January 16, 2007

Our Investment Philosophy

Source: Gates Foundation

A note from chief operating officer Cheryl Scott. I want to take this opportunity to follow up on recent media reports about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s investments and our processes for making decisions about them.

January 7, 2007

Harvard Still Holds Sudan Stake; Through index fund, school owns estimated $6.6 million in PetroChina, Sinopec stock

Source: Harvard Crimson – (By DANIEL J. HEMEL)

Harvard’s endowment is still invested in two Chinese oil firms accused of financing the genocide in Sudan, even though the University has said it would divest its shares in both companies.

January 3, 2007

Shareholders Go In Swinging

Source: National Resources Defense Council On Earth Newsletter (by Laura Wright)

Investors challenge energy companies to get real about global warming.

Since the 1980s, shareholder activism has proved to be a powerful driver of social change. Major institutional investors, including many state retirement...

December 19, 2006

Trade Associations and Oversight of Company Political Spending

Source: Directors Monthly (By Bruce F. Freed and Jamie Carroll)

The effort to limit corporate money in politics has created new channels for corporate political involvement, many hidden from public view. Prominent among these are trade associations. In response to the Bi-Partisan Campaign...

December 15, 2006

Increasing Corporate Competitiveness by Improving Our World

Source: Harvard Business Review – (by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer)

First Place Winner of the McKinsey Award for the Best Harvard Business Review Article in 2006 as “most likely to have a lasting, worldwide influence on business.

November 2, 2006

Monitoring the Monitor: Evaluating CalPERS' Shareholder Activism

Source: BRAD M. BARBER, University of California at Davis

Many public pension funds engage in institutional activism. These funds use the power of their pooled ownership of publicly traded stocks to affect changes in the corporations they own. Perhaps the most high profile activism has...

September 25, 2006

Has microfinance come of age?

Source: Fierce Finance

Microfinancing is a development idea that has garnered a lot of attention around the world. As a way to spur businesses in poorer countries, it will be even more successful if big American institutions get in on the act. That...

September 22, 2006

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Newsletter

Source: Campaign to Stop Killer Coke

The “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” focuses on a range of social and economic justice issues involving the Coca-Cola Company (KO). The campaign periodically issues news releases, statements and update-newsletters; The Editors...

September 1, 2006

Oxford Grad Students’ Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Thesis Cites Positive Impact of Shareholder-Sponsored Resolutions on Corporate Behavior.

Source: Kim Farrant, University of Oxford, Supervisor Professor Gordon Clark

Kim Farrant’s insightful analysis on the role of shareholder resolutions in holding corporations accountable is one of the first thesis to extensively utilize the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) EthVest(sm)...

July 24, 2006

Comments to TIAA-CREF Management at the Annual Meeting

Source: by Professor Neil Wollman, Representing the “Make T-C Ethical Coalition”

We thank the management and trustees [of TIAA-CREF] for their movement on issues of social responsibility, from your decision last year to do shareholder advocacy on issues of social responsibility -- which we had advocated for...