Boycott Fascism

Invest and Divest

This is not financial advice. This is a resource of tools you can use to navigate decision-making in line with your own values and as ethically as the system and/or your own risk tolerance allows. Investing in the stock market is in and of itself a risk with no guarantee of gains; invest at your own risk.

There is no perfect, fully ethical stock option; uncomfortable truths and decisions need to be weighed and made by each individual.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good!

Investing/divesting is also only one arm of a larger financial strategy. How and where you spend your day-to-day dollars, boycotting (especially collectively), and contributing directly to organizations doing work that you want to support are other important ways that you can use economics to have a social justice impact. Please consider all the ways that you can financially influence, accept that there’s some unavoidable discomfort, and choose a couple of things that resonate with you and take action on those. Something is better than nothing!

Tools and Resources

ESG funds are investment funds that prioritize environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in their investment strategies. These funds aim to invest in companies that demonstrate responsible practices in these areas. This is a good place to start, while still understanding that not every stock in the fund will make you feel good. 

Find funds that align with your values or get grades for funds that you invest in or are considering, through specific ethical lenses.

• As You Sow aims to align investments with values. Their programs address gender inequalities, workplace equity, environmental health, and more.

• Invest Your Values - has multiple sites to filter for fossil-free funds, weapons-free funds, prison-free funds, gun-free, deforestation-free, tobacco-free, social justice, and gender equality funds. 

• Best-performing and cheapest ESG exchange-traded funds (ETFs) (NerdWallet)

• To cross-reference the financial details without the ethical lens, type the ticker into Yahoo Finance.

You will find that many stocks that get a good grade under one lens get a poor grade under another. Additionally, a well-graded stock under any lens is likely to still include big companies that you’ll see on boycott lists or that you personally don’t shop at for ethical reasons (Tesla, Target, Amazon, Home Depot, etc.).

Many of the highest graded stocks are managed funds, which means that they are more expensive to own. The manager of an ESG fund may not be motivated by ethics; they are still looking to profit and are likely happy to line their pockets with the cost of your good intentions.

A 1% fee may sound like it’s not a significant amount, but over decades, that 1% can be thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars that the manager is cutting out of money that would otherwise go to you. Fees are compounding, just like interest.

Index Funds Minus Oil and Weapons

The majority of remaining holdings in these funds will likely not make you feel good - Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, Apple, and similar are still in here. You could consider these options to have filtered out ‘the worst of the worst,’ but they are not even close to fully ethical. This could be thought of as harm reduction. As a reminder, these funds are for your consideration and not recommendations.

• US Stock Market (ESGV, VFTAX)

• International Stock Market (VSGX or ESGD)

• US Bond Market (EAGG or VCEB)

International funds hold fewer of the worst actors, so you could consider a strategy to increase the percentage of international funds in your overall portfolio. It’s good to diversify beyond just the US market anyway, as it could provide some level of balance to safeguard against a potential high-impact AI tech bubble in the US market.

Incorporating small/mid-cap US funds can also eliminate exposure to the worst of the worst, expecting that small/mid-cap returns would likely be less than the large-cap funds in the long run.

Direct Indexing

Wealthfront has a new offering where you can invest in stocks of the S&P 500, but you can exclude the companies that you don’t want

• Not available for retirement accounts

• Not marketed as socially responsible, messaged for tax savings

• The company is reputable

• .09% management fee - This is low! Very possible that since this is a new offering, they’re offering low fees to start and may increase fees later

• Need to invest $5,000 minimum to open an account  

Extra-egregious companies you may want to avoid.

• GEO Group (GEO) & Core Civic (CXW) - the two main companies running ICE detention centers 

• Palantir (PLTR) - data and surveillance company used by ICE and US military operations

Request that your employer provide ESG options

Employer-provided retirement plans typically have less investing options than an IRA or brokerage account. If you don’t have any ESG options, you can send a letter to your plan administrator and your HR business partner to request that ESG options be provided. They can/will likely say no, but it is still meaningful to ask and show that customer demand for ESG options exists.

A sample letter is provided by Fossil Free Funds with additional suggested action steps.

Consider who you bank with!

Mighty Deposits analyzes public data to show what banks are investing in. Multiple search filters available. Generally speaking, the bigger the bank, the more evil its funds.

Collective Boycotting

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice, and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

Additional Info and Resources

DSEFX is a well-known, longstanding ESG fund.

ESGV

• Index ETF

• US stock market

• Vanguard, but can get through others

VFTAX

• Index mutual fund

• US stocks (large cap)

• Vanguard, likely a fee when going through Schwab

• No porn, alcohol, tobacco, weapons, fossil fuels, gambling, nuclear power

VSGX

• Index ETF

• International stocks (developed countries)

• Vanguard, but can get through others

EAGG

• Index ETF

• US Bond Market (mix)

• iShares (owned by BlackRock)

SPFFX 

• Sphere 500 Climate Fund

• Mutual Fund

• No oil, weapons, civilian firearms, deforestation, tobacco, or private prisons

GCEQX

• Green Century Equity Fund

• Strong environmental screens

• Actively managed (will cost you money to own it)