National Impact Investing Day · June 3
Your investments shape the future. Make sure it’s the future you want.
In honor of the inaugural National Impact Investing Day, observed each June 3, we invite every investor to pause and take a closer look at where their money goes and how their portfolio can reflect the future they want to help create. Whether you’ve been investing for decades or are just getting started, a few simple questions can reveal a great deal about what your money supports.
Celebrating 35 years of impact investing leadership and the questions that shaped it
On June 3, 1991, Domini Impact Investments launched the Domini Impact Equity Fund — one of the first sustainable mutual funds and an early pioneer in the use of environmental and social standards in investing. The firm was founded by impact investing trailblazer Amy Domini, who helped show that investing could reflect people’s values and drive positive change in the world. More than three decades later, what began as a niche idea has grown into a global movement, and the questions investors ask have grown right along with it.
On June 17, join our Founder & Chair Amy Domini and our CEO Carole Laible for a virtual conversation looking back on the past three decades of impact investing, and what lies ahead for investors seeking to align their portfolios with people, planet, and profit.
INTRODUCTION
Recent research from Domini found that nearly eight in ten investors want their money to support a more sustainable world over the next two years, yet many are unsure where to begin or what their current investments support. This guide offers a starting point: five simple questions every investor can ask to look more closely at their portfolio, review the choices behind it, and consider whether those decisions reflect the future they want to help create.
01 — What do I actually own?
Most investors can name the funds they own, but far fewer can describe what those funds actually hold. A single mutual fund or ETF may include hundreds — sometimes thousands — of individual companies spread across industries, geographies, and business models. Looking under the hood is one of the simplest and most powerful steps an investor can take. A short review of publicly available fund documents can reveal which sectors a portfolio leans into, which it avoids, and how diversified the underlying holdings really are.
WHERE INVESTORS OFTEN LOOK
Fund Holdings
Most fund websites publish a current list of top holdings or full portfolio holdings, often updated quarterly. These lists can show which specific companies and sectors a fund invests in — and which it doesn’t.
Prospectus
Typically listed under “Documents,” “Fund Literature,” or “Resources.” A prospectus explains a fund’s investment objectives, strategies, principal risks, and fees in plain language, and is required reading before investing.
Shareholder Reports
Annual and semi-annual shareholder reports offer a longer-term view: portfolio updates, performance commentary, and notes from the portfolio managers about what changed during the period and why.
02 — How are investment decisions made?
Two funds can hold many of the same companies but arrive there by very different paths. Investment managers use different frameworks to evaluate businesses, weigh risks, and decide what to buy, hold, or sell. Some focus narrowly on near-term financial metrics; others consider long-term sustainability-related risks and opportunities — climate change, workforce practices, governance quality — alongside traditional financial analysis. Understanding a manager’s approach is one of the clearest ways to understand the values built into your investments.
QUESTIONS INVESTORS MAY CONSIDER
What guides the choices a fund manager makes?
How does a fund evaluate long-term risks and opportunities?
Does the strategy discuss environmental or social considerations?
03 — What standards guide investment strategies?
Behind every investment strategy is a set of standards — written or unwritten — that guide what a portfolio includes and what it leaves out. Some funds publish detailed criteria for evaluating companies, industries, and business practices; others say comparatively little about how they make these calls. Reviewing the standards a fund manager uses can help investors understand not just what a portfolio owns today, but the logic that will shape its choices tomorrow.
TERMS INVESTORS MAY ENCOUNTER
Impact Investing
Investment approaches that intentionally seek positive environmental or social outcomes alongside financial returns, often by investing in companies whose products or practices help address specific challenges.
Investment Standards
Published guidelines that describe how a manager evaluates companies — from environmental performance and labor practices to product safety, governance, and community impact.
Screening
A process for including or excluding specific companies, industries, or business practices — for example, avoiding tobacco or fossil fuels, or favoring companies with strong climate commitments.
04 — What role can shareholder engagement play?
Owning a share of a company also means owning a small voice in how it’s run. Investment firms exercise that voice on their shareholders’ behalf — voting proxies, filing shareholder resolutions, meeting with management, and weighing in on industry-wide issues. Strong stewardship can encourage better disclosure, better practices, and better long-term decisions. It’s worth knowing how the firms behind your funds approach this work, and what they prioritize when they show up at the table.
TERMS INVESTORS MAY ENCOUNTER
Proxy Voting
Shareholders can vote on board members, executive pay, and shareholder proposals on topics ranging from climate disclosure to workforce reporting. How a fund votes is publicly available.
Shareholder Engagement
Direct conversations — sometimes spanning years — between investors and the companies they own, focused on issues like climate risk, human rights, labor practices, and corporate governance.
Stewardship
The broader work of overseeing investments responsibly over time — including systems-level stewardship that addresses risks affecting whole markets, not just individual companies.
05 — What is impact investing?
As investors learn more about strategies and stewardship, they often encounter terms like “sustainable investing,” “responsible investing,” and “impact investing.” These labels overlap and are defined differently by different firms, which can be confusing. What they generally share is a willingness to consider long-term sustainability factors, shareholder engagement, and broader social and environmental themes alongside traditional financial analysis — on the view that those factors can affect long-term performance and the kind of world an investor is helping to build.
QUESTIONS INVESTORS MAY CONSIDER
- How do investment managers discuss sustainability-related risks and opportunities?
- What role can stewardship and shareholder engagement play in investment strategies?
- How do different firms define sustainable or impact investing?
WHERE INVESTORS OFTEN LOOK
Impact Reports
Many firms publish annual impact, stewardship, or sustainability reports describing their engagement priorities, investment standards, proxy voting record, and the long-term themes they focus on. These reports can be a useful way to compare how different managers translate their stated values into action.
Take the next step.
Ready to put any of these questions into practice?