Faith-Based Investing

GuideStone's faith-based investing policy

Invest according to your values.

Screening is the critical first step.

As Christians, we are called to let our light shine through our thoughts, words and actions — a calling we hold fast to every day. This desire to be a witness impacts everything we do as an organization, including the makeup of our Fund holdings.

Because we believe in holding fast to our ideals, several decades ago GuideStone Funds® implemented an investment policy to uphold our biblical values. Therefore, GuideStone Funds does not invest in any company that is publicly recognized as being in the alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography or abortion industries or any company whose products, services or activities are publicly recognized as being incompatible with the moral and ethical posture of GuideStone®.

Empower real change.

Advocacy is the next step.

GuideStone doesn’t stop with screening, because avoiding an investment doesn’t solely influence change. We think of screening like making a choice not to shop at a store. While the business may not flourish as much if you don’t shop there, a better tactic might be to engage the owners of the store to effect change.

By advocating for faith-based values, we represent our investors by influencing companies to enact authentic, positive business change. We want to be an engaged shareholder who takes a proactive interest in understanding the how and why of companies whose values may not fully align with our own.

We advocate for our shareholders through letter writing and corporate dialogue, bringing issues to the attention of companies. This allows them to state their current positions and express future intentions on perceived issues.

By investing in GuideStone Funds, you too can take a stand for:

Faith-based Mutual Funds

LIFE

You can take a stand for the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves, whether it be a hurting mother or newly conceived child.

Faith-based Mutual Funds

FAMILY

You can take a stand for the thousands of innocent children who are corrupted due to human trafficking and the brokenhearted men and women struggling with their self-worth due to the pornography industry.

Faith-based Mutual Funds

STEWARDSHIP

You can take a stand for those struggling with a gambling addiction that carries an estimated social cost of $7 billion as a direct result of crime, bankruptcy and cross-addiction.1

Faith-based Mutual Funds

HEALTH

You can take a stand for those who struggle with tobacco use that destroys their bodies with harmful toxins and causes one in every three cancer deaths.2

Faith-based Mutual Funds

SAFETY

You can take a stand for the 17.6 million Americans who suffer from alcohol dependence3 and cause one in every three motor vehicle crash deaths in the U.S.4

Have a direct impact.

Impact investing allows investors to be more proactive with their investment dollars.

While exclusionary screening and shareholder advocacy serve a valuable role in investor portfolios, they can only go so far in promoting positive, long-lasting change. That’s why we believe impact investing is the natural next frontier in our mission to deliver Biblical values through our investment offerings. By purposefully investing in organizations that seek to protect life, promote human dignity and enhance the efficiency and accessibility of life-sustaining resources, we are helping to create positive impact in the world — which we believe we are called to do as Christians.

Learn more about our approach to impact investing >>

Can investors have Performance + Values?

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The Negative Performance Myth

The misperception with faith-based mutual funds is that performance must be sacrificed to effectively align investments with values.

Socially conscious funds outperform the global fund universe.
44.3% of socially conscious funds are 4 and 5 star rated by Morningstar compared to 39.5% of the global fund universe.

Guidestone is part of this positive performance.
Click here to see how Morningstar rates Guidestone Funds®

Advocate for your values with faith-based investments. Add Guidestone Funds to your portfolio today.

Faith-based Mutual Funds

Source: Morningstar Direct as of 6/30/2021

Methodology: The data was sourced from a global fund universe of all mutual funds including all share classes through Morningstar Direct. Funds meeting Morningstar's criteria for "Sustainable Investment" and "Employs Exclusions" were identified and the universe was further reduced to the oldest share class in order to eliminate duplicative entries. 

In the Morningstar universe, the Sustainable Investment attribute is used to identify funds that may make investments focused on sustainability; impact; or environmental, social and governance or ESG; factors in its prospectus or regulatory filings. The Employs Exclusions attribute is used to identify funds that may make investments where the fund's strategies may exclude certain sectors, companies or practices. These two attributes combined comprise the socially conscious funds represented in the table above. The Global Fund Universe category is made up of non-socially conscious open-ended U.S. mutual funds. 

©Morningstar 2021. All rights reserved. Use of this content requires expert knowledge. It is to be used by specialist institutions only. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied, adapted or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information, except where such damages or losses cannot be limited or excluded by law in your jurisdiction. Past financial performance is no guarantee of future results.

Insights from the nation’s largest faith-based mutual fund family.6

Media, market commentary and resources from a Christian perspective.

GuideStone Capital Management® provides regular insights on market performance, portfolio perspectives and our own GuideStone faith-based mutual funds. Visit the pages provided below for videos and other resources designed to keep you informed.

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MEDIA

Updates on GuideStone and the faith-based investing community

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Quarterly market updates and insights from GuideStone investment advisors

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Media

FAITH-BASED INVESTING

Perspectives and conversations with GuideStone about faith-based investing

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How can we serve you?

GuideStone Funds offer diversified investment options across most major asset classes to individual investors, plan sponsors, financial professionals and institutional investors. One way our multi-decade expertise in faith-based investing can be leveraged is through our Defined Contribution Investment Only (DCIO) option — which allows an advisor or plan sponsor to plug GuideStone Funds into their retirement plans. Discover your options with our Lipper Award-winning Funds:
Individual Investors

Individual Investors >>

Plan Sponsors

Plan Sponsors >>

Financial Professionals

Financial Professionals >>

Institutional Investors

Institutional Investors >>

Rethink your perspective on faith-based investing.

Leverage the nation's largest faith-based mutual fund family.6

Learn how you can also Do well. Do right. Do MORE. Talk with a GuideStone Funds expert today:

1 "Impacts on the Community," California Council on Problem Gambling, accessed November 17, 2015, calpg.org/impacts-on-the-community/.

2 "Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last updated October 1, 2015, cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/.

3 "Facts About Alcohol," National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., last updated July 25, 2015, ncadd.org/about-addiction/alcohol/facts-about-alcohol.

4 "Impaired Driving: Get the Facts," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last updated May 19, 2015, cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html.

5 The entire GuideStone Funds family won the Lipper Fund Award for 2019 Best Overall Small Company over 3 years (out of 29 eligible as of November 30, 2018). Based on risk-adjusted total return.

6 As of June 30, 2021, GuideStone Funds has $17.6 billion in assets, which makes GuideStone Funds the nation’s largest faith-based mutual fund family. No other faith-based fund family exceeds GuideStone Funds in asset size.

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. The Funds may experience negative performance, and past performance does not guarantee future results. There can be no guarantee that any strategy (risk management or otherwise) will be successful.

The U.S. Lipper Fund Award for Best Overall Small Fund Family is based on a review of 29 fund families for 2019 and based on risk-adjusted performance for the three-year period ended November 30, 2018.

In order to qualify for Lipper’s Overall Small Fund Family Group Award, a fund family will need to have at least three distinct portfolios in each of the following asset classes: equity, bond and mixed-asset. An overall Group Award will be given to the fund family with the lowest average decile ranking of its respective asset class results based on the three-year Consistent Return measure of the eligible funds per asset class and group. The Lipper Leader for Consistent Return rating, which is a risk-adjusted performance measure, is calculated over 36, 60 and 120 months. The fund with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value in each eligible classification wins the Lipper Fund Award. The Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, highlight funds and fund companies that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Additional information is available at LipperFundAwards.com.

Group Award Methodology: For the 2019 Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv, a small fund family is defined as having assets of $76.8 billion or less.

Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv, ©2019 Refinitiv. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution or retransmission of this content without express written permission is prohibited.

You should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the GuideStone Funds® before investing. A prospectus with this and other information about the Funds may be obtained by calling 1-888-GS-FUNDS (1-888-473-8637) or downloading one. It should be read carefully before investing.

GuideStone Funds shares are distributed by Foreside Funds Distributors LLC, not an adviser affiliate. Foreside is not a registered investment adviser and does not provide investment advice.