Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) involves monitoring our investment portfolio from a moral and ethical perspective and exercising our rights and responsibilities as shareholders to hold corporations accountable for their social and environmental policies and practices.

Shareholder Advocacy

What is Shareholder Advocacy Managing Tasks

Community Development Loans

Investing for Community Development Why do we Invest this Way Allocating Investments

Corporate Engagement

Annual Summary of Shareholder Activity Active Actions

Why Do We Engage in Corporate Social Responsibility

We engage in Corporate Social Responsibility in order to fulfill the congregation’s mission to “direct our corporate resources to the promotion of justice, peace, and reconciliation” and thereby to effect change toward social and environmental justice.

Corporate Engagement 2018-2019

Our ministry with corporations is our way of prophetically witnessing to our call to be human in the face of an exceptionally violent time—made more complicated by social fracturing, inequity, and inequality. Whether we are challenging pharmaceutical companies, such as AbbVie, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson or Merck, to stop pushing the price of life-saving medicines beyond the ability of those in need to afford them or Chevron’s refusal to adopt a consistent, comprehensive policy acknowledging a human right to water, the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia stand with those without a voice. And the same is true as we engage with Sturm Ruger on gun safety, McDonald’s and Yum Brands on nutrition, the banking sector on investments in private prisons, and the climate wrecking industry of fossil fuels. These are among over 100 actions seeking responsible corporate behavior.

Click here for brief action summaries giving insight into our shareholder engagement for 2018-2019.

More Important Information!

DID YOU KNOW?

THE CONGREGATION HOLDS ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP IN:

Philadelphia Area Coalition For Responsible Investment (PACRI)
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
Northwest Committee for Responsible Investment (NWCRI)
Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN)

Our membership in the organizations listed above as well as our active collaboration with organizations such as Ceres, Franciscan Action Network, Christian Brothers Investment Services, Walden Asset Management, Boston Common Asset Management and many other SRI managers enable us to effect change at the corporate level.

We also maintain a collaborative relationship with several other Responsible Investor Coalitions

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI)
Neumann University
The Catholic High School of Baltimore.

Read some of the outcomes of our work in Corporate Social Responsibility.

For more information about Corporate Social Responsibility, contact us.

Social Justice Fund Grants

Since the early 1980s the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia were fortunate to be able to award Social Justice Fund grants, and have been blessed to learn of the difference these grants have made in the lives of those who are poor and/or marginalized. However, due to the present changing times, our congregation finds it necessary to reorganize its distribution of charitable funds. Because of this development, the Sisters of St. Francis will no longer be awarding Social Justice Fund grants.

It is our hope and prayer that the Holy Spirit will guide you to another source of funds.

Peace and all good! Read a highlighted success story here.

Active Action

An essential component of our corporate social responsibility commitment is shareholder advocacy. We actively engage with corporations on a variety of issues that we believe enable them to be more accountable for their policies and actions. To read what active actions we are currently pursuing, click here!