It may not be readily apparent how a fund incorporates ESG factors into its strategy. Take the BlackRock U.S. Carbon Transition Readiness ETF, which attracted $1.25 billion of investor dollars when it launched in mid April. “The people who invested in that fund thought they were addressing climate risk,” says Andrew Behar, CEO of shareholder advocacy nonprofit As You Sow. “Instead they got business as usual,” he says, including energy and fossil fuel giants. Read More →
Read MoreAs You Sow, a nonprofit that promotes corporate social responsibility, also created the Invest Your Values search tools, which investors can use to learn more about their investments. Investors can search the name or symbol of mutual funds or ETFs in one of six search tools, including Deforestation Free Funds and Fossil Free Funds, and will be provided with a "report card" on the fund related to the issue. Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar is the CEO of the nonprofit As You Sow, a watchdog and investor advocacy group that provides resources for those interested in more socially responsible investing. As You Sow's Invest Your Values tool helps investors rate and reference where their money is going, and covers a wide range of topics: environmentally-friendly investing, gender equality funds, prison-free funds, and gun and other weapon-free funds. Read More →
Read More“As You Sow, has been offering proxy voting guidelines for many years,” Andrew Behar, As You Sow's CEO, said in a statement. “The guidelines have always been suggestions on how a progressive foundation or impact investor might want to vote…” Read More →
Read More“Most people don’t have a clue what they own,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a corporate accountability group that pushes companies and institutional investors to adopt socially responsible practices through pressure from shareholders. “I did a talk at the World Bank, and I showed them their 401(k)s were invested in cluster munitions and landmines. But they didn’t know!” Read More →
Read MoreIf you’re ready to consider aligning your investments more closely with your values, research firm As You Sow provides a free action toolkit to move your money if not supporting private prisons is one of your passions. Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar, CEO of the nonprofit watchdog and shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, says his organization's mission is to help people "invest with intention." It's actually in your benefit to use such a strategy, he explains. The energy sector continues to be one of the worst performing sectors over the last decade. Meanwhile, the new presidential administration, with its robust climate change commitments, is expected to positively impact the returns on these kind of investments even further. Read More →
Read MoreA lot of retail investors who want to divest from fossil fuels don’t know what’s in their 401(k) plans. Many of them are unaware they have big oil companies, coal-fired utilities or oil-field services in their portfolios,” says Andrew Behar, chief executive of As You Sow, a nonprofit that works to promote corporate social responsibility. Read More →
Read MoreAndy Behar, CEO of As You Sow, says that Eugene Scalia’s three most recent DOL rulemakings suggest a personal vendetta. Read More →
Read MoreParticularly in the wake of the nation’s renewed attempts to reckon with racial justice, there has been a greater awareness about the power of money to make social change. Resources like As You Sow’s Prison Free Funds tool are now publicly available, to help individuals “find out if your money is invested in” economic systems like “the prison industrial complex, exploitative prison labor, and immigration detention centers.” Read More →
Read MoreThe free Prison Free Funds tool from As You Sow, a nonprofit that promotes corporate social responsibility, tells users if a mutual fund or ETF is invested in companies that profit off of prisons and prison labor, as well as companies profiting off of the immigrant detention centers at the border. Read More →
Read More“The prison-industrial complex has kind of crept into our economy and has become part and parcel of the economy,” says Andy Behar, CEO of As You Sow, the nonprofit that built the new platform, the seventh in a series of tools for investors. “And so people don’t realize what’s inside their 401(k) plan. Read More →
Read MoreCory Donovan, executive director of social impact investing organization ImpactPHL, used a tool from As You Sow, a 30-year-old nonprofit that pushes corporations towards more conscientious business practices, that allowed him to look up a socially good grade for the mutual funds that made up his Individual Retirement Account (IRA). What he learned was…not good. Read More →
Read MoreIn a Nutshell: Fossil Free Funds is one of six mutual fund search tools offered by 501(c)3 nonprofit As You Sow. Investors can research thousands of mutual funds, fund managers, fund families, and other options to see where the companies embedded in their mutual funds stand on social, environmental, and governance issues. Read More →
Read MoreBut people increasingly want to know that the conglomeration of corporations that they part-own is clean. That’s where As You Sow’s “Invest Your Values” online tool comes into play. The tool, the winner in the impact investing category of Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, gives users a chance to view what’s in the funds they’re paying into and—if they don’t like what they find—to pick a mutual fund more aligned with their politics “Its essence is to help everyday investors to align their investing with their values,” says Andrew Behar, As You Sow’s CEO. Read More →
Read MoreIts “Small Cap” fund scored an A rating — signifying no stock holdings in oil, gas and coal companies — from Fossil Free Funds, a website maintained by As You Sow, an environmental group. But its “Sustainable Emerging Markets” fund received a grade of D. Read More →
Read MoreIf you want to make a big difference in the world using your hard-earned money, you don’t have a lot of tools at your disposal if you’re not extremely wealthy. Read More →
Read MoreEven if you haven’t actively been seeking gun stocks, you could still be an investor in them.
Read MoreFor investors trying to assess whether their mutual funds are aligned with their values, they now can add a San Francisco-based nonprofit’s expanded report card for funds.
Read MoreInvestors have a new resource at their disposal to make aligning their portfolios with their personal values easier than ever.
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