Shareholding

Anthony,

We've been so successful using shareholder action to get companies to change their bad behaviour...that they're trying to shut the whole program down!

After a SumOfUs shareholder resolution forced Apple to publish its first-ever human rights policy, the US stock regulator made a new rule -- anyone who wants to bring this kind of resolution will need to hold thousands of shares...and companies are setting VERY early deadlines to buy them!

They're trying to silence everyone but the richest shareholders. But Anthony, we can beat them at their own game.

We already bought shares in Apple, Google, Facebook, and Bayer Monsanto. Now if 5000 people reading this email chip in the cost of a coffee, SumOfUs can buy enough shares in Nestlé to have our say at its AGM, ratcheting up the pressure over their stealing water from communities worldwide…and helping choke the ocean with disposable plastic.

For the next 24 hours, we will use everything you give to generate matching donations from big funders, doubling your impact -- can you join in to buy a piece of Nestlé?

CHIP IN £1

Chip in another amount

Shareholder advocacy used to be straightforward -- a SumOfUs member with stocks would just sign a letter, get a letter from their broker, and our community could file a co-resolution to be debated at Annual General Meetings.

And we had incredible success, not only with Apple's human rights policy. A strong shareholder proposal pushed TD Bank, one of the world's biggest funders of fossil fuels, to commit to net-zero by 2050. Pepsi committed to sustainably-sourced palm oil. And more!

But now the US stock authority is rigging the rules to favour big-dollar shareholders, adding time-consuming and arduous rules: increasing the minimum number of shares, increasing how long you have to hold the shares, and requiring that co-filers like SumOfUs provide a list of times they can meet with the corporation to discuss their resolution.

It's a lot to ask. But the good news is it means our strategy is working. And there's a simple solution: bring our community together to buy stocks in some of the biggest corporations to keep achieving real-world change. We started with Apple, and bought Google and Facebook stock too. Now it's time for Nestlé to see what we can do. Can you help finally hold this corporate giant to account for its planet destroying practices? (Remember, your donation will be used to get matching donations!)

CHIP IN £1

Sum of Us

Dear Sum of Us

Who gets the dividends from all these shares or the capital gains when the shares increase in value? I can't think why no one thought of bringing down economic neoliberalism by buying shares before. It would sure have stopped Mrs Thatcher in her tracks. 

Yours sincerely 

Anthony Miller