At the 2019 Sustainable, Responsible, Impact investing conference, I was introduced to YourStake and we are trying it this year. There are two components of YourStake: portfolio impact reporting and a petition platform.
PORTFOLIO IMPACT REPORTING
One is portfolio impact reports for financial advisors. It’s a way to show clients what their investments are doing in the world. It evaluates a portfolio compared to a benchmark portfolio on 20 different areas, including:
- weapons exposure,
- carbon emissions,
- animal exploitation,
- gender equality,
- political transparency voting support,
- fossil fuel exposure,
- prison industry exposure,
- migrant border detention involvement,
- deforestation exposure, and
- women on boards.
In addition it highlights about 20 different shareholder advocacy engagements with companies. It lists the number of companies that the portfolio holdings have changed and lists examples of shareholder advocacy. It’s a nice list of activities that otherwise is time consuming to put together from the various manager reports.
PETITION PLATFORM
The second part of YourStake.org is an online petition platform for shareowners. The combined savings of many citizens makes up the majority of investment into big companies. Companies already respond to big investors, and together smaller investors can make an impact. From 401(k)s to brokerage accounts to pensions and more, you can sync with all of your investments on YourStake to verify that you are a shareowner. You can use your shareowner power with stocks and mutual funds. You have the power to change companies. Companies have to listen to their shareowners – you’re their boss. Investors have convinced companies to:
- Stop funding organizations supporting climate denial
- Address the gender pay gap
- Phase out antibiotic overuse
- and more.
SUSTAINABLE FINANCIAL ADVISOR DIRECTORY
The second part of YourStake is free. They also have a directory of sustainable financial advisors. AIO Financial is listed in the directory.
BACKGROUND
Stake’s founders care about climate change. Some of the largest polluting companies actively prevent societies from taking action, by buying lobbyists, spreading misinformation, and fighting innovation. Theco-founder, Gabe Rissman, was looking to make a difference, and realized his student investment club invested in one of these polluting oil companies, Exxon. This ownership stake meant the student club had rights as shareholders to present a Petition at Exxon’s annual shareholder meeting, in Texas. He submitted a formal proposal that Exxon stop funnelling money to climate denying organizations, such as ALEC.