Benedictine sisters, Rose Marie Stallbaumer, left, and Barbara McCracken, right, look through corporate resolution archives and newspaper clippings at the Mount St. Scholastica monastery in Atchison, Kan., Tuesday, July 16, 2024. For the past two decades the community has participated in activist investing, a process in which they partner with other religious organizations to buy the stocks of companies they hope to positively influence.
This past spring and summer, when many companies gathered for annual meetings with their shareholders, the nuns proposed a string of resolutions based on stock they own, some in amounts as little as $2,000. Faith-based shareholder activism is often traced to the early 1970s, when religious groups put forth resolutions for American companies to withdraw from South Africa over apartheid.
The resolutions rarely pass, and even if they do, they’re usually non-binding. But they’re still an educational tool and a means to raise awareness inside a corporation. The Benedictine sisters have watched over the years as support for some of their resolutions has gone from low single digits to 30% or even a majority.It’s a form of protest, which comes naturally to McCracken, the longtime peace activist who submits the Kansas nuns’ resolutions.