Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Religious Shareholder Activism an Inside Job to Harm Companies and Investors
Religious Shareholder Activism an Inside Job to Harm Companies and Investors
Feb 11, 2026 7:06 AM

The Manhattan Institute Centers’s “Proxy Monitor Season Wrap-Up” is hot off the press, and the findings presented by author James R. Copland, are remarkable.

Since 2011, MIC has monitored shareholder activism, which it describes as efforts “in which investors attempt to influence corporate management through the shareholder-proposal process.” This year’s wrap-up includes MIC-researched data from corporations’ annual meetings held by the end of June 2015. By that time, “216 of the 250 largest panies by revenues” pleted their meetings, which enable long-term shareholders owning $2,000 of equity securities to introduce proxy resolutions.

Among these proxy activists are As You Sow, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility – groups with religious backgrounds and decidedly leftist ideological agendas – and a host of likeminded crusaders of progressive causes:

Among social investors, only As You Sow introduced more than five proposals in 2015 (seven). Many other socially oriented investors sponsored multiple proposals, however: social-investing platforms Arjuna Capital (three), Domini Social Investments (three), Green Century Capital Management (three), Investor Voice (five), Northstar Asset Management (two), Trillium Asset Management (four), and Walden Asset Management (four); religious investors Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes (two), Sisters of Mercy (five), Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order (two), Sisters of St. Dominic (two), Sisters of St. Francis (three), and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (two); the public-policy group National Center for Public Policy Research (two); and the Nathan Cummings (two) and Park (three) charitable foundations.

According to Copland’s report, religious shareholder activists were responsible for 29 percent of all resolutions submitted to the 216 Fortune panies. What type of proposals did the nuns, clergy and other religious submit? According to Copland:

As was the case in 2006–14, shareholder proposals relating to social or policy concerns constituted a plurality of all such proposals in 2015 (43 percent). Close behind were proposals relating to corporate-governance issues (42 percent)….

As for subclasses of proposal, environmental concerns were introduced most often in 2015 (58 proposals). Proposals related to political spending or lobbying—the most-introduced subclass in 2012, 2013, and 2014—were the second-most numerous (49 proposals).

All told, social issues and policies accounted for 43 percent of all resolutions submitted. Yet none of them passed. Zero. Nought. Zed. Zilch. A big fat nothing:

No shareholder proposals related to social or policy issues received majority support—in keeping with each of the nine prior years in the ProxyMonitor.org database, when not a single social-policy-related shareholder proposal has received the support of a majority of shareholders over board opposition.

No harm, no foul, right? Not so fast. Copland continues:

To be sure, [carbon-intensive coal, oil and gas, and panies] may face peculiar regulatory risks, if rather obvious for energy and panies and their investors. (The risks that climate change itself may place on panies’ business models are too far in the future—and thus too discounted to present—to concern shareholders focused solely on share price, aside from sociopolitical or regulatory concerns.) Yet beyond changing their line of business or increasing lobbying or political activity, there is little that panies can do to mitigate such risks—and the former (but not the latter) would almost certainly be inimical [emphasis in original] to share value.

Got that? The 58 environmental proposals work in tandem with the 49 resolutions to curtail corporate political spending when es to reducing shareholder value. Let’s put it this way, any pany would lose value if plied with the activist shareholder agenda regarding climate change. The same pany also would lose value if it didn’t invest in lobbying efforts in pany’s – and its investors’ (not to mention customers’ and employees’) – best interests. Such lobbying includes countering astronomically expensive government bureaucratic emission-reduction edicts and regulations with little or no empirical proof such measures will result in any positive difference.

Inimical indeed. Yet, religious shareholder activism trundles on unabated, its crusade an inside job to harm corporate profitability and shareholder value. It’s shameful and antithetical to any concept of moral principles promulgated by any major religion with which this writer is familiar. More’s the pity.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
‘We take those freedoms for granted, but they aren’t automatic anywhere’
Professional baseball player. Starting catcher for the Detroit Tigers. Starting catcher in the 2011 All-Star Game. At only 25, Alex Avila has already created a terrific career. Yet, he is very mindful of what might have been. In a recent interview, Avila notes that his Cuban roots could have led to a very different life for him and his family: Both of my grandfathers actually fled from Cuba during the Communist Revolution in the 1950s, so it’s not surprising that...
Envy and Resentment Lead to Bad Law
When es to Swiss bank accounts, pop culture brings to mind wealthy people who hide assets from various groups, such as the IRS or their jilted family members. Our sympathies do not align with the type of people we imagine hold Swiss accounts. In fact, it is easy to get quite envious of the idea of holding a Swiss bank account, or possibly resentful that others can that are well off can avoid paying as much in taxes as possible....
Hayek’s Recipe for Economic Recovery
A major reason why the nation has historically prospered, says John B. Taylor, is because Americans worked within a policy framework that was predictable and based on the rule of law, with strong incentives emanating from a reliance on markets and a limited role for government. When we deviate from that standard—as we have for the past few years—we struggle. But we can find our way back if we’d follow Hayek’s recipe for recovery: In implementing this new economic strategy,...
Network Like a Theologian
Readers of PowerBlog are already aware that Acton research fellow Anthony Bradley‘s ability to blend theology, ethics, and economics has made him on of the most intriguing public intellectuals in America. Now readers of Black Enterprise Magazine are finding what we’ve already known for years: “His writings mentary on issues ranging from race and religion to politics and economics have led to his recognition as one of the most brilliant minds of the century.” In a profile by Aisha M....
Samuel Gregg: Challenging Liberals on Economic Immobility
On National Review Online, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg challenges liberals on economic immobility: When es to applyingliberté, égalité, fraternitéto the economy, modern liberals have always been pretty much fixated on the second member of this trinity. It’s a core concern of the bible of modern American liberalism: John Rawls’sA Theory of Justice(1971). Here a hyper-secularized love of neighbor is subsumed into a concern for equality in the sense of general sameness. Likewise, economic liberty is highly restricted whenever there’s...
How to Create an Underclass
Several years ago economist Walter Williams explained “How Not to Be Poor”: Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. Williams is right—it’s not rocket science. Yet many Americans are shocked to discover that life choices are often (though certainly not always) the...
Rev. Sirico Included in New Catholic Resource Site
Franciscan University has launched the site Faith and Reason intended to be a hub for Catholic intellectual life. The Rev. Robert Sirico, along with others such as Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal at the Apostolic Signatura and Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, preacher to the Papal Household, are contributors to the site which focuses on issues concerning the Church, culture, politics, philosophy, morality and the marketplace. Read more about Faith and Reason here. ...
Arthur Brooks’ ‘5 Myths About Free Enterprise’
American Enterprise Institute president and 2012 Acton University plenary speaker Arthur Brooks has a recent column in The Washington Post that lists five myths about free enterprise. Brooks’ five myths address some of free enterprise’s mon critiques and do so by giving free enterprise a moral aspect. The five points are especially relevant this election season, he says, because the two candidates represent such different fiscal perspectives. Here’s a look a myth #2: 2. Free markets are driven by greed....
“Somebody else made that happen”: tell it to an entrepreneur
On Friday, President Obama, during a campaign event in Virginia, told the crowd that people with successful businesses couldn’t give themselves a bit of credit: Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart….Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads...
More than a Moral Case for Free Enterprise
Brian Fikkert, a Professor of Economics and Community Development at Covenant College and the Executive Director of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development, takes a look at Arthur Brooks’ The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise in this week’s edition of CPJ’s Capital Commentary. I think it’s a pretty balanced review, and Fikkert rightly highlights some of the important strength’s of Brooks’ work. But he also highlights some specifically theological concerns that have animated my...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved