HCS Mid-Year Report 2020 : simplebooklet.com

P a g e | 1 Heartland’s Mid-Year Report – July 2020 Heartland Capital Strategies 2020 Mid-Year Report Working families face a unique set of multi-faceted crises today. It has been an exhausting, anxious, and, for some, heartbreaking few months. Shockingly, close to fifty million workers have applied for unemployment benefits and the UI rate shot to the mid-teens—the worst since the Great Depression. The racial justice protests in hundreds of cities around the world exposed the deep faults of systemic discrimination and income inequality. That’s in addition to chronic economic and environmental problems that never went away. As if that wasn’t enough, the DOL has proposed backwards rules rolling back responsible and economically-targeted investment (we’re planning a coordinated a response from Heartland affiliates). The last time this country faced such an existential crisis was the Great Depression and WWII. After winning the war, American workers won a new social contract between labor, management, and the government that, for the first time, provided a voice to working people and protected the frail. They shaped new development and finance institutions that intervened in the crisis. We’ve done it before; we can do it again. Launched a quarter-century ago, the Heartland Network is committed to the idea that workers’ capital must be invested in an America that values and supports its workers and that is sustainable over the long term. We work to make companies better employers and the economy more resilient, sustainable and responsive to the needs of ordinary people. We’re on a long-term quest to mainstream and scale up responsible institutional investments that achieve positive economic impacts. Over that time, Heartland has convened a unique “table” that includes pension leaders, investment consultants, asset managers, capital stewards, labor leaders, academic and policy advocates. We’ve built a knowledge base of responsible investment practices. Heartland has promoted this Community of Practice through initiatives such as the Responsible Investor Handbook (2016, Routledge), the Heartland-Georgetown Fellowship, and most recently the Col(labor)atory on Private Asset Monitoring. Heartland’s affiliated investors have invested profitably in a united front to rebuild our cities, renew our industrial commons, grow the clean economy and make the “boss” more accountable. They are providing high-roads jobs and other opportunities for union workers, low-wage workers, and people of color, while revitalizing communities and a cleaner environment for us all. These innovative approaches have been deployed in a large-scale manner in a number of cities like New York, Vancouver, London, and Pittsburgh, where they have re-shaped entire cityscapes. As more people conclude that we need a broad rethinking of our economy, there will be a search for ideas and practices with which to build the new economy. Heartland has been developing and sharing such ideas and practices for over two decades. With this depth of experience, Heartland can have an important role in the coming conversation about the critical role of responsible investment and the future of our national economy.

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P a g e | 2 Heartland’s Mid-Year Report – July 2020 Summary of Current Work Streams Through our books, publications, field work, blogs and social media, webinars, research, and educational programs, the Network connects the labor, finance, and pension “aviators” who have led the growth of responsible capital strategies. We’ve elevated that work in 2020:  Heartland-Georgetown Fellowship: In 2019, we graduated our third class of eleven Labor-Capital Summer Fellows, totaling twenty-five (25) students to date. The Summer 2019 Class was our most successful, attracting a stunning class from campuses all across the country. The students were placed at ten remarkable investment houses and unions. Though we sadly had to cancel in main the Fellowship this summer, we will work with GU KI and Business School to ramp up 2021 to keep “paying it forward.”  Heartland Col(labor)atory: Heartland has convened a distinguished group of consultants, asset managers, labor and policy leaders to oversee a new research working group on private asset monitoring. We want to rationalize guidelines to navigate the multitude of RI frameworks in the marketplace, and push on a labor standard that strengthens the “S” in ESG.  New Heartland Literature: Temple Press will publish, in 2021, a new book on corporate governance this that includes, from HCS authors, Investing in the Commonwealth Company, a chapter on U.S. co-determination and the stakeholder economy, a topic that has exploded. We will also, shortly, release our sixth mini-book on responsible investment—focused on implementing and measuring ESG--and will package the series for national distribution.  Our Pilot Sustainable Investment Hub, building on our 2019 Pittsburgh Capital Roundtable, has attracted a $40,000 grant from Heinz to mobilize responsible impact investments for the real economy in Industrial Appalachia. We will assemble sustainable investment policies, models, and practices for pension funds in this region, long impacted by deindustrialization, resource depletion, and poverty, both rural and urban.  Heartland Expresso, which has broadcast in one form or another since 1998, has distributed dozens of timely articles on the dual crises hitting America, mostly focused on responsible capital strategies.  National Responsible Investment Policies: Heartland was asked by Network members to coordinate a response to the June 30,2020 proposal by the US DOL that would roll back responsible investing, as it would make ESG and ETI investing more difficult. In response to Congressman Andy Levin, we also convened policy advocates to a national responsible investment bill.

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P a g e | 3 Heartland’s Mid-Year Report – July 2020 Budget Due to your generosity and commitment, the Heartland Network is working to build a self-sustaining financial base. We’re on par to raise $200,000 in operating, fellowship, and special initiative program revenues for 2020, and we’re also proud to have provided $125,000 in summer stipends to the Heartland Fellows for its first three years. The Network raised $1 million in operating resources our first 15 years, starting in 1995, from Ford, Rockefeller, Mott, McKay, public, and foundation sources. We raised a second million in the past 10 years, including grants from the Heinz Endowments (or $2 m. to date). The Network is on track to raise a third million over the next five years. We are well positioned to do so, with growing financial partnerships with investment, union, foundation, public funders, and other partners. Providing a baseline of administrative, communications, and office support for the initiative is the Steel Valley Authority (SVA), a nationally-known not-for-profit community authority, which has secured a $4.5 million commitment for 2020-2023 from the Commonwealth of PA’s Department of Labor and Industry (DLI), part of a 30+-year partnership that commissions our five industrial turnaround/layoff aversion offices. SVA provides statewide layoff aversion and turnaround services for in-state manufacturing firms, a role that led to the formation of the Heartland Network. The SVA has been audited annually since its inception in 1986, and audits are available upon request.

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P a g e | 4 Heartland’s Mid-Year Report – July 2020 Amplifying Heartland’s Communications: A Strategy for the New Reality How to Move the Heartland “Message” of Responsible, Productive Investment We hope this message finds you and your family well and coping with the new world we find ourselves in. A few weeks ago, we were all worried about the COVID-19 crisis, and the impact on working people, the poor, and at-risk populations. Since then, our cities have erupted in protest over the long-standing treatment of Black Americans. The streets have filled with people of all races demanding that this country face up to its systemic racism. This uprising is different than those that followed previous tragedies. On many fronts, change is in the air. At the same time, the COVID-19 crisis continues to devastate communities with well over 100,000 deaths and over forty-five million workers have lost their jobs. The UI rate has shot to the mid-teens—the worst since the Great Depression. These crises may be accelerating trends that have been underway for years, including growing impatience with the Reagan-era ideology of unfettered markets and small government, and fatigue with the politics of division at a time when unity and collective action are desperately needed. Long-standing institutions and systems of belief that led us to our present situation are now being questioned. One thing seems certain: there will be an urgent and increasingly impassioned conversation in the United States about how to rebuild the economy and the society after the ravages of this unchartered dual plague of hate and health. Through our four books, publications, blogs and social media, Heartland’s thought leaders have worked to broaden and mainstream responsible investment (RI) predating the UN PRI by a decade. Our Thursday Expresso blog has been broadcasting since 1998, and www.heartlandnetwork.org ramped up shortly thereafter. In 2018, we kicked off an RI Webinar series, using five mini-books that simplify ESG know-how. We believe that Heartland can play a leading role in the conversation that has already begun and will only grow more urgent in coming months about the future of our economy, post-COVID. We are asking for the help and leadership of Heartland and Fellowship Board members and friends to help Heartland play a leading role in how we achieve a sustainable recovery. Heartland’s Partners are responsible investment pioneers; help us broadcast your timely work during this stressful time to let the world know that you are leading, not shrinking from the task at hand. Accordingly, we are asking the help of every board member and partner in three areas: 1. Building our contact list. How can you help? a) Send a link to Expresso to everyone on your contact list – including board and staff – with a message that tells them why you think they would be interested. Encourage them to subscribe. b) Forward specific articles from Expresso and our SM links—LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter*--to people who you think would be interested. Suggest that they subscribe. Do this personally and through your organization’s communication channels. (*see social media box below). c) Share your contact list with HCS. We will reach out to the people on your list introducing HCS and offering a subscription to Expresso. 2. Contributing to our content. How can you help? a) Contribute articles to Expresso. We can also feature them on our website. b) Let us profile your organization, its investments, and its mission. If possible, provide testimonials from policy leaders about your organization.

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P a g e | 5 Heartland’s Mid-Year Report – July 2020 3. Strengthening our communications operation. How can you help? a) Ask your organization’s media team or media advisors to meet with the HCS Mkt/Com committee to discuss our communications strategy. We are ready for new ideas. b) Tell us about conferences, education events, webinars, etc., where HCS could participate or provide content educating capital stewards and the public about responsible investment and HCS. If you sponsor a conference, invite HCS to present. c) Tell us about “influencers” in your world who might be interested in being profiled in Expresso, participating in a webinar, or simply learning about HCS and its mission. d) Provide other communications ideas including ideas on publications, distribution channels, and leads on other communications opportunities. The Heartland Marketing/Communications Committee’s focus has been to help lead Heartland’s efforts to educate, mobilize, and accelerate knowledge about and support for responsible investments among the investment community, and the general public. The Committee led the effort to market the RI Handbook, resulting in the sales of 2,000 books (and utilization for university finance classes), and presentations to national and international conferences. In addition to helping where you can, please join us in this important work-stream focused on amplifying our message. The New Reality We are entering what Winston Churchill might have called the “end of the beginning” of the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic is now part of our daily lives and the reality is that the crisis will not be over soon. When we emerge it will be to a changed world. Will it be a better world – one that is more just and sustainable – or will we go back to how things were? It seems possible that this crisis will result in changing political attitudes: perhaps in a wider acceptance of the essential role of government in civic life, a greater receptivity to progressive policies designed to boost workers’ rights, promote sustainability, and reduce inequality, and a broader recognition that we are all in this together. We can only hope so. Emergency measures already enacted by Congress and signed by the President include programs that are effectively universal basic income and government-provided healthcare (albeit on a circumscribed basis) would have been unthinkable two months ago. At the same time, forces seeking to block needed change remain powerful. We have seen this most recently in new proposed rules by the US Department of Labor that would cripple responsible investment by US pensions if allowed to go into effect. Heartland will be rallying the responses of its network to oppose these proposed rules in the coming weeks. Heartland was launched a quarter century ago to promote the power of the owners of workers’ capital – workers and retirees--to make companies more humane and the economy more resilient, sustainable and responsive to the needs of ordinary people. Over that time, Heartland has built a knowledge base on responsible investment practices and has developed a collaborative network of informed, like-minded people and organizations across the country and internationally. Heartland has promoted this Community of Practice through initiatives such as our books, the Heartland-Georgetown Fellows program, and most recently the Col(labor)atory for Labor Standards. Heartland is committed to the idea that workers’ capital must be invested to rebuild an America that values and supports its workers and that is sustainable over the long term. With this depth of experience, the Network can have an important role in the coming conversation about the future of the American economy.

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P a g e | 6 Heartland’s Mid-Year Report – July 2020 As more people conclude that we cannot just go back to business-as-usual, there will be a search for ideas and practices with which to build the new economy (such as supporting an American co-determination governance model). Heartland has been developing and sharing such ideas and practices for over two decades. Heartland has built a unique “table” and strong network spanning institutional investments, and now must become even more widely known to retirement plan sponsors, trustees, advisors, money managers, journalists, and policy makers within and especially outside the responsible investment world. Heartland should be widely recognized as a trusted representative of plan participants and their interest in ensuring that their investments build a better world. That is why we are asking every board member to play a role in this essential work. There is an immediate and urgent task for our Network: We must:  Expand the reach and effectiveness of our communications.  Distill our message and our agenda so that they can be easily understood and conveyed across a variety of media.  Increase our sophistication in using digital and other media strategies to deliver our message. Taking these steps will ensure that Heartland is “at the table” as the conversation about the future of our economy plays out at companies, unions, governments, in the media, and among ordinary people. We have already begun this work and will be sharing initial results with our boards and sponsors soon and, subsequently, with the broader Heartland family. But we need your help; what are we missing? Again, your continuing leadership and help, as outlined earlier in this message, will prove integral to our mutual success. Heartland has always been about building the economy of this country in a way that works for all workers. We must do more. As Alice Walker wrote, we are the ones we have been waiting for. Thank you! Connect with the Heartland Network To Our Biweekly Expresso Newsletter Find us on Social Media: SUBSCRIBE NOW

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A Federal Agenda for Revitalizing America's ManufacturingCommunitiesRevitalizing America's Manufacturing CommunitiesAndrew Stettner & Joel YudkenTom Croft, Andrew Stettner, & Joel YudkenIntroduction to Responsible Investing: Tackling TerminologyResponsible Investing and the Labor Movement: A Love StoryWaiting for Godot? How to Reclaim our Money Now!C orporate Governance: Holding the Boss's Feet to the FireResponsible Alternative InvestmentsResponsible Investor Handbook: Mobilizing Workers' Capitalfor a Sustainable WorldThe Next Generation of Responsible InvestingUp From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment AlternativeWorking Capital: The Power of Labor's CapitalCommonwealth Companies: A Path to Restoring Workers’Rights and Economic Democracy Helping Workers' Capital Work Harder: A Report on GlobalEconomically Targeted InvestmentsTom Croft and Annie MalhotraA chapter in "The Many Futures of Work: RethinkingExpectations and Breaking Molds" coming from TempleUniversity PressReport commissioned by Global Unions Committee on Workers'CapitalWWW.HEARTLANDNETWORK.ORG

HCS Mid-Year Report 2020