Insights

2026 Impact & Public Benefit Report

The 2026 Impact & Public Benefit Report outlines how Natural Investments creates positive social, environmental, and economic outcomes through its investments, internal practices, and industry advocacy. It showcases data and stories about our firm’s impact on communities, our work to advance a more just form of capitalism, and our leadership in promoting racial equity and inclusive ownership. Download the full report. Annual Company Letter: The Era of Resistance and Resilience by Michael Kramer 2026 Sustainable And Responsible Impact 2026 Shareholder Advocacy Highlights by Michael Kramer

Securities & Exchange Commission Exterior Seal

Shareholder Advocacy: Fighting Back

The current administration is doing everything in its power to block shareholder accountability measures designed to hold corporations accountable for their policies and practices. Shareholders have lost significant leverage to change company policies and practices from the inside, and an adversarial dynamic between shareholders and the companies they own has developed. Current SEC Chairman Paul

Natural Investments Team Retreat 2025

Why a Perpetual Purpose Trust Model Works for Sustainable Investing Firms

This article was first published in the March issue of Green Money Journal Two years ago, Natural Investments became the first financial advisory firm in the United States to convert itself into a perpetual purpose trust. For our firm, this was not just a legal milestone. It was an ethics-driven decision about the future of

Maize Field

Bringing the Wisdom of the Three Sisters into Financial Services

I learned through Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass, about the Three Sisters: beans, squash, corn, and the magic they create together. Kimmerer explains how each of these serves the other, that the byproducts of one plant nourish the others to create a mutually beneficial environment that makes each plant stronger. A similar type of

Oweesta Corporation donates to Puʻuhonua O Waiʻanae

Puʻuhonua O Waiʻanae: A Village Without a Place No More

Many call it paradise, but for the Native people of what was once the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, being “priced out of paradise” is a very real threat. Official numbers put Hawaiʻi’s houseless population at about 6,500, the highest per capita in the country. This number is also likely an undercount, only accounting for those on

Investing with Intent – Winter 2026

This quarter’s issue of Investing with Intent examines how values-aligned investing is responding to today’s political, economic, and regulatory shifts—exploring cooperative economic models in Italy and Spain, the growing role of judicial action as shareholder advocacy and the evolving case for socially responsible investing, and what market signals, AI disruption, and tariffs mean for Main Street and Wall Street alike. Download a full PDF copy here: Investing with Intent Winter 2026.

Market Report – Winter 2026

Despite every market indicator pointing toward the need for a major market correction, the U.S. stock market continued to rise in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 2.4 percent at the close and 17 percent for the year. For the quarter, large cap stocks rose 2.7 percent, small cap stocks rose 2.2 percent, foreign stocks grew 4.9 percent, and U.S. bonds rose 1.4 percent. As of December, the rate of inflation was about 2.7 percent.

What Can We Learn from Cooperative Economies in Italy & Spain?

I recently returned from a delegation to Emilia-Romagna in Italy and the Basque Country in Spain, organized by the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI). CCI’s initiative, called Reimagining Scale, brought together a group of U.S.-based solidarity economy practitioners ranging from academics to organizers to investors. Emilia-Romagna is a region in Italy with a decades-old robust

Rewriting the Rules: Aligning Profit and Purpose with SRI

For anyone following the financial news cycle, it’s hard to miss the increasingly heated debate around sustainable, responsible, and impact (SRI) investing. Detractors—often speaking from an ideological position on the right—argue that SRI promotes progressive values in corporate boardrooms. Supporters counter that these strategies have generally performed in line with traditional portfolios while helping to

Shareholder Advocacy: A Shift to Judicial Activism

With Congress unable to check the overreach and illegal actions of the current administration due to Republican Congressional acquiescence, the judicial system is now the primary venue for seeking limits on excessive executive branch authority. At our annual company retreat this September in Santa Fe, N.M., those gathered had several conversations about “meeting the moment”

In The News – Winter 2026

This quarter’s In the News recaps reporting on how investors, institutions, and communities are responding to today’s political and regulatory climate—from the resilience of sustainable investing and renewed momentum in climate tech to the growing role of community-owned real estate and rising concerns about transparency and accountability in financial markets.

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