According to the survey, two out of three respondents believe that investment exclusion policies will become stricter over the next two years.

The survey of senior executives at charities with a collective £5 billion ($6.8 billion) of equity investments found that 86 per cent of respondents believe it is important that investments have strong ESG credentials, while 89 per cent said the importance of ESG will increase over the next three years. That includes 22 per cent who said ESG will become significantly more important when considering investments.

The ESG stance is being maintained, the wealth manager said, despite 76 per cent of charities reporting that they are coming under pressure to relax ESG policies in order to deliver higher returns needed to maintain services.

Rathbones Group commissioned independent research agency PureProfile to conduct the survey. It interviewed 100 senior charity executives, including board directors, finance directors, investment managers and investment directors during July 2026.

“It is clear that charities are sticking to their guns on ESG investing despite growing talk about an ESG backlash or the need to compromise ESG principles in order to achieve higher returns,” Kate Elliot, head of Responsible Investment Centre of Excellence, Rathbones, said.

“Charities are very much committed to delivering on their values, and ESG investing is central to that as demonstrated by their plans to toughen up exclusion lists and to work with investment advisors that can meet their ethical standards,” she continued. “It is not a regulatory box-ticking issue for charities but central to their mission and purpose, helping them align their investments with the causes and communities they exist to support.”

The charities questioned are also planning to toughen up their investment exclusion policies with two out of three saying policies will become stricter over the next two years while 27 per cent said exclusion policies will become looser.

Around a quarter of those questioned said they are very concerned about their advisor's ability to meet ethical requirements compared with 59 per cent who said the same in Rathbones research last year.

Eighty five per cent of charities said that an investment advisory firm’s ESG credentials are important in the selection process, while 97 per cent said ESG credentials will become even more important in the next three years.

Research shows that there are signs of change in the way charities address ESG. There will be an increased emphasis on the social part over the next two years when selecting funds and investments, the wealth manager continued. Eighty seven per cent said their charity’s commitment to social investments will increase over the period compared with 73 per cent saying the same about environmental and 79 per cent about governance.

The research found that nearly a third of charities had toughened up exclusion lists over the past two years with 3 per cent cutting back and 66 per cent maintaining lists. Almost all believe that they are very or quite effective at screening out investments, the survey shows.

Rathbones said it has been managing money for charities for more than 100 years. It supports more than 3,000 organisations nationwide, with portfolios ranging from £10,000 to more than £100 million. The Rathbones Charity Growth & Income Fund has been designed to meet the long-term investment objectives of many UK charities, the firm added.