Earlier this month, the San Francisco Professional Net Impact Chapter hosted, Impact Finance for Millennials. It took place at New Resource Bank and featured three distinguished speakers: Vincent Siciliano, President and CEO of New Resource Bank, Thomas Van Dyck, Managing Director- Financial Advisor, RBC Wealth Management, and Danielle Fugere, President and Chief Counsel, As You Sow.  

Meaningful takeaways

An important theme in all three of the speakers’ presentations was the power of the individual to drive change and influence trends in the market. Mrs. Fugere specifically talked about all the actions individuals can take to influence the companies they own stock in including speaking to your fund manager,  proxy voting and even attending public shareholder meetings. 

Don’t think of yourself as an investor per se? Both Van Dyck and Fugere pointed out that anyone with a 401k is an investor. They recommended using the site fossilfreefunds.org to evaluate the sustainability of your 401k. This site enables you to easily research whether or not your investments are being used to extract and consume fossil fuels. Once armed with the facts, you can petition your 401k plan manager to change their plan or offer more sustainable options. According to Fugere, when this site started there were only 14 completely fossil free funds to invest in but number has since doubled to 28. Supply follows demand so be proactive and demand sustainability in your 401k.

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