The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective through investment in publicly-traded equity securities using a disciplined, risk-controlled investment process. The investment process is a sector-neutral, relative-value approach that has been used by the Adviser with its private clients since 1999. The investment process seeks to minimize volatility (and thus, control risk) by utilizing several strategies including, but not limited to, rebalancing the portfolio quarterly to be within 1% of its target benchmark sector weights, relatively equally weighting position sizes within each sector, and maintaining positions at less than 4% of the portfolio. The Fund’s benchmark for sector weights is the Russell 2000® Index. “Sector-neutral, relative-value” refers to the Adviser striving to keep sector diversification within the Fund’s portfolio similar to that in its target benchmark. To do this, the Adviser will generally emphasize valuation metrics within each sector when analyzing securities. Valuation metrics may include evaluating the pricing of a security based off its price to earnings ratio, price to cash flow ratio, price to book value ratio and earnings to growth ratio.

The Adviser employs a risk-controlled relative-value equity strategy. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in a diversified portfolio of equity securities of small capitalization companies, with an emphasis on equity securities of U.S. issuers. The Fund considers small capitalization companies to be companies within the range of those companies included in the Russell 2000® Index at the time of purchase. The market capitalization range of the Russell 2000® Index as of December 31, 2023 was $16 million to $15 billion. Because small capitalization companies are defined by reference to an index, the range of market capitalization companies in which the Fund invests may vary with market conditions. The Fund may also invest a portion of its assets in equity securities of companies of any size, including what are commonly referred to as mid-cap and large-cap companies (generally those companies with market capitalizations exceeding $5 billion). The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in securities other than small capitalization companies.

The Fund portfolio is designed to resemble the small cap market, add value above market returns through superior stock selection, yet exhibit lower volatility than the small cap market. Individual securities in the Fund are chosen after rigorous fundamental research to identify companies with attractive valuations relative to peer companies, relative to the broader economic sector in which companies are members, and relative to the historical and forecasted growth the companies may exhibit.

The investment portfolio will be constructed and monitored using top-down risk controls designed to minimize volatility while allowing the opportunity to add excess returns. The portfolio managers may also sell a security when they determine that the company’s fundamentals are no longer compatible with the Fund’s objectives or when other securities offer a more attractive investment opportunity. Top-down risk controls would include sector neutrality to the Fund’s benchmark with relatively equal weighted positions limited to a maximum 4% weighting. Such controls have historically reduced volatility by ensuring the portfolio is well diversified and not over concentrated to any particular sector or security.

The Adviser’s faith-based screening process is then applied to the eligible securities. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s net assets will be subject to the faith-based screening process. Application of the screening process is based on information known by the Adviser and information provided by third parties that compile and publish such data. As part of this process, the Adviser incorporates faith-based information from a variety of third-party vendors, including MSCI, Sustainalytics, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), and Bloomberg. The Adviser then uses this information to apply proprietary quantitative modeling to analyze faith-based criteria about eligible securities. In addition, the Adviser incorporates negative screening (exclusions) based on enumerated criteria. These enumerated screening criteria are consistent with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines and other Christian teachings, which the Adviser believes are based on responsible investing consistent with Christian moral and social justice principles. These criteria are reviewed from time to time by the Adviser.

Companies will generally be excluded that are known to:

Eligible companies are further evaluated and an assessment is made concerning their record on human rights, environment and corporate governance, both positive and negative. The screening process is designed to measure a company’s impact on people, communities and the market and is an integral part of the investment process.

Once it has been determined that a company is eligible for investment, the portfolio managers apply economic criteria to select equity securities for the Fund's portfolio to correlate to the stock sectors of the Russell 2000® Index. Economic criteria used includes the company’s valuation, growth potential, dividend policy, and other economic factors. The portfolio holdings of eligible companies within each sector are relatively weighted as equally as feasible at the time of purchase, with the portfolio managers purchasing new positions approximately equal in weight to the other companies held within the applicable sector. The Adviser will rebalance the portfolio holdings from time to time as it deems appropriate. From time to time investments may no longer be considered eligible given changes in their economic outlook or their compliance with the Adviser’s screening process. In such a case, the Fund may sell a security when the portfolio managers determine that other eligible securities offer a more attractive investment opportunity. Whether to hold or sell a security in the Fund that no longer passes the screening process is at the discretion of the Adviser, who may opt to hold the security based on the security's anticipated appreciation, as a means to effect change in the activities or policies of the company or as a means to defer or eliminate trading costs associated with the sale of the security. The Fund may hold cash in addition to the securities of companies, primarily as a means to pay redemption requests. Otherwise, the Fund intends to remain fully invested. In addition to common stocks, the Fund may from time to time purchase other equities such as real estate investment trusts ("REITs"), shares of other investment companies and exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"), mainly as an alternative to holding cash prior to investment. To the extent that investments in other investment companies and ETFs are included in order to satisfy the requirement to invest at least 80% of the Fund’s net assets according to the faith-based guidelines outlined above, the Fund will take reasonable steps to verify that the holdings of these underlying funds meet the faith-based screening criteria.