Civil Society Organizations
(In alphabetical order)
As You Sow - “As You Sow is the nation’s non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy. Founded in 1992, we harness shareholder power to create lasting change by protecting human rights, reducing toxic waste, and aligning investments with values…As shareholder advocates, As You Sow communicates directly with corporate executives to collaboratively develop and implement business models that reduce risk, benefit brand reputation, and increase the bottom line while simultaneously bringing positive environmental and social change.” Andrew Behar, Chief Executive Officer.
Access Now - “Access Now defends and extends the digital rights of users at risk around the world.” Its Business and Human Rights Program presses companies “to make their practices more transparent, accountable, and rights-respecting.” Isedua Oribahabor, Business and Human Rights Lead; Laura Okkonen, Investor Advocate.
Heartland Initiative - A nonprofit practice-based research organization that supports the fundamental rights and freedoms of people impacted by armed conflict. Sam Jones, CEO; Richard Stazinskli, Managing Director.
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility - “Through the lens of faith, ICCR builds a more just and sustainable world by integrating social values into corporate and investor actions.” Currently celebrating its 50th year, ICCR pioneered the use of shareholder advocacy to press companies on environmental, social, and governance issues. Its coalition of over 300 global institutional investors currently represents more than $4 trillion in managed assets. Josh Zinner, Chief Executive Officer.
Investor Alliance for Human Rights - An affiliate of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, the Investor Alliance is a “collective action platform for responsible investment that is grounded in respect for people's fundamental rights.” Membership is currently composed of over 200 institutional investors, including asset management firms, trade union funds, public pension funds, foundations, endowments, faith-based organizations, and family funds. Members currently represent a total of over US$12 trillion in assets under management and 19 countries. Anita Dorett, Director.
JUST Capital - “JUST Capital measures and ranks companies on the issues Americans care about most so you can then act on that knowledge.” Non-profit founded in 2013 by a group including Paul Tudor Jones II, Deepak Chopra, Rinaldo Brutoco, Arianna Huffington, Paul Scialla, Alan Fleischmann, and others. Martin Whittaker, Chief Executive Office
Majority Action - “Majority Action is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that empowers shareholders to hold corporations accountable to high standards of corporate governance, social responsibility, and long-term value creation.” Eli Kasargod-Staub, Executive Director & Co-Founder
Open MIC - Founded in 2007, Open MIC works to foster greater corporate accountability in the media and technology sectors. Its primary tool is shareholder engagement. Working with impact investors, Open MIC “identifies, develops and supports campaigns that promote values of openness, equity, privacy, and diversity – values that provide long-term benefits for individuals, companies, the economy and the health of democratic society.” Michael Connor, Executive Director.
Oxfam America - “The financial sector provides capital to companies in various forms. These providers of capital have considerable influence over whether a corporation plays a role in reducing inequality, respecting human rights, and acting on climate change. We work to ensure that the capital they provide is used to create real-world positive impact. By providing investors with information about how companies actually operate or by using our own investments to file shareholder resolutions to spur positive change for people and the planet, we steer markets toward sustainable business practices and equitable growth.”
Ranking Digital Rights - Founded in 2013, RDR is an independent program of New America, which acts as its fiscal sponsor. RDR evaluates “the policies and practices of the world’s most powerful tech and telecom companies” and studies “their effects on people’s fundamental human rights.” Data and analysis of company policies form the core of RDR’s work.” With its Corporate Accountability Index, “we evaluate and rank the world’s most powerful tech and telecom companies on their commitments to respect users’ fundamental rights, and on the mechanisms they have in place to ensure those promises are kept.” Jessica Dheere, Executive Director.
SHARE - “Using shareholder engagement, advisory services, research and education, the Shareholder Association for Research and Education—SHARE—helps investors steward their assets in ways that contribute to positive social and environmental outcomes. Through our investor services and diverse investor initiatives, SHARE has built a network of institutional investors with more than $90 billion in assets under management. With SHARE’s support, these organizations are advocating for better corporate sustainability practices, exercising their proxy voting rights responsibly, and promoting greater transparency and accountability across capital markets.”
The Shareholder Commons - A non-profit that provides “a full set of tools for (diversified) investors who are ready to use their shareholder rights to protect critical social and environmental systems.” The Shareholders Commons “seeks to catalyze a movement of universal owners to identify and implement minimum acceptable standards of corporate conduct that all businesses must meet before pursuing profit.” Frederick Alexander, Chief Executive Officer.
SumOfUs - “SumOfUs is a global consumer watchdog: an online community of ten million people who campaign to hold big corporations accountable. We use our power as consumers, workers and investors to hold the biggest companies in the world to account.” In recent years has organized and supported shareholder campaigns at tech companies. Vicki Wyatt, Director, Technology Initiative.
Tulipshare - “We’re an activist platform that identifies opportunities for ethical change within companies publicly traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ…Founded in London, we started Tulipshare with a simple idea: empower retail investors to invest their money to promote ethical change. Through our platform, we empower retail investors to join our activist campaigns and invest to change publicly traded companies. We then unify their investing power with other like-minded investors to make their voice heard by big business.”