What's Happening

January 31, 2023, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – The untimely death of Caldwell Dominican Sister Patricia Daly, OP – a member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board and Executive Director of the Tri State Coalition for Responsible Investment – led Cliff Rosenthal to reflect on the heroes of the socially responsible investment movement.

Through socially responsible investment, faith-based and other organizations invest or provide low-interest loans to community-based enterprises that promote social, economic, and environmental justice in local communities.

Cliff recalled that, in 1982, he sought funding for his Capitalization Program, which sought to raise private investments to be channeled to credit unions serving communities suffering from poverty. He secured a low-interest $30,000 loan from the PAB – in spite of his organization’s lack of a financial track record and little staff capacity. “In every sense, it was an act of faith,” he wrote. The PAB investment “spurred other Catholic women’s orders to make loans to us, as well, and we were on our way.”

Read Cliff’s reflection on Sister Patricia, the PAB, and other faith-based investors, found on the website of Next City.

July 2, 2021, Caldwell, New Jersey – Sister Patricia Daly, OP, a Caldwell, New Jersey, Dominican and a member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB), was quoted in an article citing the recent victories of faith-based shareholder advocates in their work with three fossil fuel companies. 

In shareholder advocacy, peace and justice advocates purchase stock in corporations and thus have a voice in the corporation’s policies affecting the environment or other matters of social justice. The shareholder advocates won the day in shareholder meetings of ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, and Royal Dutch Shell. “It’s like the Earth has moved. Corporate America has shifted,” Sister Pat was quoted as saying in an Earthbeat article by Brian Roewe. 

Read the entire article, Bad Day for Big Oil is big climate win for religious shareholder advocates.