May 1, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Proxy Season 2008: Helping Foundations Align Investment and Mission, offers a guide to forthcoming social and environmental shareholder proposals on which foundations can vote. The publication says that proxy votes, in which investors vote on company policy or governance, can be a tool to help grant makers pursue their missions by influencing corporate practices. Trends in 2008, according to the report, include executive compensation, health-care reform, and global warming. Summaries of other popular issues — including those related to animal welfare, the environment, human rights, and labor — are provided as well. Another section describes how foundations, through proxy voting, shareholder advocacy, screening portfolios, and mission-related investing, can use their endowments to “add value to their grant making or to achieve goals to which traditional forms of grant making are not suited.” Other resources include a list of organizations and reports that can provide more information and a calendar of proxy votes that are taking place this spring.
Publisher: As You Sow, 311 California Street, Suite 510, San Francisco, Calif. 94104; (415) 391-3212; http://www.asyousow.org; 25 pages; available free for download on the organization’s Web site.
