racial justice Archives - Natural Investments

Natural Investments Becomes the First Perpetual Purpose Trust in Financial Services

Company News, General / By Michael Kramer

Natural Investments recently converted its company ownership from six financial advisors to the Natural Investments Purpose Trust. That’s right, we’re now essentially owned by a purpose! Creating this trust over the past 18 months means that Natural Investments will continue to exist in perpetuityas an independent firm owned by an entity rather than individuals. Now …

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2022 Sustainable & Responsible Impact

General / By Natural Investments

Despite the market downturn in 2022, interest in sustainable investments continued to increase across the United Sates. At Natural Investments, the inflow of new clients starting their sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investing journey helped grow the firm to $1.18 billion assets under management. [1] The stewardship approach with client assets also reimagines the purpose of …

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Native Land Taxes Reclaim Rights, Power, and the Environment

Community Investing, General / By Kulu Maphalala

One of the most prevalent tools of colonialism has been the removal of land and natural resources from the hands of Indigenous peoples. This has led to the cultural, social, and spiritual disenfranchisement of Indigenous peoples and, as Native methods of land stewardship vanish, wide-ranging environmental effects are harming both Native and non-Native communities.

In the News – Summer 2022

General / By Natural Investments

1. SBA FINALLY MEETS DEI The U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2021 report showed that only 18% of early-stage business loans went to women-owned firms, 8% to Hispanic-owned businesses, and 5% to Black-owned businesses. Pre-pandemic numbers were just as bad. Last month the SBA announced additional enhancements to Section 7(a) funding that should help improve its …

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2021 Shareholder Advocacy Review: The Winds at Our Back

General, Impact Reports / By Michael Kramer

Natural Investments remained active in advocacy efforts in the past year to bring about needed improvements to the economic system while fostering equity and justice for women and people of color. We continued to engage major corporations on their policies and practices, funneled more capital to traditionally marginalized populations and educated policymakers about appropriate oversight …

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Spotlight: Seed Commons

General, Newsletter Archive / By Nicole Middleton

Putting Non-Extractive Finance into Practice When investors hear the word “cooperative” it should immediately convey the idea of working together toward a common goal. Headquartered in New York City and working in communities across the country, Seed Commons is a cooperative, or democratically run financial organization, that is reimagining finance and lending. It uses non-extractive …

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Indigenous Representation Matters

Advocacy & Policy, General / By Sylvia Panek

In 2007, when I worked at The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF)— The national association for socially responsible investing (SRI) firms and professionals—I became the staff liaison for the Investors and Indigenous Peoples Working Group (IIPWG). One of IPWG’s main campaigns at the time was asking companies and investors to pressure the …

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Invested In Racism – Asset Manager Woke-Washing

Advocacy & Policy, General / By Nicole Middleton

So you have money invested with Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, or Fidelity, and you recently heard that these Asset Managers have failed to utilize their power as large shareholders of publicly traded companies to address structural racism. You don’t want your money held at, or managed by a Company that is supporting voter suppression and …

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Shareholder Advocacy Review – Winter 2022

Advocacy & Policy, General / By Michael Kramer

We finally get to take some victory laps! After years battling the previous administration, we are finally seeing executive branch actions that roll back its archaic rules and guidance that clearly benefited corporations and not investors. SUCCESSES The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, recently issued new guidance addressing the criteria by which shareholders …

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Black Economic Self-Determination with Ed Whitfield

General, Resilient Living / By Kate Poole

Natural Investments hosted a webinar called “Black Economic Self-Determination: To Move Forward We Must Understand The Past” with Ed Whitfield of Seed Commons. Reconstruction, the period that followed the Civil War, was a time when attempts were made to repair our country and our economy from slavery. Reconstruction failed, and set us up for what …

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