DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE VOTING FOR?
When most people think about owning stocks, they usually think of the financial potential that comes with ownership, the hope of finding investments that will appreciate and help meet the long-term goals of their family or organization. However, there is an often-forgotten aspect of equity investing that stems from the fact that owning shares means you are a partial owner of the company. With that ownership comes certain
rights and privileges, including the ability to participate in proxy voting.

WHAT IS PROXY VOTING?
Shareholders have a say in the decisions of the companies they own through shareholder votes to elect board members and approve various company policies. Ballots are sent to shareholders, allowing them to cast their votes on these items and make their opinions known. Shareholders
hold immense influence over a company’s direction, and that power comes with great responsibility.

THE REALITY OF PROXY VOTING
The unfortunate reality of proxy voting is that this right is often not exercised, or even worse, is handed off to someone else. Proxy voting can be time-consuming for people who own a diverse group of equities, as it can be burdensome to familiarize oneself with every nuance of every item on each company’s ballot. Many times, these proxy ballots end up in the trash rather than being completed and submitted. Mutual funds are a great way for an investor to achieve portfolio diversification, but they come with a drawback. If you own mutual funds instead of individual company shares, your shareholder votes are cast by the investment company that manages the fund. These companies are instructed to vote in ways beneficial to shareholders, but I would wager that in many instances, those votes are cast in ways that we, as Christians, would not be proud of.

BIBLICALLY RESPONSIBLE EQUITY INVESTING
For several years now, the Foundation has been intentional about screening out producers of products that conflict with our values. In addition to biblically screening the investments in the Global Equities portfolio, we are also intentional about ensuring that each vote for the 500 different companies we own shares in is cast from a biblical perspective. Alongside voting proxies, this year we engaged with one of the companies we own regarding its employer matching gift program. This company had an internal policy that excluded many churches from its program, classifying them as institutions promoting anger, hate, and violence. In response, we became the shareholder sponsor of a resolution challenging this policy. Our goal is to represent our investors’ beliefs and to make it known when companies engage in behaviors we cannot support.

DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
When considering the size of the U.S. equities market and the massive companies that comprise it, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. At the Foundation, we represent $100 million of equity investments in our Global Equities Fund—an extremely small proportion of total corporate
ownership. However, there is a growing groundswell of support among like-minded institutions and individuals who seek to reclaim the power we have as Christian investors to influence corporations to make decisions that please God

Bradley Frailey, CPA, CAIA, CIMA® is BFCal’s Chief Investment Officer and Controller. If you would like to contact him about a church investment fund, you can reach him at