 9% of our investments into a Catholic-screened fund and we approved moving another 10% to an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) fund. They helped us engage our investment managers to do more for us on impact. As a result, we have started looking into transferring up to one third of that portfolio into bonds that support clean energy projects, affordable housing, and other social projects.

There is truly so much potential in this new form of ministry to use our financial resources for positive change and to carry the charism forward in new and impactful ways on an international scale. Both my parents would approve.

This article appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of Living Peace.