Investment options

Gift Accounts with balances above $20,000 can choose to have their funds invested, either in term deposits, one of our pooled socially-responsible investment funds, or through a personal financial adviser. Your funds will be invested according to your preferences, across one or more of these options, with any growth or loss credited to or debited from your Gift Account balance.

Things to consider when choosing an investment

Time horizon

What’s your time horizon for giving a significant proportion of your funds to charities? If you’re planning on giving more than half of your funds out within the next five years, then you might choose to keep that percentage of your funds in term deposits. If you’ve got a longer time horizon, then you might want to consider our pooled or adviser-managed funds.

Risk tolerance

Like any investment, the value of our pooled and adviser-managed funds can go down as well as up. While our funds are managed by accredited expert financial advisers, and are designed to perform well over the long-term, if you choose to put some of your funds into a managed fund, you may see your gifted funds drop in value in the short-term. If you don’t have an appetite for that kind of risk, then consider placing your funds in term deposits.

Term deposits

If you choose to place all or some of your gifted funds in term deposits, your funds will be combined with those of other donors in a series of rolling term deposits, to gain the benefit of guaranteed, but modest, growth. However, your funds wouldn’t grow as much as we’d expect them to in a well-performing investment portfolio.

Pooled socially-responsible investment funds

Our financial advisers Bloomsbury Associates have put together two socially-responsible investment (SRI) funds that we consider to be best-in-market, meaning our pooled funds have stronger protections against intrusion from non-SRI investment products than most SRI funds on the market in New Zealand.

Our pooled SRI funds take account of a range of social and environmental factors and exclude investments in weapons and armaments, nuclear weapons, tobacco, child labour, alcohol, gambling, pornography, fossil fuel stocks, and factory farming.

Important note

Funds invested in the Growth SRI and Conservative SRI funds are managed on behalf of The Gift Trust by Bloomsbury Associates, and held by FNZ as custodian. The value of funds invested in the funds may go down as well as up. The Gift Trust recommends you obtain independent financial advice before making investment decisions. More information about each fund’s portfolio is available in our Investment Options info sheet.

Adviser-managed investment funds

You may also choose to have your Gift Account funds managed by your personal financial adviser. If you are interested in this option, please contact us: info@thegifttrust.org.nz.