The rise in investors looking to invest in ESG reached new heights in 2021. Yet, despite a desire to invest their money for good, ordinary retail investors are not fully leveraging the power they have as shareholders to vote to bring positive change to corporate action. This partnership seeks to help close that gap by allowing retail investors to advocate that companies reduce their impact on people and planet, while reducing material risk for investors.

Current engagements, which include calling for Google to report on policies and practices to reduce climate-related risk and Meta (Facebook) to improve its governance of harmful content, are designed to move corporations to reduce risk in their policies and practices from the inside out.

Until now, investing for shareholder advocacy has largely been in the domain of large institutions. In 2020, individual investors' votes represented only 28% of total shares voted during the proxy season. The same report shows that institutional investors' votes are increasing year over year, whilst retail investors’ votes have held steady. Tulipshare’s platform - which brings together individual investors to unify their voice - is designed to increase voting overall and will allow retail investors to add their voice to As You Sow’s engagements

In the 2022 proxy season, As You Sow submitted 90 resolutions to advocate for meaningful change at companies including Phillips66, Chubb Insurance, and Amazon on environmental and social issues. Of those, 60% of the resolutions reached agreements prior to the AGM, and were withdrawn when the company agreed to terms. The others went on to earn six majority votes including a 92% vote at Boeing and a 43% average vote overall. As of this week, As You Sow resolutions have garnered shareholder votes worth more than $1 trillion in market value. Tulipshare also has six active campaigns of their own live on their site.

Antoine Argouges, CEO and Founder of Tulipshare commented: “As You Sow has been one of the most proficient shareholder activists over the years, yet their work is not as widely known to retail investors as it should be. We understand the amount of work that goes into developing and filing strong shareholder proposals and are looking forward to scaling our operations with As You Sow to activate the retail sector. Ordinary investors will finally have access to a platform that enables them to demand companies take responsibility for their impact on the people and planet.”

Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow commented: “Partnering with Tulipshare enables us to reach beyond just institutions and engage on a grassroots level at a global scale. The power of individual shareholders to move their companies to create long-term value and reduce negative impact is enormous. I’m excited to work with the team at Tulipshare to bring this new voice to the table.”