What is corporate engagement?

As Christians, we are responsible for making our voices heard and encouraging companies to adopt more Christ-honoring business practices that can benefit their employees, consumers and the communities in which they operate. Corporate engagement describes the efforts of investors to influence corporate behavior for positive change.

Our Strategy

At GuideStone^®, we’ve developed a corporate engagement strategy consisting of two key components: shareholder advocacy and proxy voting.

Through our shareholder advocacy efforts, we join with other values-driven groups to dialogue with corporate leadership via letter-writing campaigns, shareholder resolutions and other methods to urge them to make positive changes in their products, services, standards and practices.

Shareholders have the right to be decision-makers in matters of corporate policy. Corporations typically conduct shareholder meetings once a year. These meetings usually involve voting on issues related to the company’s operations, governance and strategic decisions. Proxy voting enables shareholders to express their opinions and vote when they cannot attend corporate meetings in person. We have collaborated with a leading proxy advisory firm to develop proxy voting guidelines and procedures to pursue even more active engagement with companies.

Engagement in Action

Below are some corporate engagement activities we’ve undertaken to advocate for Christian values.

• We joined investor efforts to have Meta (Facebook) implement solutions to report and remove the presence of child exploitation and human trafficking content on the Facebook platform. Facebook has now included an in-app platform reporting tool for questionable content. It has also established a policy to shut down and remove content and users and report items to appropriate law enforcement.
• We engaged with other investors to speak out against anticompetitive policies around patents and pricing conducted by several major pharmaceutical companies. These policies hindered innovation and affordable access to necessary medicines and inflated generic drug prices.
• We also worked alongside religious investors and the Alliance Defending Freedom to protect Christian organizations from debanking (restricting access to services due to perceived risk to the bank) by J.P. Morgan^®, Truist^®, Charles Schwab^® and M&T Bank^®. These efforts involved letter writing and supporting proxy ballot initiatives to deliver transparency and risk reporting around debanking criteria.

These are just some of the actions we've taken on behalf of our investors to make the Christian voice heard in the financial marketplace.

Through faith-based investing in GuideStone Funds^®, our members trust us to deliver financial returns while honoring the Lord. At the same time, our focused corporate engagement strategy strengthens our ability to deliver on that dual mandate and is vital to our faith-based investing strategies.

From employer-sponsored retirement plans to investment accounts or IRAs, we have many investment options to help you connect and align your faith with your finances.

Ready to get started?

Open an Account Today

Are you interested in learning more about advisory services through GuideStone Advisors to see how we can help you through tailored investment strategies and ongoing investment management?

Explore Advisory Services