Working Groups

From RJI’s Theory of Change: Racial Justice Investing is a non-proprietary coalition led by investment and non-investment professionals seeking to account for, mitigate, and redress the harm done to communities of color, particularly Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, when investing in capital markets. RJI offers an introspective space to reckon with individual and institutional responsibility, pooling knowledge and building relationally with impacted communities to support orienting the frameworks and practices we operate within towards racial equity and racial justice. Such changes would help shift the policies, practices and products of companies, and would inform the public policy landscape, yielding needed systemic and sustainable changes in the investing industry.

RJI working groups offer participants a way to connect, collaborate, and lead actions that move the investing industry closer towards racial equity and racial justice, to advance the Theory of Change.

All coalition participants and members of their organizations or networks can join an RJI working group. All working groups have two co-leads, one of whom must be a part of RJI.

We currently have two active working groups: 

  1. Proxy Voting

  2. Investor Solidarity with Palestine

RJI’s approach to working groups

RJI views participant-led working groups as a fundamental way to advance the coalition’s Theory of Change and put it into practice. We believe RJI should support individual and collective learning to inform and build a racial justice analysis in investor work, recognizing this will be an ongoing continuous process. 


In short, how we work is as important as what we work on. To bring this to life, specifically, we also want to develop and model standards and demonstrate rigor around process to foster trust and accountability with each other and stakeholders who have experienced harm. One way we are practicing this is through requesting all potential working groups to complete the Working Groups Proposal Worksheet, which was developed in 2022 by RJI’s Strategy + Implementation team. We see this tool as providing helpful grounding to stoke thoughtful racial analysis around areas such as stakeholder analysis and engagement, power mapping, and understanding the  broader landscape that is the subject of the working group’s focus.

RJI is currently accepting working group proposals. 


To submit a working group proposal: 

  1. Identify two co-leads of the working group (at least one of the leads must be a member of RJI). If you are an individual seeking a co-lead, you can reach out to the Program Coordinator to help identify another lead or you can send a note to the RJI liststerv explaining your working group idea. 

  2. Bring together an initial group of interested participants – if desired, you may use the RJI listserv to recruit 

    1. Note: All participation in working groups is unpaid (voluntary)

  3. Make a copy of RJI’s Working Groups Proposal Worksheet, complete it and send it to coordinator@rjicoalition.org

  4. The worksheet will be reviewed by the Leadership Team to check for alignment with RJI’s Theory of Change. The Program Coordinator will reach out to discuss next steps once it has been reviewed

Active Working Groups

How to start a working group

Want to get connected with an active working group? Reach out RJI’s Program Coordinator (coordinator@rjicoalition.org). 

Proxy Voting 

This working group seeks to broaden the conversation in the investor community with regards to how proxy voting can be leveraged to advance racial equity and racial justice efforts in the US.

Desired outcomes of this working group include: 

  1. Draft an educational resource that offers investors options on how proxy voting can be in further alignment with racial equity efforts

  2. Offer opportunities for investor peer education where investors can connect with each other and learn more about proxy voting for racial equity together

Investor Solidarity with Palestine

Past Working Groups

Reparations 

This working group, in partnership with the Reparations Finance Lab, explored and learnt about the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow, legal segregation, denying of wealth building opportunities for Black people, and the role of the private sector in these undesirable outcomes.

Desired outcomes of this working group included: 

  1. Building a shared understanding of reparations through education and dialectical work – align on a concrete set of learnings, even if participants draw different conclusions

  2. Exploring the feasibility and appetite for reparations in the investing space via this working group as an initial test case