Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2023

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I am painfully aware that a lot of work is needed to achieve racial justice.

As Dr. King wrote from a Birmingham jail 60 years ago, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Repairing centuries of inequality takes perseverance and change must come from many directions, including investing.

Actively engaging with companies on racial and justice issues, I believe, is our responsibility as faith-based investors. Through direct engagement and proxy voting, we can push for change. When dialogue doesn’t work, we can propose shareholder resolutions for a vote at the company’s annual general meeting.

Over the past two years, the Christian Church Foundation along with other faith-based investors, have pressed companies on the racial composition of their boards and senior management, the effectiveness of their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and their overall impact on racial equity and justice. Shareholder proposals calling for racial equity and civil rights audits went from nine in 2021 to 43 in 2022 and support for these proposals has been surprisingly strong. According to ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services), support for racial equity audits averaged 44% in 2022, with 8 proposals garnering a majority of shares voted.

Investing may not be the primary way to effect change, but when done in concert with our values it can have an impact.

“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Amos 5:24

Investing may not be the primary way to effect change, but when done in concert with our values it can have an impact.Investing may not be the primary way to effect change, but when done in concert with our values it can have an impact.Investing may not be the primary way to effect change, but when done in concert with our values it can have an impact. Investing may not be the primary way to effect change, but when done in concert with our values it can have an impact.