How our Investment Fund works
We're in this for the long haul
At Meridian, we’re not content with just giving now – we want to extend our reach far into the future.
That’s why our ultimate goal is to grow our investment fund to a point that we can donate $1M to charitable foundations every single year – in perpetuity.
We have a strategy in place to reach our goal within 25 years. Our plan to get there this is ambitious but achievable.
It relies on the support and power of our growing network of ‘mates who donate’ who collectively donate $100,000 every year, complemented by an active investment strategy.
We’ve got a considered approach to ethical investing which is effectively a balance between screening out investments that aren’t consistent with our values and targeting those that have a positive impact.
Giving back - for generations to come
As an organisation, we want to be fulfilling our philanthropic objectives for generations to come. The $1M giving target is a benchmark which, once achieved sustainably, can be reviewed and potentially raised from a platform of significant financial strength.
The financial modelling for our investment fund aims to protect our foundation from adverse economic and market events.
We think this is vitally important – since it is often at times of economic adversity that those in need require the greatest support.
Based on our modelling, we are projected to reach our $1M giving target by 2040. Importantly, this is projected to be achieved alongside the establishment of a large and scalable investment corpus, through a combination of donation growth and investment returns.
Investing ethically
The ethical investment approach we take follows several key guidelines:
Negative Investments
Meridian will avoid any direct investment in industries deemed to have a well-documented and accepted potential negative ESG impact, such as:
- Tobacco,
- Uranium/Fossil fuels,
- Gaming, and
- Defence.
Neutral Investments
Meridian understands that investment in some managed funds may give rise to an indirect exposure to any of the above through the lack of transparency of the fund’s direct holdings, but that restricted investments would not be meaningful. In order to ensure adequate diversification and to deliver required returns, some investment in funds that may fall into this category is both necessary and acceptable.
Positive Investments
Meridian will seek active and deliberate investment in specialised funds and other financial products that deliver a tangible positive ESG impact. For example, Meridian may seek to invest (either directly or indirectly) in funds that specialise in companies that deliver positive environmental outcomes (such as development of alternative energy technologies); or in green/social impact bonds. The universe of responsible investment opportunities is expanding; meaning the opportunity for Meridian to invest ethically and commercially is rapidly improving.
Growing as the market does
We plan to very carefully consider the area of impact investment – both now and into the future. Ethical and impact investing is still a relatively new asset class so as it develops an investments become increasingly commercially viable we will adjust and adapt accordingly.
We see the area of impact investing as being closely aligned with the philosophy and objectives of our foundation.
