King’s College is a charity whose objects are the advancement of education, religion, learning and research. The primary purpose of the College’s investment portfolio, which is invested in a range of financial assets, is to provide long-term stable and sustainable investment returns to support these charitable aims, and to ensure that all we do supports the mission of delivering world-class education in the context of a truly diverse and inclusive community.
The College is clear that its investment activities must accord with prevailing charity law. This means that the College’s investments must support and, as far as possible, advance the College’s charitable objects. While this obliges the College to invest to achieve a good and sustainable return, it may also have regard to other factors such that its investment approach serves the best interests of the College overall.
In 2021, in line with the University’s 2020 divestment announcement, the College committed to remove all exposure to fossil fuel investments by 2030. The new approach builds on this commitment and seeks to avoid complicity with abuses and unjustified harm, as well as to model transformation in areas such as the climate crisis. As part of this approach, the new policy means that the College’s financial investments will exclude companies that:
- Are involved in activities generally recognised as illegal or contravening global norms, such as occupation;
- Produce military and nuclear weapons, weapons restricted by international treaty, or companies that produce key or dedicated components of such weapons.
The next steps will be to implement these changes across the College’s investment portfolio in the coming months, aiming for completion no later than the end of the calendar year.
Read the full investment policy here or download the PDF below.