Mobilizing to Protect the Freedom to Invest Responsibly 

Photo: Clean Yield’s Dorigen Hofmann, second from left, and members of the Freedom to Invest coalition.

By Dorigen Hofmann, Partner and Portfolio Manager

On September 16, I joined 30 investment managers, proxy voting advisors, impact investors, and other social investment professionals on Capitol Hill. The group was organized by Freedom to Invest, a new coalition of social investors led by Ceres and ICCR to advocate for basic shareholder rights. As our team has been reporting, shareholder rights are under attack by the Trump administration and the current Congress, and we made the case to prevent new legislation and rulemaking that limits shareholder rights. 

I’ve attended many other “Hill Days” on behalf of Clean Yield, but this felt the most action oriented. Currently, more than 10 pieces of federal legislation are being considered that would limit our work, as well as many other attacks at the state level. They include proposed bills that would disallow ESG funds being offered for retirement plans, limitations on proxy voting advisors, burdensome reporting requirements for institutional investors engaging in proxy voting, and a generalized ban on any environmental, social, or governance related resolutions. Our group of 30 investors broke into seven groups, each led by an expert advocate from Ceres.  

Every visit to the Capitol is a refresher of Civics 101 and it’s exciting to see people engaged in the process, especially when times feel dark for those of us interested in progressive causes. So many interest groups are still doing their grass roots lobbying of members of Congress – we ran into groups from all over the country and spanning the range of issues, with many friendly encounters no matter which side of the aisle. Admittedly, it may have helped that our group included a clergy member who was wearing her collar! 

Our group of four “small investors” – meaning we represented individuals, families, and small foundations – met with three Democratic and three Republican Representatives from Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, California, and New Jersey. Our official “ask” was for the Republicans not to allow the proposed legislation to be brought to the floor for a vote and to encourage the Democrats to actively and loudly oppose the legislation. But our conversations went much further and included education about the shareholder resolution process and why it is an essential element of free markets and capitalism. We carefully crafted our message to be appealing or at least pique the interest of conservative Representatives. We were merely advocating for shareholders to have the basic right to have a say in the companies they own – something fundamental to the operation of free markets and truly an issue that should be bipartisan. 

Overall, we were well received by staffers from all the offices.

Our conversations did reveal that corporate lobbyists are getting their message heard clearly and we need to keep making sure folks on Capitol Hill hear from investors as well.

Congressional staffers were interested to hear that having shareholder proposals as a last resort most often leads to engagement and conversations – a chance for the regular people (aka voters) to have a seat at the table with corporations they hold in their nest eggs and retirement accounts. They did not realize how restricted the process for these proposals already is, and were generally supportive of the idea that shareholders should have voting and proposal rights, no matter what their political views. 

As we have found time and again, one of the most meaningful pieces of this work came from being in community with other shareholder advocates, social investors, and proxy voting activists. It is important that networks like this come together and communicate our messages beyond our immediate circles. A big thank you to Ceres, ICCR, and the Impact Investors Alliance for doing the legwork of scheduling meetings and helping us make our concerns palatable across the aisle. We will keep following this Congress and see where the legislation goes – and keep you posted with opportunities for more investor voices to be heard. 

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