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By Mary Minette Mercy Investments Consultant
Image attribution: kris krüg, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - Gulf of Mexico, CC BY-SA 2.0
August 19, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – In the 2023-2024 proxy season, the Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) filed 19 shareholder proposals. Eight were withdrawn for agreement; eight went to a vote; two were omitted from the proxy statement; and one (Smith & Wesson) will be voted on in September.
According to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), overall shareholder filings decreased from 460 in 2023 to 400 in 2024. Climate change continues to be the top issue area for filing, but human rights and workers’ rights were the second highest issue area filed this year.
The top industries receiving shareholder proposals in 2025 were banks and oil and gas companies. Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, ExxonMobil, and Chevron continued to receive the most shareholder filings. In 2024, the PAB filed at all of the above companies except for Chevron.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allowed companies to omit 52% more proposals from their proxy statements in 2024 than in 2023. Two proposals filed by the PAB were omitted from proxies. Both proposals requested more detail from large U.S. banks regarding their climate transition plans.
The PAB filed shareholder proposals with five pharmaceutical companies concerning their patenting practices and how they impact patient access to affordable medicines. One proposal went to a vote, and four were withdrawn for agreement. Notably, Pfizer agreed to make significant improvements in its Human Rights Policy as well as committing to establish a human rights due diligence process around its pricing and access initiatives in the next 12 months. Gilead agreed to provide additional disclosure, including listing all the in-force patents it currently has on its top five selling drugs. The PAB co-filed a resolution asking Exxon to issue a report evaluating the economic, human, and environmental impacts of a worst-case oil spill from its expanding operations offshore of Guyana. During a call with investors, Exxon shared additional information on how it is enhancing process safety and managing spills. The company also shared that it has assessed the costs of responding to a Guyana spill with an independent third party, assuring the company that $2 billion would cover the cost of the spill. Based on the information shared by the company, investors decided to withdraw the proposal.
However, in January, ExxonMobil took the extreme step of suing two small shareholders to keep a climate change proposal off their proxy ballot, rather than going through the SEC “no action” process to ask for approval to omit the proposal. The company elected to continue the suit even after the shareholders agreed to withdraw the proposal and took an aggressive stance against other shareholders with proposals on its proxy ballot, questioning whether they were “real” investors or merely activists with an “extreme agenda.”
In response, several ExxonMobil shareholders filed exempt solicitations urging their fellow shareholders to vote against members of the board, including CEO Darren Woods and lead independent director Joseph Hooley.
Despite these actions indicating shareholder disapproval of company leadership, ExxonMobil continued with its aggressive stance and its lawsuit. The lawsuit was finally dismissed by a court in Texas after the shareholder proponent agreed in writing not to refile their climate proposal with the company in the future.
By Sister Marilín Llanes, OP Portfolio Manager of Community Impact Investments, Portfolio Advisory Board
Imagine this situation: Mariela, 41, a Latina with limited resources living with an adult child scrambling to pay legal expenses for a divorce. Where will she go for help to get a small consumer loan in the big metro city of Miami, Florida? During this difficult time for Mariela, she turned to Capital Good Fund for a $3,500 Impact PLUS Fund instead of going with payday lenders that take advantage of people in such dire situations.
“Capital Good Fund made me feel supported, empowered, and confident,” she said. “Capital Good Fund offered options and solutions instead of creating problems. The tools are there. There are people willing to help you.”
The Adrian Dominican Sisters Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) welcomed in March 2023 Capital Good Fund as new partner borrower. Andy Posner, Founder and CEO launched the nonprofit certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in 2009 with a mission to create pathways out of poverty and advance a green economy through inclusive financial services. It grants loans nationally – in Rhode Island, Florida, Massachusetts, Delaware, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, New Jersey, and Connecticut – and is incorporated in Providence, Rhode Island.
The PAB is especially pleased to partner with Capital Good for its commitment to address racial equity and its recognition that racism, discrimination, poverty, and financial exclusion are all linked.
Capital Good Fund’s mission is well aligned with the Congregation’s 2022 Enactment on Diversity, which calls the Adrian Dominican Sisters to “build the beloved community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger and hate.”
Capital Good engages daily with underserved families and provides tools for savings, building credit, investing in themselves, and avoiding high-interest debt to be able to reach their goals.
All loans are offered through a financial technology (fintech) platform. Fintech transactions are efficient, reliable, and easily accessible to the client who is often living with time and energy constraints, and limited resources. The array of products Capital Good offers range from car loans, immigration loans to cover cost like green card acquisition and citizenship; consumer loans, weatherization loans to make homes more efficient and emergency loans for unexpected expenses like in Mariela’s story.
Ana came to the United States with a dream: to start her own business, buy a house, and create a better life for her children. But she had a problem: she needed $5,000 to get her work permit. That's where Good Fund came in. By providing the loan, Capital Good enabled Ana to get a work permit and launch her business. This opportunity for Ana boosted her credit score, allowing her eventually to buy her own home for her husband and two children. Watch Ana tell her story here.
Mariela and Ana are two of the thousands of individuals and families serviced by the Capital Good Fund team.
Learn more about Capital Good Fund on https://capitalgoodfund.org/en/