Corporations are the most powerful entities on the planet, capable of enormous good and crushing destruction. By law they are beholden to their shareholders. For decades, philanthropic trusts, pension funds, and other institutional investors have used shareholder advocacy to press for changes in corporate policy on environmental, social, and governance issues. However, the vast majority of individual shareholders remain silent, hidden behind firewalls of learned ignorance and convinced that they have no power.
In reality, owners of as little as $2,000 worth of stock in a publicly traded corporation have the right to press for change—but few investors realize it. This book is a wake-up call for individual investors to realize that they have far more power than they imagine, to stop abdicating their power, and to take effective action. And it is a how-to guide to the many ways that individual investors can take action, including filing shareholder resolutions, voting their proxies, and engaging with corporate executives.
This book is not another investment guide. Instead, it is a call to action—designed to build a movement of active investors. It informs, inspires, and instructs readers in how they can bring about meaningful progress on a wide range of critical issues, from climate change, human rights, and toxics in our food system to executive compensation, workers’ rights, and much more.