Tag: Shareholder advocacy

Catholic Sisters Week

Catholic Sisters Week

Natalie Wasek

Building Relationship

This week, March 8th – 14th, we honor all Catholic Sisters – vowed women who care for the sick and in need; who educate and mentor children; who are concerned for the environment and all of creation; who advocate for the most vulnerable and act against injustices; who stand with those affected by poverty, homelessness, and migration; and who create peace.

Of Seventh Generation Interfaith’s 39 members, 26 are congregations of Catholic Sisters. Each congregation is unique in its’ charism and mission, working with the SGI coalition to manage the impact large corporations have on people, the environment, and society. They approach corporate engagements with a prophetic voice that comes from authentic hands-on experience with impacted communities and first hand knowledge of the environment, which enable them to build relationships with the corporate executives on a human level. 

SGI attempts to align our issue priorities with issues of importance to our members. Collectively our Sisters have engaged companies like C.H. Robinson and Yum Brands on Climate Change, Abbvie and Walt Disney on Lobbying, Kroger, Yum Brands, McDonald’s, and Costco on Deforestation, Ameren and Chevron on Water Impacts, Kohls, TJX, Kraft Heinz, Costco, Wendy’s, Amazon, Boeing, Core Civic, Geo Group, JPMC, and Wells Fargo on Human Rights, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Biogen on the Affordability of Medicine, and countless more. 

Not surprisingly, our Sisters are actively doing much more in their communities and throughout the world, on top of their work in challenging corporations on environmental, social, and governance issues. The School Sisters of Notre Dame are serving students who are single mothers, nuns, and senior citizens. The Sinsinawa Dominicans are working to confront attacks on the common good in Washington, DC. The Sisters of St. Agnes and other members of UNANIMA International, a U.N.-based coalition of Catholic congregations focused on concerns of women, children, migrants and the environment, brought international homelessness concerns to the forefront during the annual convening of the U.N.’s Commission for Social Development. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd recently joined the Interfaith Immigration Coalition’s (#Faith4Asylum) Nonviolence Campaign Stop the Inhumanity in support to those seeking safety in the U.S. The Ursuline Sisters continue to sponsor five academies across the country educating students rooted in the gospel call to mission lived in the spirit of St. Angela Merici.

These are but a few examples of the work our Sisters do day-to-day. We are thankful for all of the work they do and for their participation in our socially responsible investing work. To learn more about the charism and ministries of each of our members, visit their websites, linked below, and don’t forget to thank a Sister this week! 

To all of our members, thank you for your dedication to making this world a better place. 

Dominicans of Sinsinawa (Sinsinawa, WI)

Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (LaCrosse, WI)

Little Falls Franciscans (Little Falls, MN)

Mercy Investment Services (Frontenac, MO)

School Sisters of Notre Dame, Central Pacific Province (Elm Grove, WI)

School Sisters of St. Francis, Generalate (Milwaukee, WI)

School Sisters of St. Francis, US Province (Milwaukee, WI)

Servants of Mary (Ladysmith, WI)

Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dubuque, IA)

Sisters of the Good Shepherd Province of Mid-North America (St. Louis, MO)

Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross (Merrill, WI)

Sisters of the Most Precious Blood (O’Fallon, MO)

Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Aberdeen, SD)

Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dubuque, IA)

Sisters of St. Dominic (Racine, WI)

Sisters of St. Agnes (Fond du Lac, WI)

Sisters of St. Francis (Rochester, MN)

Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi (Milwaukee, WI)

Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque (Dubuque, IA)

Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Cross (Green Bay, WI)

Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet (St. Louis, MO)

Sisters of St. Joseph Congregational Center (St. Louis, MO)

Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet (St. Paul, MN)

Sisters of St Joseph –TOSF (Stevens Point, WI)

Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother (Oshkosh, WI)

Ursuline Sisters of the Central Province (St. Louis, MO)

SGI Webinar Recording: Immigration and the Shareholder

Chris Cox

We offer hearty thanks to Hannah Evans Graf of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (also co-chair of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition) and Dylan Corbett from the Hope Border Institute who joined us for the webinar. Also, to our members and allies from within ICCR or other networks, we are grateful that you joined us.

If you are only seeing this for the first time now, in the webinar we:

  • Reviewed our values and commitments on immigration
  • Assessed the state of play on policy
  • Highlighted what some allies are doing
  • Encouraged deeper investor engagement with our companies around concerns on immigration (e.g., the shareholder letter to JPMorgan Chase concerning investment in private prisons and immigration detention centers)

The slides from the webinar are available here.

Some helpful resources include:

Please, consider evaluating the webinar by clicking here.

Book recommendation: The Shareholder Action Guide

Book recommendation: The Shareholder Action Guide

Chris Cox

In a new series of posts, SGI will offer reviews and suggestions of books related to our work in shareholder advocacy.

For those who want an inspirational primer about shareholder advocacy, Andrew Behar’s The Shareholder Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable fits the bill. Replete with anecdotes and advice, coupled with references to on-line resources, this book explains the tools and strategies available to empower shareholders. Further, this handbook may well inspire new activist shareholders to demand corporate accountability.

Andrew Behar

The author leads As You Sow, a nonprofit organization that focuses on environmental and social corporate responsibility. As You Sow focuses on climate change, sustainability, human rights, and environmental health, and it engages, among others, companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Southern, FirstEnergy, Duke, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, HP, Dell, Apple, Proctor & Gamble, and Coca-Cola.

In 15 brief chapters, Behar takes readers through the basics. The first seven chapters include: shareholder responsibilities, how shareholders began to use their power with General Motors in South Africa, defining some limits on shareholder actions, explaining proxy votes, influencing fund managers, and corporate engagements and filing shareholder resolutions. Chapter 8 of The Shareholder Action Guide also tells the story of many campaigns in shareholder advocacy from across the past forty years. It profiles leaders in shareholder advocacy, including a testament to the work of SGI’s founder, the late Fr. Mike Crosby, for his efforts in tobacco. Those involved with SGI will recognize the names of numerous allies referenced in the book, including Tim Smith and Sr. Nora Nash, O.S.F. Subsequent chapters contemporary strategies in shareholder advocacy .

Behar explores how corporations are the most powerful entities on the planet. Sadly, many have had a long record of failing to care for creation, exploiting vulnerable people, and hiding boardroom decision-making. Since, by law, corporations are beholden to their shareholders, some philanthropic trusts, pension funds, and other institutional investors have used shareholder advocacy to press for changes in corporate policy. Behar also underscores the opportunity to engage individual investors, who have largely been silent, mistakenly thinking themselves powerless. The Shareholder Action Guide is designed to inform, inspire, and instruct investors in how to exercise their power to effect meaningful change on critical issues including environmental justice, food sustainability, executive compensation, and worker’s rights. Owners of as little as $2,000 worth of stock in a publicly traded corporation have the power to be heard. This book is a call to action designed to build a movement of active investors. Behar illustrates how investors can stop abdicating their power and act to make a better world.