Cozy winter greetings!

Below is a great story of shareholder advocacy on Vitamin B12 thanks to 7 foundations and 3 impact investors in Colorado coming together to do this work using their strength in numbers to demand change.

At the UnTours Foundation, we just submitted our second shareholder resolution as we test this path to be able to guide others. The resolution process is truly not hard nor terribly time consuming thanks to riding the coattails of others like As you Sow, The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, and the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility. And now, with Coloradans adding place-based focus and comradery to the experience, they’ve made shareholder advocacy ever more inviting and impactful! 

As well, please take the time to write about your mission-aligning experiences and accomplishments – it blazes a trail for others to follow. Here’s a great op-ed in Fortune Magazine by Rochelle Witherana, CPA, and CFIO of the California Wellness Foundation.

Wishing you all a peaceful and joyful holiday season!

Elizabeth

Meet an Endowment Champion

The AJL Foundation is one of ten Colorado-based impact investors (with combined assets under management of $184M) working together through shareholder advocacy with As You Sow to engage 25 public companies headquartered in Colorado. How did this all come about?!

At AJL Foundation, we’d been having internal conversations about divesting from public companies involved in issues that run counter to our mission – specifically fossil fuels and human rights violations in Palestine – but found that we could not divest from some companies due to investment structures or their outsized impact on our portfolio. The conversation then became, “Well, if we can’t divest, then how do we show up as investors to advocate for values-aligned changes that research has shown can also increase profit and sustainability for companies?” The answer was shareholder engagement, and as we learned more about it, and as a place-based foundation, we began to wonder what the impacts of publicly-traded companies headquartered in Colorado are on our local communities and environment. It turned out 9 of our impact investing peers were curious as well, so we came together and partnered with As You Sow to identify the 25 public companies headquartered in Colorado that are the poorest performers on racial justice and environmental justice based on As You Sow’s Racial Justice Scorecard. As You Sow is engaging with those companies to help them take positive actions that also strengthen the value of the company while the investors make sure we are informed, aligned and guided by local nonprofit partners and communities who have been impacted locally and/or involved in corporate actions with the companies on the list.  

Parallel to the efforts above, we participated in the Shareholder Engagement Project which is an incredible place to learn about all things shareholder engagement. We highly recommend it!

At Work…

What are some of the corporate accountability issues you are seeking?

We are specifically engaging with these 25 corporations to improve their policies, practices and impacts related to racial justice and environmental justice. Within those areas, this can look like requesting disclosures related to DEI policies and programs, third-party environmental justice audits, human capital management reports, equity-linked executive pay policies, to name just a few.

With the first year completed, what are some of the learnings and wins?

The first year of the Colorado shareholder engagement campaign resulted in seven companies responding to initial outreach, providing additional information about their policies and practices, and learning more about the Racial Justice Scorecard and the benefits of increased workplace opportunity, diversity, and justice. All seven companies have committed to ongoing dialogue. As You Sow filed shareholder resolutions at Pilgrim’s Pride (resolution here) and Arrow Electronics (resolution here). The resolutions asked for disclosures related to DEI policies and programs and both resolutions resulted in withdrawals for action. Additionally, we’ve seen: 

Stronger Investor Alignment: Local foundations and investors are working in unison, amplifying progress.

Community Integration: Shareholder campaigns are informed by valuable insight from BIPOC leaders, environmental justice advocates, and workers.

Cross-Issue Focus: Companies are encouraged to address racial justice and environmental impact together, recognizing how deeply intertwined these issues are and how addressing them together can maximize company value and mitigate material risk.

Community Education and Awareness: There’s education of community groups and organizers, investors, political leaders, students, and media about local shareholder engagement and opportunities.

Any bumps in the road?

We are the first state to try place-based shareholder engagement at this scale, so this is very “pilot,” and there is a lot to learn. At the federal level, there are a lot of policy and process changes (or threats of change) happening with this administration that impact shareholder rights and the shareholder engagement process, which may make this work harder, but even more important, especially at the local level. Additionally, environmental, social and governance concerns have been heavily-politicized and threats of federal funding cuts have caused fear and confusion for many companies resulting in corporate resistance, but this again, just makes it more critical that we stay committed and aligned locally.

How long will this project last?

The timeline is open-ended on this project. Social and environmental change takes a long time, and this effort is no different. We are currently in the second year of the initiative and plan for it to be a long-term initiative.

How can others do this in their states?

Reach out to me or As You Sow to chat about it! It’s simpler than it may seem, and we’re happy to share our roadmap and learnings.

After Work…

What podcasts are you listening to?
Future of Finance from the Intentional Endowments Network! I started listening to these on my runs and was really surprised to find out that not only do I learn a lot, this podcast also makes my runs go by real fast! And Pulling the Thread, about big questions.

What’s been a favorite family vacation?
This summer we got to spend a week on a beautiful, remote lake in Canada with dear friends from Australia, who we haven’t seen in more than a decade! Their backyard IS the lake, and we fished, boated, swam and explored the days and nights away.

Given your home is Colorado, are you a skier or snowboarder?
A runner!

What have your children inspired you to do?
Soften. Breathe. Be silly. Hold hands. Cry. Sleep. Giggle. Ask why.

— See other mission aligned trailblazers on our website! —