Materials for Activity

• Newsprint, markers, and tape
• Detail of current investments held by your congregation or organization

Preparation for Activity

• Talk with appropriate staff and lay leaders in your congregation or organization to share plans for this activity and to identify those who make congregational decisions regarding investment.

Description of Activity

Interview investment decision makers in your congregation or organization to gain an understanding of key factors in making investment decisions. Then examine an itemized overview of your current investment portfolio.

Convene an interested study group from your congregation to research the fundamentals, strategies, and activities of the companies in the portfolio. Include current investment decision makers as well as interested workshop participants and others suggested by your congregation’s leaders. Have the group discuss these questions about the congregation's investments:

• Which of the companies in which we invest actively pursue positive outcomes in the world that are consistent with our Unitarian Universalist principles and values?
• Which of the companies actively pursue outcomes in the world that appear to be strongly inconsistent with our Unitarian Universalist principles and values?
• What more would we need to learn in order to make investment or divestment decisions about the companies?
• What kinds of investments are missing from the portfolio that would direct capital to underserved segments of the marketplace?
• How could the congregation use its holdings as an opportunity to voice a position or a new direction?