Newton Investment Management has launched the SRI Fund for Charities, designed specifically for charities wishing to invest on an ethical and socially responsible basis.

Run by the Newton charities team with Gemma Woodward as lead manager, the new fund is a unit trust regulated by the FSA but restricted to charity investors in order to secure all appropriate tax exemptions.

Said to be in response to substantial and increasing demand from charity investors, the fund will be constructed in line with Newton’s mainstream investment process, which already integrates environmental, social and governance matters into the selection of investments. From this investable universe, additional screening will exclude companies with a range of negative activities and include companies which promote sustainability in a variety of positive ways.  High levels of transparency on screening decisions are promised by Woodward as a matter of course.

Although Newton will continue to manage segregated portfolios according to specific SRI/ethical policies, Newton’s Ruth Murphy (pictured) expects clients seeking a pooled solution with a broad SRI appeal to take advantage of the new fund for its “high level of diversification, ease of administration and lower costs compared to other retail SRI funds”.

The Fund will be benchmarked against a composite of indices, reflecting the main asset classes in which the Fund invests: 50 per cent FTSE All Share Index; 25 per cent FTSE World ex UK (£) Index; 20 per cent FTA British Government All Stocks Index and 5 per cent 7 days LIBID (Cash).

Minimum investment is £5,000 with an initial charge of 1 per cent. An annual management fee of 0.75 per cent will be charged to capital.