I received this from SAC member Beth Milham.
Peace,
Tom Beall
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear Beth,
As we reach the end of this year and the start of the next, we want to share exciting news and plans. We also invite you to support our all-volunteer organization through a year-end deductible donation.
Successes in introducing genocide-free investing
In 2009 we achieved two major victories by working with receptive companies to improve their support for genocide-free investing. TIAA-CREFagreed to vigorously engage PetroChina and other problem companies partnering with the Government of Sudan and to divest from those companies by the end of this year.
Recently, iShares, formerly part of Barclays Global Investors and now part of Blackrock, announced that it intends to develop a genocide-free, international, exchange-traded fund (ETF). For the many millions of American families who do not want their hard-earned savings to be invested in companies that help support genocide, the introduction of this fund provides a new genocide-free investment alternative and should further encourage development of genocide-free alternatives for all fund types in the future.
Over the course of the year, our shareholder campaign helped raise awareness of the problem of investments in companies tied to genocide, with proxy votes at the world's largest mutual funds companies - Fidelity, Vanguard, and American Funds. We also had a vote at Putnam. As a result of the votes, these mutual fund companies sent our shareholder proposal to huge numbers of their shareholders. Millions of them responded positively and voted in favor of making their savings genocide-free, despite the active opposition by their mutual fund, and even though both Vanguard and American Funds used misleading statements to discourage support for our proposal.
We continue to learn how heavily the proxy voting process is tilted in management's favor. Nevertheless, genocide-free investing has received as much as 31% of the vote, which is outstanding for a shareholder proposal on a social issue that is strongly opposed by management.
Looking ahead
In 2010, we will continue our shareholder proposal campaign. We will also begin new initiatives to make investors aware of the genocide-free alternatives becoming available to them. Since we began the campaign in 2007 we have believed that ultimately market forces would push companies to satisfy the desires of their customers. We hope to see more of such movement in 2010.
We are working with key members of Congress to hold a hearing on genocide-free investing in early 2010. There is a strong effort underway to force financial services companies to better address the needs of their customers rather than themselves. Genocide-free investing fits naturally within this framework. We hope that regulation will assist shareholders seeking genocide-free investments.
Please support us
We hope you will consider supporting our work. We are a completely volunteer project of a 501(c)(3) non-profit and spend almost none of your tax deductible contributions on administration or fundraising. Last year more than 99% of our spending went to furthering genocide-free investing. Click here to donate. We also continue to seek volunteers to submit shareholder proposals to their mutual funds. Click here to learn more.
Thanks in advance for your support. We'll keep you posted as we progress next year.
Eric, Susan, Bill and Mary
on behalf of the Investors Against Genocide Team
