Indigenous Peoples Working Group

The Indigenous Peoples Working Group (IPWG) seeks to promote Indigenous leadership through programs and initiatives which link the socially responsible investment (SRI) industry and Native communities.

Creating a Sustainable World:
A Guide to Responsible Stewardship of Tribal Assets

A growing number of investors have sought and found ways to invest their money in step with their values, including several American Indian tribes and organizations.  Today, around one in every nine dollars in the United States is invested in some type of socially responsible investment or “SRI” product.  With choices in the SRI market growing in leaps and bounds, it is easier now more than ever for investors to find an SRI product that suits their tolerance for risk, desires for competitive returns and values.

Like the rest of America, while several American Indian tribes and organizations actively invest in SRI products and network with other socially responsible investors, many have never heard of SRI or are not aware that SRI investment options are available to them.  This guide seeks to overcome these barriers by providing an overview to approaches to socially responsible investing and examples of how American Indian organizations have leveraged these strategies to the benefit of their communities or, as the SRI world says, to do well by doing good. 

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Additional Resources

Shareholder advocacy gives stockholders the opportunity to elect directors to the board, much in the same way a tribe’s voting members elect a tribal council.  It also allows shareowners to exercise their rights in approving executive pay plans and voicing their opinions on other corporate governance matters, as well as a growing list of environmental and social issues. 

• The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has been a leader in the corporate social responsibility movement for more than 35 years.  The center and its members press companies to be socially and environmentally responsible. Each year its members sponsor more than 300 shareholder resolutions on major social and environmental issues. ww.iccr.org

• Many organizations have guidelines for how to vote their shares.  An example of a voting guideline set that includes principles related to indigenous peoples’ rights is from Calvert Investments. See section III of the document:  http://www.calvert.com/Documents/proxy_voting_guidelines_new.p

Portfolio screening is the process of portfolio formation and evaluation, by which firms are eliminated or chosen by the nature of their business activities.

• First Peoples Worldwide has a set of principles for ethical business relations with Indigenous Peoples.  www.firstpeoplesworldwide.org

• Calvert Investments’ Indigenous Peoples Rights screen is an example of language that can be used in an investment policy statement.
  http://www.calvert.com/sri-signature-criteria.html
  

Community investing provides economic development to local communities that are often underserved by traditional lenders. 

• Our Native Circle is an online community where Native and non-Native community economic development practitioners come together in force to share, inform, learn, and connect.  Site members include Native community development financial institutions (CDFIs), tribes, Native organizations, individuals, foundations, social entrepreneurs, investors, consultants, trainers and a host of others working in and supporting Native community development. Our Native Circle is an initiative of First Nations Oweesta Corporation. www.ournativecircle.org

• CDFI Fund - Native American Initiatives Program is a branch of the U.S. Treasury designed to overcome identified barriers to financial services in Native Communities. These initiatives seek to increase the access to credit, capital and financial services in Native Communities through the creation and expansion of CDFIs primarily serving Native Communities.
  www.cdfifund.gov

Fiduciary standards are critical to establishing a structured process for the management of assets.

• For three decades, First Nations Development Institute has been working to restore Native American control and culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own. First Nations serves rural and reservation based Native American communities throughout the United States.
  www.firstnations.org