Annual Review 2014

The difference we makeShareAction is building a movement for responsible investment. We are the UK’s leading civil society organisation campaigning for an investment system that serves savers, society and the environment.

The billions of pounds in pension funds gives ordinary people a stake in businesses operating around the world. Most people are disconnected from what happens to their savings, but that’s changing. More and more savers are asking questions and demanding a voice in the system that takes care of their money.

ShareAction brings together leading charities, trade unions, faith groups and individual savers to scrutinise the big investors and remove barriers to responsible investment.

We’ve established a reputation for effective campaigns on a wide range of issues where pension funds and other big investors have influence. We publish high quality research on the investment industry as well as policy proposals arising from that research.

We offer training and support for individuals and organisations who want their financial assets to be a greater force for good.

We are widely recognised as activists for a more equitable economy where people have a say expressing both their economic interests and their values.

In 2012 we were named as one of the Observer’s Brand New Radicals and we’ve twice been highly commended in the Charity Awards: for our work on tar sands (2010) and Living Wages (2012). In 2014, Catherine Howarth, ShareAction’s Chief Executive, was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Front cover: Selfies taken by ShareAction supporters through the 2014 AGM Season

ContentsStatement from the Chair

Statement from the Chief Executive

2014 Snapshot

Green Light for Climate-Credible Pension Funds

Shareholder Action for Living Wages

Human Rights and the Environment

Corporate Governance Watch

Research and Policy Advocacy

AGM Season 2014

Our Manifesto for Responsible Investment

Charities Responsible Investment Network

Successes in 2014

Financial Statements and Funders

A Word from our Stakeholders & Supporters

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Front cover: Selfies taken by ShareAction supporters through the 2014 AGM Season

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ShareAction’s Louise Rouse debating the British Bankers Association about High Pay following Barclays’ AGM on Channel 4 with Jon Snow

In 2014, ShareAction’s Director of Campaigns and Engagement, Louise Rouse, joined a live TV programme on Channel 4 News debating a shareholder rebellion at the Barclays AGM with the Director of the British Banking Association. She argued:

‘It’s illogical when you’re sacking up to 12,000 people to reward a certain section of the workforce with billions of pounds in bonuses. And that is what’s taken as acceptable in the banking industry.’ Jon Snow endorsed our argument:

‘Louise Rouse made a really interesting point just now. And that was where are these bankers going to go? Who wants a banker who’s managed to bring in fewer profits and wants to take more money for doing it. What an immoral position! Could you imagine if I went to my employers and said, by the way, we’ve lost 100,000 viewers, could you pay me another £50,000?’

Thanks for the support, Jon!

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Jenine LangrishChair’s Statement

Welcome to ShareAction’s Annual Review, which describes some of the highlights of what has been a very successful year. Thanks to the generosity of our funders and supporters, our income rose strongly during the year. This enabled us to widen the number of campaigns we run and increase our impact. Together with our partner organisations, we have helped to raise the profile of a number of issues, including climate change; the Living Wage; oil drilling in the Arctic; telecoms and human rights; human trafficking; corporate tax avoidance; and corporate lobbying. You can read more about each of these campaigns and our key successes in the pages that follow. As in previous years we have sought to empower individual investors, through a programme of training and tools that connect them to their pension providers. Our AGM Army had its most active year to date, with some notable results. This year we have also expanded our work with charities through the growth of the Charities Responsible Investment Network, bringing charities together to flex their collective investment muscles. We have also continued to provide high quality briefings to encourage and enable institutional investors to engage with the companies in which they invest. Our well respected policy and research team has continued to push for change, with meetings at high levels within the government and the launch of our Manifesto for Responsible Investment and draft Responsible Investment Bill. None of this would be possible without our funders, member organisations and supporters, and I thank you all. Looking forward, we will seek to extend our impact by building on our traditional strengths whilst securing a more international presence and extending our work with operational charities. 2015 promises to be another exciting year. We thank you for your past support and look forward to working with you in the year ahead.

“Together with our partner organisations, we have helped to raise

the profile of a number of issues, including climate

change; the living wage; oil drilling in the

Arctic; telecoms and human rights; human trafficking; corporate

tax avoidance; and corporate lobbying.”

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Catherine HowarthA word from the Chief Executive

I am immensely proud of the growth and momentum of our movement for Responsible Investment over the last year.

Public expectations of the investment industry are becoming every bit as demanding as those of the wider corporate sector, and rightly so. ShareAction has played a vital role in scrutinising and questioning institutional investors this year. Key to our success has been a strategy of galvanising other players, from parliamentarians and NGOs to journalists and academics, to focus their attention on the culture and ethics of the investment sector.

But our greatest strength is our grassroots support base, comprised of many thousands of people who want to see their savings put to work to build a fairer, safer and less polluted world. This year our supporters have shown themselves willing and highly capable of taking action, whether at the AGMs of the

UK’s biggest firms or when meeting face-to-face with the people who run their pension schemes. We are bringing new voices and ideas into the investment arena, creating a long overdue agitation to the system. Far more of the same is needed and I’m determined we will do all we can at ShareAction to bring yet more democratic energy to the corridors of financial power.

It has been a privilege, and a very enjoyable one, to lead this organisation in 2014. The team at ShareAction is exceptionally committed and talented. The facts and stories set out in this report are strong evidence of that.

I hope you will find our Annual Review of interest. If you do, I invite you to join the movement for Responsible Investment.

“Our greatest strength is our grassroots support base,

comprised of many thousands of people

who want to see their savings put to work

to build a fairer, safer and less polluted world.”

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2014 SnapshotSocial media

22mThis year we featured in over 22 million Twitter feeds, up from 3.3 million in 2013. A special feature was the live tweeting from company AGMs.

Activism

@ 60kOur supporters took 59,634 online actions this year, up from about 5,000 in 2013, on issues including climate change, the Living Wage and Arctic drilling.

Shareholder Successes

625kHargreaves Lansdown’s 625,000 customers can now vote at company AGMs free of charge as a result of ShareAction’s rapid response campaigning to combat proposed charges to attend AGMs and vote.

Media

69Over the last 12 months ShareAction has been quoted in over 69 different publications including The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent.

Annual Survey

25We surveyed the 25 largest UK pension funds on their Responsible Investment performance, producing a league table of these giant funds.

AGMs

125Our AGM Army asked 125 questions on 18 different campaign issues at 84 company AGMs making this our busiest AGM season yet.

Parliamentary Work

25We recruited 4 new Members of Parliament, up from 21 members in 2013, to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Responsible Investment.

CRIN Membership

17The Charities Responsible Investment Network increased to 17 members, up from 7 members in 2013. The Network supports charities in aligning their investments with their mission.

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Green Light for Climate Credible Pension FundsLast autumn, ShareAction launched an ambitious new project to encourage pension funds to embed climate-risk management into investment decisions, into dialogue with companies and into public policy advocacy. It’s called Green Light.

To galvanise action in the pension industry, ShareAction has built a Green Light coalition of 22 civil society organisations, delivering a public mobilisation campaign which has raised civil society awareness of the value of capital markets campaigning.

At the launch event in October 2013, we published The Green Light Report: Resilient Portfolios in an Uncertain World with 22 recommendations on how the pensions industry can manage the risks of climate change. At the event, in front of 80 people from the investment and pensions sector, Pensions Minister Steve Webb MP endorsed the project saying “Those who at least question the valuation of firms, question what firms are doing to diversify and question what firms are doing to mitigate the carbon implications of what they’re doing, may well be ahead of the curve and have a competitive advantage.”

Since then ShareAction has been engaging with pensions funds on the Green Light recommendations, challenging the laggards and working with those

with a good record to move the industry forward. ShareAction delivered four trainings for pension fund trustees and officers, in partnership with the UNPRI and the Association of Member Nominated Trustees, on managing the risks and opportunities of climate change in their portfolios. Feedback from participants included that the training “helped our scheme to evaluate the financial relevance of climate change” and that “the seminar is a must for pension scheme trustees”.

ShareAction also organised roundtable meetings for funds to share best practice as well as working with individual funds to audit and implement Green Light recommendations. Recognising that investment decisions are driven by multiple players in the industry, Green Light has also been actively engaging investment consultants and insurance companies to become climate credible.

Through Green Light, ShareAction is empowering savers to speak out for stronger environmental performance by their pension funds. ShareAction ran training sessions developing the knowledge, skills and confidence of over 70 people who wanted to challenge their pension funds and, building on these trainings, we are supporting pension savers to meet directly with funds trustees and executives on the issues raised in the Green Light report.

The Green Light Coalition:

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Over 70 people have attended our Green Light

trainings for pension funds trustees and officers

on how to manage the risks and opportunities

of climate change to their investments.

Aviva, BBC Pension Fund, Islington Pension Fund,

NEST, The Pensions Trust, USS and the Environment Agency Pension Fund have

held or promised face to face meetings about Green Light

recommendations.

We also ran two e-actions where savers sent 5,404 personal emails to 145 pension providers expressing concern about climate change and Arctic drilling. These emails have generated a range of responses from funds, ranging from very poor to excellent.

Pensions Minister Steve Webb MP publically endorsed the campaign in a speech at the Green Light launch.

Mercer and Russell Investments met with ShareAction about how to take forward the Green Light recommendations with asset owners.

The Environmental Audit committee in Parliament invited ShareAction to give evidence on the impact of climate change on investments.

Old Mutual met with ShareAction on sharing the recommendations with their fund managers and about how to further engage the insurance industry on climate risks.

Over the coming year, Green Light will continue to engage pension funds and the wider investment industry on how to build climate resilient portfolios as well as galvanising pension savers and civil society to push for a rapid transition to low carbon prosperity.

ShareAction supporters met with their pension provider Aviva in July 2014

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Shareholder Action for Living WagesOur JustPay! shareholder campaign seeks to make sure FTSE 100 companies pay their staff enough to meet the basic costs of living in the UK. The campaign for the Living Wage made further strong progress this year.

In 2014, the number of accredited Living Wage employers in the FTSE 100 increased by over 150% to 17. An additional 11 FTSE 100 companies now apply Living Wage standards for all UK staff, including people employed by contractors on their UK sites.

The 2014 AGM season was our busiest part of the year, with Living Wage questions raised at 43 AGMs, including 5 by institutional investors whom ShareAction supported in making an intervention. Highlights included accompanying former Tesco manager Amy Bradley to the company’s AGM as well as supporting workers at the Brixton Ritzy to challenge the cinema’s owners Cineworld to pay the Living Wage.

Key wins include:

• ITV joined the growing numbers of accredited Living Wage employers just before their 2014 AGM, after an AGM question in 2013 initiated a pay review to put the Living Wage in place.

• GKN committed at this year’s AGM to become a Living Wage employer after a AGM question last year.

• At their AGM in 2014, the Man Group also pledged to pay the Living Wage to all staff and contractors and to look into the details of accreditation.

We mobilised a coalition of institutional investors who support the Living Wage, from pension funds to faith investors and charitable foundations, to add weight to the cause during AGM season. We drafted and coordinated letters from the coalition members to all the FTSE 100 CEOs before their AGMs with the result that over 50% of the FTSE 100 are in dialogue with us on the topic.

Case study:Tesco’s AGM was a highlight of 2014. Working with Citizens UK and 38 Degrees, we delivered a petition of more than 33,000 people calling for the Living Wage on their AGM day, securing a meeting with their senior team. We highlighted the case for the Living Wage in the build-up to the AGM with spoof Tesco shelf labels which went viral on social media. On the AGM day, over 3000 supporters flooded Tesco’s social media with messages of support. Amy Bradley asked the question which was covered in the Sun, Buzzfeed, and Retail Week. When the new CEO began on 9 October, we delivered a giant Living Wage Club Card with more than 10,000 supporters signed up to the “Living Wage club.”

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17 17 of the FTSE 100

are now formally accredited, up from 2 companies in 2011

30Nearly 30 FTSE 100 firms are applying Living Wage

standards in their operations

50Over 50% of the FTSE 100

are in dialogue with investors on the Living Wage

43 Our staff and supporters asked 43 AGM questions

on the Living Wage

5 ShareAction organised 5 AGM

questions by institutional investors on the Living Wage

165Over 165 pension funds were contacted by their members

through our online action tool

Photo credit: Marc Cowan,ShareAction supportered the A Living Wage for Ritzy Staff campaign

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This year ShareAction has been working with a consortium of NGOs to stop Shell pursuing oil and gas development in the Arctic. Our strategy has been engagement with Shell’s major shareholders, providing them with detailed risk analysis and the questions we believe need to be asked of the company’s board.

In February, ShareAction, together with Greenpeace UK, Platform, Oil Change International, Oceana and Pacific International, published the report Frozen Future: Shell’s ongoing gamble in the US Arctic. The report explores the many questions left unanswered to the satisfaction of both US regulators and financial analysts about Shell’s US offshore Arctic drilling project and was accompanied by an investor briefing prepared by ShareAction setting out a series of questions for investors to ask the company.

In April, ShareAction published a follow up briefing on the US Coast Guard report into the running aground of Shell’s drilling rig, the Kulluk, off the coast of Alaska in December 2012. Investors in Europe and North America responded well to our Frozen Future report, with independent think tank The Arctic Institute calling the research ‘comprehensive and impeccable’. The report was presented to investors at an UKSIF seminar, at the Economist Arctic summit, at a webinar organised by

Human Rights and the EnvironmentOffshore Arctic Oil Exploration

US investor network CERES and at a meeting of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in New York.

The Frozen Future report and ShareAction’s briefings have been used by investors in meetings with Shell.

ShareAction, Greenpeace and Platform traveled to The Hague for the Shell AGM in May. During question time and in conversations after the meeting with the Chairman and CEO Ben Van Beurden, we highlighted our concerns regarding the company’s plans in Alaska.

Although CEO Ben Van Beurden has become noticeably less enthusiastic about the US offshore Arctic, Shell has recently filed a new exploration plan with US regulators. This campaign is a work in progress. We will continue to maintain pressure on Shell and its shareholders in 2015.

Investors in Europe and North America responded well to our Frozen Future report, with independent think tank The Arctic Institute calling the research ‘comprehensive and impeccable’.

Photo credit: Steve Morgan / Greenpeace

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Telecoms and Human RightsIn 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring, we began working with our member organisation Access, a US digital rights group, to highlight to investors the role of telecommunication companies in human rights abuses. Our work aims to embed the protection of fundamental human rights such as privacy and freedom of expression into the operations of telecommunications companies throughout the world.

This year, ShareAction and Access published an investor briefing highlighting the role of Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications multinational, in a communications crackdown in Thailand following the military coup.

Human TraffickingShareAction first began work on the issue of human trafficking during the London Olympics. Having engaged with British Airways since then, in 2014 we attended the AGM of British Airways’ parent company, International Consolidated Airlines, in Madrid. The company confirmed it is finalising details of a cabin-crew training programme to help identify potential victims of trafficking on flights.

Since its AGM in February, ShareAction has also been pushing EasyJet on this issue.

Capital Action, our Responsible Investment programme for London-based asset owners, is engaging with hotels on their exposure to trafficking.

In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, this issue has moved from being one that also focuses on citizens of politically unstable countries to the USA and UK. Public reactions to those revelations demonstrate that telecom companies’ social license to operate is linked to their approach to privacy and human rights. Following Vodafone’s ground-breaking decision to publish a detailed transparency report on government requests for customer data (ShareAction and Access had encouraged the company to issue such a report), we returned to Vodafone’s 2014 AGM to acknowledge the company’s leadership on this issue and to encourage them to play an active role in global debates on this issue.

International Consolidated Airlines committed to implementing a training program for cabin crew to address human trafficking

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CorporateGovernance WatchCorporate Tax AvoidanceAgainst a backdrop of public spending cuts across Europe, media and political interest in corporate tax practices has grown fast.

This AGM season ShareAction continued to work with member organisation, Christian Aid, on our “Taxing Questions” campaign. The aim is to place the issue of tax at the top of FTSE 100 companies’ agenda.

In spring 2014, ShareAction trained a group of Christian Aid staff and supporters on AGM interventions. Throughout AGM season we worked with them to research companies’ tax practices and policies and to draft AGM questions. Together we asked questions of the boards of 18 companies including Unilever, Rio Tinto, RSA and Morrisons.

We had attended the AGMs of some of the companies in previous years and discovered that progress has been made including on the issue of closing subsidiaries in tax havens. However, much improvement remains to be made. Revisiting companies’ AGMs ensures the issue of corporate tax justice won’t go away.We are also working with Christian Aid to encourage greater institutional investor focus on this topic. In October we published an investor briefing highlighting the risks to shareholders of aggressive corporate tax practices particularly in light of recent OECD recommendations for reform.

Corporate LobbyingBuilding on our successful campaign in 2013 which saw GSK and AstraZeneca cease membership of the controversial US lobbying group, The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), we continued our focus on UK companies’ membership of and support for lobbying organisations, think-tanks and trade associations.

We encouraged AstraZeneca to follow their peer, GSK, and develop a comprehensive policy regarding the criteria for membership of third party lobbying organisations and introduce board level oversight of this issue. AstraZeneca’s CEO confirmed that they were open to this idea and board member, Mr. Rudy Markham, who chairs the audit committee, confirmed at the AGM that he would be willing to take a lead internally.

At the BG Group AGM, we asked the company to confirm it is not lobbying directly or through trade associations against a carbon reduction policy in the UN 2015 negotiations. They confirmed the company was not engaged in any direct lobbying against climate regulation, and also committed not to support organisations taking such a position.

We encouraged insurance and investment firms to play a positive role in global policy making to address climate change. We posed questions at Aviva, RSA, Standard Life, Old Mutual, Prudential and L&G urging these firms to play an active role in policy debates leading up to the 21st UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (COP) in December 2015.

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Research and Policy Advocacy

It’s been a busy year for our Policy and Research team who’ve been lobbying Parliament, drafting legislation, responding to government consultations on behalf of pension savers and benchmarking asset managers on their responsible investment performance.

A key event in July was the release of the Law Commission’s final report on the ‘Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries’ which was undertaken following ShareAction’s long campaign for clarity over these duties. Fiduciary duty has been widely interpreted by pension schemes as a requirement to maximise short-term returns precluding consideration of environmental and social issues even when these are financially relevant to corporate and investor performance.

As a result of our detailed evidence submission and engagement with the Law Commission, their final report confirmed that the law is “confusing and inaccessible”. The Commission went on to state that pension trustees are free to consider all factors which affect the financial performance of a fund, including environmental and macroeconomic issues.

They helpfully state in addition that trustees may also consider non-financial factors, such as scheme members’ ethics, as long as consideration of these factors will not lead to significant financial detriment.

Our participation in the Law Commission review and the launch of our Manifesto for Responsible Investment has resulted in growing interest in our agenda amongst senior policy-makers. This year we held positive meetings with Vince Cable MP and Steve Webb MP in their departments to discuss our proposals to achieve broad understanding in the pensions industry of the helpful legal interpretation set out in the Law Commission’s report. ShareAction continues to make the case for legislation to achieve this.

This year we continued to administer the All Party Parliamentary Group on Responsible Investment. This important group raises the profile of responsible investment within Parliament, which is vital during a period in which public policy on private pensions is changing rapidly with huge implications for the decisions people make about their savings and future.

“The extent of trustees’ fiduciary duties is frequently misunderstood...Fiduciary

duty does not simply mean someone must maximise short-term return at all costs”

- Steve Webb MP, Adjournment Debate in House of Commons

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agm.shareaction.org

agm.shareaction.org

AGM Season 2014In 2014, our ever-expanding ‘AGM Army’ of shareholder activists enjoyed further successes holding corporate boards to account at their annual general meetings on issues such as tax avoidance, the living wage, executive remuneration and climate change.

ShareAction has purchased shares in a wide range of FTSE-listed companies to enable our staff and supporters to attend AGMs and question boards directly. This tactic has the dual benefit of providing direct access to decision makers in the company whilst highlighting poor corporate practice in front of other owners of the company.

“When I first signed up to be a volunteer after a training day in January, I definitely thought it was a good plan to attend AGMs and work from within, but I was still expecting setbacks. How would a board of directors take being challenged in front of others? I thought they would be cold or defensive but I must say they all seemed very accommodating and engaging. I believe my questions were answered honestly. When they had not done something they admitted it and when they didn’t fully understand part of my question they said so politely. I guess when you actually deal with people face to face and treat each other respectfully there is this natural kind of rapport. I am definitely encouraged to go to more AGMs and have my say and I’ve been talking to friends about it too to get some of them on board.”

– Danielle Brennan, AGM Army member

To ensure that our supporters and staff are fully prepared to make the most of the AGM occasion we provide training events throughout the season. These trainings are run by ShareAction staff, who have honed their questioning tactics over the last few years to maximise the likelihood of a positive response and reaction. Supporters are trained through presentation and role play on question drafting, conduct at AGMs, what to expect, and how to follow up after the meeting is over.

We would like to thank the many dedicated individuals in our AGM Army for all of their hard work this year.

Three FTSE companies, Man Group, GKN and Arm Holdings, committed to pay the Living Wage to all their employees, including contracted staff such as cleaners.

Following AGM questions in 2014, twelve employers in the FTSE 100 offered meetings about the Living Wage including Next, Tesco, Royal Mail, Sainsbury’s and GlaxoSmithKline.

At their AGMs, Aviva and Old Mutual made public commitments to help secure a positive outcome in the international climate negotiations, to counter the power of other companies who are still lobbying against climate legislation.

With member organisation Christian Aid, we went back to the Lloyds Bank AGM to follow up on our 2013 question on tax havens. Lloyds reported this year that they now have operations in only 3 jurisdictions that might be labelled as tax havens, and that the they operate in these jurisdictions for genuine commercial purposes.

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agm.shareaction.org

agm.shareaction.org

International Consolidated Airlines Group (who own British Airways and Iberia)

In June, Rebecca (Bex) Hay travelled to Madrid to ask what policies and practices IAG Group had put in place to tackle human trafficking on their largest airlines, British Airways and Iberia. The Board, who knew we were attending, announced a new initiative led by British Airways, intended to avoid trafficking on their flights, including a new training programme for cabin staff to identify illegal action taking place on board BA flights.

Unilever

After a lively back and forth in the Unilever AGM on international tax evasion, CEO Paul Polman explained that six jurisdictions with Unilever subsidiaries were recently found to have no real commercial activity going on. He agreed to close these subsidiary companies over the next 12 months.

agm.shareaction.org

“It’s a novel form of activism which just makes so much sense for all parties involved, and that’s wonderful, especially if you get a kick out of making a difference.”

– Aris Tsontzos, AGM Army member

84AGMs attended by

members of the “AGM Army”

125 questions

asked at AGMs across the UK

18different issues raised

with the Boards of FTSE 100 companies

103people trained to

ask effective AGM questions

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Our Manifesto for Responsible InvestmentThis year ShareAction launched a Manifesto for Responsible Investment in front of leaders in civil society, Parliament and the finance community. The Manifesto is accompanied by a draft Responsible Investment Bill.

The specific policies we advocate fall into two broad areas: first, we propose measures to better protect savers’ interests in the timeframe that counts in the pensions sector. Second, we propose a series of measures to achieve greater accountability in the investment system.

Our Manifesto emphasises how much the behaviour of large institutional investors matters to all of us: to people in their capacity as savers, workers and citizens; to businesses of all sizes and to the preservation of our environment.

The draft Responsible Investment Bill makes clear that the primary duty of a pension fund is to pursue financial return but the bill also confirms that in carrying out its investment and stewardship functions, a pension fund may have regard to such matters as:

i) the long-term consequences of its investment activitiesii) environmental, social and governance considerationsiii) the beneficiaries’ future quality of life andiv) the beneficiaries views, including but not limited to their ethical views.

At the launch in Parliament, the Manifesto and draft Bill were received positively, demonstrating growing support in civil society, Parliament and among professional investors for our agenda.

We propose:

• Explicit legislative clarification to confirm that pension providers are not legally obliged to chase short-term profits and ignore wider considerations.

• Pension savers should have the right to know where their money is being invested and how pension funds are exercising shareholder rights on their behalf.

• Pension savers should have access to annual reports explaining how their fund has implemented its investment policy over the year, and how it is managing future long-term risks to their money.

• Pension savers should have the right to question the people who look after their money by attending annual meetings, in the same way that companies are obliged to hold annual meetings for their shareholders. They should also have the right to be consulted on investment and voting policies.

• Savers should have the right to elect representatives to the board or governing committee of their pension fund and to stand for election themselves.

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investment industry’s interests have come ahead of those of savers. Our Manifesto puts the interests of the

saver right at the heart of our pensions system.”

- Catherine Howarth, ShareAction CEO, speaking in

Parliament at the Manifesto launch

“With up to ten million people in the UK becoming pension savers for the first time, it’s critical we have

a pension system that people can trust and that answers to them. For too long, the pension and

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During 2014, the Charities Responsible Investment Network grew in size and impact, with members taking joint actions on a number of issues including the Living Wage, modern slavery and executive remuneration.

The Network enables charity and foundation investors to fulfil their charitable purposes through shareholder engagement with companies. By working collaboratively, the members achieve more change, cost-effectively.

The network grew significantly during the year with ten new foundations joining up. Each member is provided with tailored support on how to put in place responsible investment activities which are appropriate for their portfolio and grant giving priorities. We provided a workshop on climate-credible investing hosted by Generation Investment Management, and a presentation about the Living Wage and how pension funds are integrating ESG risk into their investment strategies. In October we ran a workshop for charitable trusts on how to develop a Responsible Investment policy and launched the new report Your Money, Your Mission, which is available to download from our website.

This year, members have:

• Signed a letter to the Prime Minister calling for inclusion of a ‘transparency in supply chains’ clause in the Modern Slavery bill. In October the government confirmed support for this proposal;

• Engaged with Tesco requesting clarity over how it intends to prevent slavery in its Thai seafood supply chains;

• Written to over 60 FTSE 100 companies calling for the adoption of the Living Wage;

• Proposed that the Financial Reporting Council investigate how Plc companies apply executive pay regulations.

One of our CRIN members, the Barrow Cadbury Trust, attended the Kingfisher AGM to ask a question on the Living Wage.

To find out more or join our Charities Responsible Investment Network please go to shareaction.org/charityinvestment

Charities Responsible Investment Network

Holly Hill Charitable Trust

JJ Charitable Trust

Mark LeonardTrust

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Successes in 2014Here is a selection of key successes in 2014 that we really want to shout about.

We’ve increased our capacity to respond quickly to the ever changing investment landscape. A good example of this improved responsiveness was our recent win with the large retail investment manager Hargreaves Lansdown.

In June, Hargreaves Landsdown announced that its customers would be subject to additional charges to exercise voting rights with companies whose shares are held on Hargeaves Lansdown’s platform. ShareAction sprang into action, informing our supporters and publicly deploring this new cost on savers who wish to be good stewards. In order to put pressure on Hargreaves Lansdown to drop the charges, ShareAction created an online action for Hargreaves Lansdown’s 625,000 customers to email the CEO demanding that the right to a free vote be restored to shareholders.

Hargreaves Lansdown’s CEO, Ian Gorham, responded to his flooded inbox by stating that his company was justified in charging for this service as shareholders rarely exercise these rights. However, due to our sustained pressure, Hargreaves Lansdown announced in August that the charge would be removed.

Another big campaign success occurred this summer with the announcement that SOCO International plc’s planned oil exploration in Virunga National Park had been called off for good. ShareAction, working with member organisation WWF, had been actively campaigning for several years to preserve Virunga, Africa’s oldest national park, which is home to more species of mammals, reptiles and birds than any other protected area in Africa, including rare mountain gorillas.

In October this year we also welcomed the DWP’s draft regulations on workplace pension schemes. The regulations will require multi-employer schemes to consult members on matters relating to the scheme through AGMs, member surveys or via member representatives. ShareAction has been campaigning for these changes over several years.

ShareAction Chief Executive Catherine Howarth says: “We’re really pleased to see the government taking calls for better representation of member interests seriously, because schemes have been able to ignore members’ concerns on a variety of issues for far too long. We look forward to continuing to work with the DWP and others who are calling for better accountability in this area.”

Virunga National Park, where ShareAction and WWF succesfully campaigned against planned oil exploration

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Financial Statements and Funders

Expenditure

Total expenditure £531,065Year ending 31 January 2014

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the hundreds of people who made a donation to ShareAction this year as well as to our funders listed below. You have made our recent growth possible.

Ashden TrustBarrow Cadbury TrustCity Bridge TrustEsmée Fairbairn FoundationFrederick Mulder FoundationFriends Provident FoundationGeneration Foundation

Joseph Rowntree Charitable TrustLankellyChase FoundationNuffield FoundationTellus Mater FoundationTrust for LondonTudor Trust

We are also supported by 16 member organisations (listed on the back cover of this report). We wish to ex-press our gratitude for their continuing support, including funding and collaboration on a number of projects.

Our Board of Trustees has grown this year, bringing new skills and experience to the governance of the charity:

Jenine Langrish (Chair)Caroline InstanceRoger JearyLenka SetkovaStephen Davis

Mick McAteerNicholas TatmanJonathan Clarke (Appointed August 2014)Paul Dickinson (Appointed August 2014)Laura Gyte (Appointed August 2014)

We have 16 staff (full and part time) and one intern who earns the London Living Wage.

For more information about our staff and trustees please visit shareaction.org/team

Total Income £542,696Year ending 31 January 2014

Total Income £371,390Year ending 31 January 2013

Our audited accounts for the year ending 31 January 2014 are available on our website. This page provides a basic overview of

income and expenditure in that financial year.

Income

1 | Cost of campaigning and education £477,5442 | Cost of generating funds £31,6313 | Governance £21,880

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A Word from our Stakeholders & Supporters

Pensions Minister Steve Webb MP endorsing our report Green Light: Resilient PortfoliosPortfolio’s in an Uncertain World:

“As ever with ShareAction, this report is very rigorously researched and powerfully argued. It is simply saying, “Guys, you’re behind the curve on this. It’s time that you were thinking about these issues in a systematic way and working out how we might get there.”

– Green Light launch event, October 2013

“It remains all too easy for management to ignore the voices of shareholders, ShareAction to be commended for ensuring the Living Wage message is heard loud and clear by the largest employers in the UK.”

- Richard Keery, Investment Manager, Strathclyde Pension Fund

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for this opportunity. It is the most empowering thing I have ever done in my life!”

- Danielle Brennan, on her experience asking the Board of Directors at Unilever

to close their tax havens

“We’ve absolutely loved working with ShareAction this year, really, it’s been terrific for the campaign.”

- Lucy Holmes, No More Page 3

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