One might screen stocks or bonds from one's portfolio, excluding companies profiting from abortion, pornography, gambling, and other offensive products. In addition, they have provided a free screening service, The Investigator . In 1971 an Episcopalian Bishop, the Right Reverend John E. Hines, filed the first religious investor shareholder resolution by calling on General Motors to remove operations from South Africa. Almost 30 years later, apartheid has been abolished, and religious organizations have joined others in combining shareholder leverage to evince far-reaching impact on issues of corporate ethics. Ethical Performance Shareholders maintaining this much leverage continue to influence hundreds of corporations.
Shareholder activism continues to play an important role in ethical issues.
Next week we will identify its impact on financial performance. For an example of a successful shareholder resolution in which General Mills listened to their shareholders, click here to read Cheerios to General Mills . All rights reserved.