Goldman Sachs to Allow Shareowner Advisory Vote on Executive Compensation (12/14)
In the wake of an uproar over its plans to award $23 billion in bonuses, TARP recipient also announces that Management Committee will receive equity Shares at Risk instead of cash.

Bob Monks: ExxonMobil Exemplifies Corpocracy (06/30)
SocialFunds writers Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon interview corporate governance advocate Bob Monks about his shareholder activism at ExxonMobil and his new book, Corpocracy.

Executive Pay Weighs Heavy with Shareholders (06/04)
With more than 90 "say on pay" resolutions this year, shareholders continue to push for advisory votes on executive compensation.

Executive Compensation Consultants: The Next Battlefield for Say on Pay (05/23)
Investors ask the SEC to mandate disclosure of a company's use of executive compensation consultants and if the consultants are used in other areas of the business as well.

Responsible Businesses are More Competitive (02/24)
IBM study reports businesses with corporate social responsibility as part of their core plans have an advantage.

Shareholders One Step Closer to Having a "Say on Pay" (05/03)
The US House of Representatives votes to give shareholders an advisory non-binding vote on executive compensation.

If You Tag It, It Will Be Used: Sustainability Reporting in XBRL (04/16)
Weeks after the latest SEC roundtable on interactive data, the Global Reporting Initiative releases a draft taxonomy of XBRL tags mapped to G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

TIAA-CREF Ups the Ante With New Stance on ESG Issues (03/20)
TIAA-CREF’s new policy statement and proxy voting guidelines address social, environmental and governance issues, moving SRI arguments into the mainstream.

Aflac Shareholders Get Say on Executive Pay (02/20)
Aflac becomes the first major US company to offer shareholders a non-binding vote on executive compensation packages.

"Say on Pay" Highlighted in the Upcoming 2007 Proxy Season (01/30)
Institutional investors band together, asking for the right to weigh in on top executive compensation packages.

Study Links Options Backdating to Corporate Governance Weaknesses (01/12)
Harvard Professor Lucian Bebchuk and colleagues use a new method of identifying CEO and outside director manipulation of stock option timing and assert correlations to governance problems.

Dear Sir or Madam: Stakeholder Letters Push Corporate Sustainability Improvements (11/16)
Letters remains an important mode for addressing environmental, social, and governance issues, encompassing a broader swath than simply communication between shareowners and companies.

Blue Funds to Invest in Companies that Support Democrats (10/13)
The two new funds seek to capitalize on research that finds that Democrat-supporting companies significantly outperform Republican-supporting companies.

The Ratio of Greed: Report Pierces Numbing Numbers of Executive Excess (09/06)
United for a Fair Economy and Institute for Policy Studies publish 13th annual study examining CEO compensation, which continues its upward trend while worker pay stagnates.

Shareowners Push TimeWarner on Movies Depicting Smoking, Recycled Paper, and Pay Disparity (08/09)
Part two of this two-part article documents steps forward made by TimeWarner, as well as areas where shareowner activists continue to press for progress.

Shareowner Activists See Progress at TimeWarner, and Room for Improvement (08/08)
In part one of this two-part article, activists applaud the company on its first corporate social responsibility report while continuing to push on environmental, social, and governance issues.

Correlating Proxy Advisory Firm Recommendations with Voting Results (06/20)
A look at the link between recommendations by Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis, and PROXYGovernance and voting results at Citigroup, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Wal-Mart.

Corporate Shenanigans: Companies Dis Shareowners at Annual Meetings (06/09)
Home Depot exemplifies a phenomenon of companies manipulating annual meeting protocols to disempower shareowners, following in the footsteps of Weyerhaeuser, Whole Foods, and others.

Applying an Ant Colony Mentality to Extra-Financial Factors and Enhanced Analytics (05/30)
A report from the Universities Superannuation Scheme, a member of the Enhanced Analytics Initiative, calls for diverse, community-wide advocacy of factoring extra-financials into research.

Shareholders One Step Closer to Having a “Say on Pay” (05/03)
The US House of Representatives votes to give shareholders an advisory non-binding vote on executive compensation.

Voting Recommendations on Shareowner Resolutions Vary Widely at Proxy Advisory Firms (04/18)
Part one of this two-part article compares Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis, and PROXY Governance vote recommendations on resolutions at Citigroup and Chevron.

Resolution Withdrawals Signal Success in Shareowner Advocacy Early in 2006 Proxy Season (03/06)
Part one of this two-part article examines withdrawal of resolutions on climate change, sexual orientation nondiscrimination, political contributions, and HIV/AIDS policies.

Book Review: Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality & Insecurity (02/16)
The revised and updated edition of this text (originally published in 2000) examines how excessive executive compensation contributes to the widening gulf between rich and poor.

Wal-Mart Faces Host of Shareowner Resolutions, From Union-Busting to Sustainability Reporting (01/06)
The broad range of resolutions suggests that the sustainability commitments announced by Wal-Mart last year did not convince shareowners that the company has solved all its challenges.

Book Review--The False Promise of Pay for Performance: Embracing a Positive Model of the Company Executive (10/18)
According to James McConvill, the problem with perverse executive compensation is not managerial power, as an earlier book suggests, but rather the very pay for performance system.

Labor Day List Celebrates Corporate-Union Collaboration (09/02)
The inaugural list launched by American Rights at Work spotlights positive relationships between companies and their workers.

War Millionaires: Defense Contractor CEO Pay Up 200 Percent Since 9/11 (09/01)
The ratio between CEO and worker pay across the market climbs to 431 : 1, up from 301 : 1 last year, according to a new CEO pay study from United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies.

The Lowdown from Corporate Governance and Proxy Advisory Experts on ISS-IRRC Merger (07/19)
Implications of the buyout of the Investor Responsibility Research Center by Institutional Shareholder Services on social research and competition in proxy advisory services.

Carrots and Sweets: Tying Executive Remuneration to Extra-Financial Performance Indicators (03/02)
A report from Henderson Global Investors and Universities Superannuation Scheme finds incentives for extra-financial performance tied to short-term instead of long-term indicators.

Reigning In Raines on Bonuses Based on Earnings Before Restatements (01/26)
With restatements of financial earnings reaching record levels in 2004, the question arises whether executive bonuses based on incorrect earnings statements should be recalculated.

New Indexes Seek to Link Corporate Governance and Diversity to Financial Performance (12/15)
A DiversityInc index and joint FTSE-ISS indexes try to answer if diversity and corporate governance, respectively, correlate to financial outperformance.

ICCR Spends World AIDS Day Preparing Shareowner Resolutions for Upcoming Proxy Season (12/01)
This year's resolution has expanded to cover operations in India and China as well as Africa, and ICCR is campaigning for pharma companies to provide better access to medicines for children.

Book Inspires Symposium on How Governance Codifies Excessive Executive Pay (10/14)
The book is written by Harvard Law Professor Lucian Bebchuk and Berkeley Law Professor Jesse Fried, and the Symposium is hosted by Columbia Law School.

How Do SRI Firms Walk Their Talk When It Comes to Corporate Social Responsibility? (08/13)
Socially responsible investment firms take particulars such as scale and sector into account in their CSR expectations at the companies they own and in their own operations.

The Value of Transformation: The Catholic Equity Fund (08/11)
After transforming itself from three actively managed funds into one index fund, the Catholic Equity Fund works to transform corporate practice through shareowner advocacy.

House Votes to Kill Mandatory Expensing of All Stock Options, Sending Bill to Senate (07/22)
The House's passage of the Stock Option Accounting Reform Act reverses Sarbanes-Oxley's commitment to protect independence of FASB as the arbiter of accounting rules.

Governance Overhaul: An Interview with Tyco Corporate Governance VP Eric Pillmore (06/09)
Mr. Pillmore speaks candidly with SocialFunds.com about rebuilding reputation and trust, engaging stakeholders, and increasing transparency.

Book Review--The Best Business Stories of the Year: 2004 Edition (04/09)
Ethics, disclosure, labor relations, executive compensation, and insider trading are among the topics related to socially responsible investment in this collection of business articles.

Sarbanes-Oxley Fails to Kill Corporate Insider Loans, Some of Which Pay Posthumously (01/21)
A new study from The Corporate Library documents the prevalence of insider loans, and the persistence of benefits beyond the grave.

Top Five Social Investing News Stories of 2003 (12/19)
The major social investing news stories of the year include SEC reforms, stock exchanges mandating social, environmental, and corporate governance practices, and climate risk assessment defined as a fiduciary duty.

Board Pay, Board Say (12/16)
Two new reports assess the past year for directors of corporate boards, examining issues such as director pay, workload, and independence.

Watchdog Fund Established to Take a Bite Out of Corporate Governance Malfeasance (12/09)
The new investment vehicle is part mutual fund, part shareowner advocate, and part hedge fund.

Resolutions Ask TIAA-CREF to Practice the Good Corporate Governance It Preaches (10/14)
TIAA-CREF faces several resolutions asking it to reconcile its strong corporate governance advocacy with what filers describe as its own weak governance policies.

ISIS Product Offers Shareowner Action without Portfolio Management (10/01)
Institutional investors can use ISIS's Responsible Engagement Overlay to promote better social and environmental performance at companies through dialogue, proxy voting, shareowner resolution filing, and research.

Identifying the Effects of Interlocking Directorships on Board Independence (09/26)
A new report from The Corporate Library uncovers ways interlocking directorships impede board independence, though shareowner activists could leverage this interlock to push corporate governance reform.

Sustainable Computer Producers Perform Better than Less Sustainable Counterparts (09/25)
Innovest adds social considerations to its environmental assessment in its recent computer industry report, and sustainability still outperforms business-as-usual.

Book Review--24 Days: How Two Wall Street Journal Reporters Uncovered the Lies that Destroyed Faith in Corporate America (09/23)
A new book tells the behind-the-scenes story of Enron's demise and the detective work that revealed the chicanery in Enron's corporate practices and culture.

AFL-CIO Advocates Active Ownership as a Way to Enhance Shareowner Value (09/16)
The AFL-CIO coordinates resolution filing, assesses managers' proxy voting records, and identifies worker-friendly investments for union pension funds.

Influential Institutional Investors to Form National Coalition for Corporate Reform (09/10)
The National Coalition for Corporate Reform, championed by state treasurers and pension funds, seeks to restore investor confidence through better corporate governance.

New Proxy Voting Recommendation Service Provides Choice, Objectivity (09/05)
Investor Responsibility Research Center teams with Glass, Lewis & Co. to provide proxy voting recommendations and voting services to institutional investors.

Corporate Governance Ratings Take Different Approaches to Produce Similar Results (08/19)
GovernanceMetrics International rates corporate governance in relation to other companies, while Institutional Shareholder Services rates in relation to market indexes.

Ford's Latest CSR Report Increases Transparency by Using GRI Guidelines (08/12)
Ford's decision to base its 2002 Corporate Citizenship Report on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines will help analysts get a fuller picture of the company's performance (part one of a two-part article).

Johannesburg Securities Exchange Requires Compliance with King II and Global Reporting Initiative (07/16)
Companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange will soon have to comply with King II corporate governance codes as well as Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.

Report Connects the Dots Between Corporate Governance and Climate Change Risk (07/10)
A report reveals the degree to which 20 major global companies use corporate governance to address climate change risks and opportunities.

Huh?!?: CEO Pay Goes Up in 2002 While the Stock Market Goes Down (06/25)
The Corporate Library's report shows how CEO pay increased in 2002 despite the fact that the stock market declined significantly, a trend that does not sit well with investors.

IRRC Platform Combines Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility Research (06/12)
The Investor Responsibility Research Center merges its corporate governance research tool with its social responsibility research tool in a web-based platform.

Increasing Shareowner Action Fuels Record Proxy Season (05/20)
Shareowners are increasingly recognizing and practicing their right to influence corporate practices and policies by filing and voting on shareowner resolutions.

Investors Press Companies on Stock Options Expensing (05/13)
A shareowner resolution on options expensing is garnering support, and a California pension fund has released a study on how to best expense stock options.

Shareowners Press Avon to Walk the Walk (05/08)
Shareowners vote overwhelmingly for board independence at Avon while questions about potential carcinogens in its products linger.

Pay Dirt or Payola? How Halliburton Strikes it Rich (04/11)
A number of practices have generated profits as well as controversy for Halliburton, the company where Vice President Dick Cheney served six years as CEO.

CalPERS Says Xerox's Corporate Governance Not Worthy of Copying (03/27)
Pension fund giant names six companies that need to improve their corporate governance.

Watching the Public Company Accounting Watchdog (03/21)
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Association is slowly getting to work and it will be scrutinized by the newly-formed Association for Integrity in Accounting.

CEOs Advocate Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability at Conference (03/19)
The Forum for Corporate Conscience calls on CEOs and corporations to promote triple bottom line performance.

ExxonMobil Receives 23 Shareowner Resolutions on Issues Ranging from Climate Change to Corporate Governance (02/26)
Concerted shareowner action this proxy season targets ExxonMobil over such issues as its refusal to address climate change and its coupling of CEO and Chairman of the Board.

SRI Issues Will Impact Companies' Financial Performance, UK Pension Fund Trustees Say (02/25)
A recent survey finds that pension fund trustees in the United Kingdom view socially responsible investing (SRI) issues as linked to companies' future financial performance.

Fannie Mae Receives High S&P Corporate Governance Rating (02/14)
Fannie Mae becomes the first U.S. company to release its corporate governance score (a 9 out of 10) from Standard & Poor's Governance Services.

World Economic Forum Surveys CEO Attitudes Toward Corporate Citizenship (02/06)
The World Economic Forum CEO survey finds much enthusiasm but less substance in the adaptation of corporate social responsibility into core business activities.

SEC Tells Mutual Funds To Disclose Their Proxy Votes (01/24)
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted in favor of rule changes that require mutual fund companies to disclose their proxy voting policies and their actual proxy votes.

ICCR Proxy Resolutions Book Gauges Shareowner Action Climate (01/22)
In its new publication, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility rounds up the social and environmental shareowner resolutions to be voted on in the 2003 proxy season.

Top Five Social Investing News Stories of 2002 (01/14)
The major social investing news stories of the year include significant corporate governance reforms and the success of community investment.

Social Investment Forum Outlines "Next Wave" of Corporate Governance Reforms (12/20)
Additional reforms besides those already on the table will be necessary to create meaningful corporate governance reforms, according to the U.S. Social Investment Forum.

Companies Face Corporate Governance Hurdles (11/21)
Most public companies will need to restructure their corporate governance policies and practices to comply with new listing standards at NYSE and NASDAQ.

Corporate Governance Now Rated by Mainstream Investment Research Firms (10/25)
Mainstream investment research firms are now evaluating corporate governance as a potential indicator of stock valuation.

IRRC to Release Corporate Governance Rating Tool (10/03)
The Investor Responsibility Research Center will launch a new scoring system for evaluating and benchmarking corporate governance performance.

The Strengths and Inadequacies of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (09/27)
Social and mainstream investors alike applaud the positive reforms instituted by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but also point to additional reforms needed to clean up the markets.

SEC Chair Proposes Eliminating Ordinary Business Exception in Proxy Rules (09/25)
SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt proposed abolishing a rule that allows companies to exclude shareowner resolutions from their proxy statements because the resolution concerns the companies' day-to-day business.

SRI Mutual Funds Continue and Enhance Corporate Governance Screening (08/29)
While the SRI industry has long screened for corporate governance criteria, the recent accounting scandals have prompted the development of more comprehensive corporate governance screens.

Conference to Consider the Business Case for SRI (07/29)
Institutional investors will discuss SRI at the Green Mountain SRI Summit, to be held in Stowe, Vermont in September.

Shareowner Support for Resolutions Increases Significantly This Proxy Season (06/27)
Support for proposals concerning corporate governance as well as social and environmental issues in the 2002 proxy season is reaching record levels.

New York Stock Exchange Calls for Tighter Corporate Governance Standards (06/12)
At the SEC's request, the New York Stock Exchange drafted recommendations to fortify corporate governance standards and restore investor confidence.

Study Correlates Shareowner Rights with Strong Stock Price Performance (12/07)
Through the 1990s, stock in firms that preserved shareowner rights outperformed companies that bolstered management's power, according to an academic paper.

Book Review: The New Global Investors (07/25)
Robert Monks calls on institutional investors to exercise their rights as shareowners and hold senior managers accountable for company performance and practices.

Labor Standards Resolutions Garner Support in 2001 Proxy Season (07/11)
Ten international labor and human rights proposals that came to vote this year received 10 percent or more support from shareowners.

Better Corporate Governance Pays Off for Large Companies in Emerging Markets (06/04)
Recent study across global emerging markets finds large companies with good corporate governance yield better bottom lines.

ExxonMobil Feeling Heat on Both Sides of the Atlantic (05/17)
Shareholder resolutions and boycotts put pressure on oil giant to change its stance on global warming and embrace clean energy.

Getting Boards to Address the Triple Bottom Line (05/15)
New report proposes a set of principles and actions to assist corporate boards in addressing the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental performance.

Fortune Names Worst Corporate Boards (05/03)
Excessive CEO and board member pay a recurring point in the annual roster of America's worst corporate boards.

High CEO Pay Does Not Translate to Good Stock Performance (04/09)
A new report indicates that top compensation packages may even foreshadow poor short-term stock performance.

Shopping for Responsibility (04/02)
Internet site is helping consumers base shopping decisions on values.

Worker Files Shareholder Resolution with United Technologies (03/29)
Shareholders will be asked to support the linking of executive pay with employee satisfaction.

Justification for High Executive Pay Loses Footing (02/13)
While fairness remains the major issue, two studies and a growing trend among executives also cast doubt on the effectiveness of huge compensation packages.

Shareholders Examine Executive Compensation (05/02)
A shareholder resolution at Honeywell suggests a link between CEO and worker pay to curb the widening income gap.

GE Shareholders Want Disclosure on Political Spending (04/26)
Both inside and outside the annual meeting of General Electric, shareholders and protestors lean hard on soft money and several other social issues.

United for a Fair Economy Reports on a Decade of Disparity (12/17)
A new report reveals the growing divide between the rich and poor in the 1990s.

Who's Paying the Price of CEO Compensation? (12/07)
With the last proposals for shareholder resolutions in the year 2000 trickling in, executive pay looms large on the proxy horizon again.

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