- STEP 1: Learn What you Own
- STEP 2: Decide What to Sell (Divest) and How
- STEP 3: Decide Where to Move Your Money (Invest) and How
- RESEARCH TOOLS
Step 1
While divesting funds from your individual retirement account is important, we encourage you to also explore organizing your workplace to provide more values-aligned options to all employees, to develop an investment policy statement and/or to change the retirement plan administrator to a different provider.
On Your Own and/or With a Co-Worker
- Confirm what company is managing your investment account(s).
- Log into your investment account(s) and review your account holdings and/or statements.
- You will likely see names of mutual funds, index funds, target date funds and/or exchange traded funds (ETFs).
- In some cases, you will see names of individual stocks, bonds and/or cash holdings (money that is not currently invested).
- Enter or cross-check the names of the funds, stocks and/or bonds you own into the research tools that help you to understand where your money is invested.
- Look at your retirement plan documents to better understand what autonomy and decision making you have over your account’s investments since some employers have limitations (especially if you have a pension or 401k / 403b account).
If you’re having trouble accessing this information on your own or are looking for more support in this process, contact your employer’s HR department and/or your plan administrator to support you with this process.
With Support from Your Employer or the Plan Administrator
- Contact your HR department and/or plan administrator to better understand what investments you own and what options are available to you to divest from violence and invest in alternative options.
- In your outreach, make clear that you want to divest your individual and organizational investments from militarism, occupation, state violence and other issues you care deeply about.
- For example, make a copy of this sample letter (or use these examples) to communicate that you do not want your retirement funds invested in apartheid and occupation, asking if there are investments in your portfolio that support companies profiting from genocide, and suggest screening out those companies through more aligned funds.
- When you meet with your HR department and/or plan administrator, come prepared with these questions and suggestions using this resource of talking points.
- If they push back, remember that the plan administrator has an obligation to serve your organizational interests and that you have power and influence as a worker, especially when you act collectively with your peers (see the organizing your institution section for more detail).
Step 2
While divesting funds from your individual retirement account is important, we encourage you to also explore organizing your workplace to provide more values-aligned options to all employees, to develop an investment policy statement and/or to change the retirement plan administrator to a different provider.
Depending on what you choose to invest the funds in, you may need to initiate the divest and invest process simultaneously, so please review Step 3 before completing this process.
On Your Own and/or With a Co-Worker
- Log into your investment account(s) and review the instructions for selling holdings of an individual stock, bond, and/or fund.
- Look out for information on the costs associated with selling the asset (for example, the tax implications and the transaction fee) and whether there are any restrictions in doing so.
- Identify which companies and/or funds you will be divesting from (using the research tools).
- Decide how much of the investment you will sell (divest).
- Initiate the sales on your online platform and/or with support of the plan administrator.
- If you’re not yet able to divest your holdings from a particular company or industry, learn about utilizing proxy votes and other tools to leverage your power as a shareholder here. If you’re interested in responding to requests from grassroots organizations looking for proxy votes, please fill out this short form. This is likely not accessible through an employer-sponsored account, but it’s worth asking.
With Support from a Plan Administrator
- Identify which companies and/or funds you will be divesting from (using the research tools).
- Decide how much of the investment you will sell (divest).
- Direct the administrator to initiate the sales of these holdings or to show you how to do so.
- If you’re not yet able to divest your holdings from a particular company or industry, ask the administrator about utilizing proxy votes and other tools to leverage your power as a shareholder. Learn more here. If you’re interested in responding to requests from grassroots organizations looking for proxy votes, please fill out this short form. This is likely not accessible through an employer-sponsored account, but it’s worth asking.
Help us track (and celebrate!) how much money has been divested from violence by filing out this quick form below:
Step 3
- Learn about and consider your options, along with the risks and implications for different options for the funds you’ve divested.
- Keep the funds in a cash account through your current retirement provider
- Move the funds to a more values-aligned fund or investment option within the current provider or organize your workplace to change providers
- Explore self managing your retirement account and/or rolling your employer-sponsored retirement account (if you have already left your employer or plan to) to an individual retirement account (IRA)
Moving Money Options
Retirement accounts are governed under trust law which can make it more difficult to incorporate more values-aligned options.
- Keep the funds in a cash account through your current retirement provider.
- Move the funds to a more values-aligned fund or investment option within the current provider or organize your workplace to change providers.
- Use the research tools to identify companies and/or funds that are less harmful and meet the requirements of screening out the worst actors in fueling occupation, militarism, prisons, climate change, and other issues.
- You may also come across options for socially responsible investments, but it’s important to look at these offerings closely to see what companies the funds are actually invested in since it’s a broad and unspecific category at this point of the industry’s development.
- Consider certificates of deposit and bonds, which are issued by companies, municipalities, states, and sovereign governments to finance projects and operations and often provide more stability and uniformity than a specific stock or fund.
- Explore self managing your retirement account and/or rolling over your employer-sponsored retirement account to a self-directed retirement account (IRA) in order to have more flexibility to invest the funds outside of wall street for deeper community impact. Learn more about self-directed IRAs.
- Consider moving a percentage or a significant percent of your portfolio off of wall street and into more impact-driven options.
- Check out Resource Generation’s Transformative Investment Principles for more guidance on what this looks like in practice. Please note that these are written for an audience of young people with access to wealth and/or class privilege, but still offer relevant concepts for people of different class backgrounds.
- Community Development Financial Institutions provide resources to small businesses, nonprofits, affordable housing projects and more to BIPOC and working class communities nationally.
- Community controlled loan funds provide resources to cooperatives, worker owned businesses, community land trusts that ensure permanently affordable housing and other projects committed to social and environmental justice.
- For other options that support community well being, learn about examples at Transformative 25 and and many more here and here.
- For retirement specific options, learn from examples such as Just Futures, Green Retirement and The Next Egg.
- Consider moving a percentage or a significant percent of your portfolio off of wall street and into more impact-driven options.
- Donate stock to a social justice organization, which leads to more $$ going to the nonprofit because investors don’t pay capital gains taxes and neither do the organizations.
- For example, organizations such as In Our Name Campaign can redistribute stock donations to Rawa Fund, Grassroots International, and Purposeful, organizations that are supporting Palestinian communities most impacted by occupation and apartheid.
Help us track (and celebrate!) how much money has been divested from violence by filing out this quick form below:
Research Tools
- Investigate: Investigate is a uniquely comprehensive online database of 300+ reports on corporate involvement in state violence, using American Friends Service Committee’s in-house human rights rating system and investment screening recommendations and tools. Investigate is used by grassroots groups, students, unions, funders, investors, institutions, and journalists.
- Invest Your Values: Invest Your Values is a free online tool, managed by As You Sow, that analyzes the climate and social impacts of thousands of U.S. mutual funds, ETFs, and 401k plans. Invest Your Values includes data from Weapons Free Funds, Fossil Free Funds and Prison Free Funds.
- Who Profits: Who Profits Research Center is an independent research center dedicated to exposing the commercial involvement of Israeli and international corporations in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian land and population.
- BDS Movement: The BDS movement uses the historically successful method of targeted boycotts, inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the US Civil Rights movement, the Indian anti-colonial struggle, among others worldwide. This list is used to identify key corporate divestment targets.