AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Innovative Financial System
KEYWORDS
Investment, impact investment
COUNTRY
United States of America
DESIGNED BY
As You Sow
WEBSITE
https://www.asyousow.org/
As you Sow
Align your investments with your values
In order to align investments with values, investors must first know what they own. But since most investment portfolios and retirement plans rely heavily on mutual funds, it is nearly impossible for investors — foundations, endowments and individuals, including 91 million Americans with retirement accounts totaling $8.4 trillion in assets — to know what individual companies they actually own.
But now that’s changed. As You Sow’s Invest Your Values free online tools screen mutual fund holdings against specific environmental, social, and governance issues. Mutual fund investors can know what they own, and can align their investments with their values.
This transparency gives investors, for the first time, the ability to apply a values lens in evaluating mutual funds. It encourages fund managers to construct and offer responsive investment vehicles, and it exerts market pressure on companies to improve.