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.
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. Reach out to RJI’s Program Coordinator (coordinator@rjicoalition.org) to discuss further.
Active Working Groups
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, through peer to peer education.
Investor Solidarity with Palestine: This working group seeks to build investor support of human rights and justice movements in the U.S. and globally, while focusing on the current genocide in Palestine.