The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is an association advocating for

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...

. Its 300 member organizations comprise faith communities, asset managers, unions, pensions, NGOs and other investors. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. ICCR's members file

shareholder resolutions With respect to public companies in the United States, a shareholder resolution is a proposal submitted by shareholders for a vote at the company's annual meeting. Typically, resolutions are opposed by the corporation's management, hence the insis ...

on issues such as

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

corporate governance Corporate governance is defined, described or delineated in diverse ways, depending on the writer's purpose. Writers focused on a disciplinary interest or context (such as accounting, finance, law, or management) often adopt narrow definitions th ...

, financial practices, and other social and environmental concerns. The organization was founded in 1971.

Members

ICCR members include faith communities, asset management companies, labor unions, pension funds, NGOs, and college and university endowment funds.

Corporate targets

In any given year, members of ICCR file roughly 300 shareholder resolutions at hundreds of American corporations across multiple industries. ICCR also owns the EthVest database of shareholder resolutions. In the 1980s, ICCR was active in the campaign for

disinvestment from South Africa Disinvestment (or divestment) from South Africa was first advocated in the 1960s, in protest against South Africa's system of apartheid, but was not implemented on a significant scale until the mid-1980s. The disinvestment campaign, after bein ...

in protest of

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

Issues of concern

Shareholder resolutions span a wide range of issues. In recent years, the most active issues have included

;

including topics such as human trafficking, food safety and sustainability, water sustainability, and the affordability of medicines; corporate

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agency, regulatory agencie ...

and corporate political contributions;

; financial practices and risk; and gun control. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility co-ordinated organizations using

shareholder activism A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal owner ...

to influence firearms manufacturers to improve the safety of their products. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility supported shareholder resolutions asking

American Outdoor Brands Corporation American Outdoor Brands, Inc., formerly known as Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation until 2016, is an American manufacturer of outdoor sports and recreation products, with a current 18 brands of outdoor equipment. Until 2020, it owned Smith & Wess ...

, the parent company of

Smith & Wesson Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (S&W) is an American firearm manufacturer headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Smith & Wesson was founded by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson as the "Smith & Wesson Revolver Company" in 1856 ...

, and Sturm, Ruger & Co. to report to investors regarding the steps they are taking to reduce

gun violence Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, a ...

. Ruger opposed the resolution.

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a Enterprise risk management, risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackR ...

, the world's largest asset manager and Ruger's largest investor, and

Institutional Shareholder Services Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) is a proxy advisory firm. Hedge funds, mutual funds and similar organizations that own shares of multiple companies pay ISS to advise (and often vote their shares) regarding share holder votes. It i ...

and

Glass Lewis Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis) is a major American proxy advisory services company. As of spring 2019, Glass Lewis controlled 28% of the proxy advisory market for mutual funds; this makes it the second-largest company in the market behind Inst ...

, the two most important shareholder advisory firms in the United States, supported the resolution. At Ruger's annual meeting on May 9, 2018, a majority of shareholders voted in favor and Ruger said they would heed the resolution. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence called the vote a "first-of-its-kind victory."

References

External links

*
The New York Times, July 21, 2002 - Private Sector; Missionary Among the Executives
*[http://www.institutionalshareowner.com/news/article.cgi?sfArticleId=1654 Institutional Shareowner, March 04, 2005 - Campaign to Enhance Pharma Industry Accountability Broadens Shareowner Action, by William Baue] Corporate social responsibility Religious organizations based in the United States {{US-org-stub