Stake: Why and How?

Be a more engaged citizen: As a shareowner, you have the power to influence the companies you invest in. Use Stake to activate that power, and use your shareowner voice to encourage companies to improve their impact on the issues you care about.

How: Stake makes impact easy. When you log in, 1) go to Your Boardroom, 2) filter by issues you care about, and 3) select Asks to support! When you click support, we record how many shares you own in the target company, increasing the power of the Ask.

Impact On-Demand: With Stake, you can use your shareowner voice to support any issue at any time. Tell your company to respond to newly uncovered human rights violations, or clean up an oil spill. Just log on to Stake and support your values. And if you don't see an issue you care about, you can create an Ask and build support of other shareowners through Stake.

What about Proxy Voting?: Do it! Companies already listen to their shareholders through once-a-year proxy votes. Unfortunately, under 11% of people vote. Stake makes it easier for you to vote by letting you know which Asks you can also vote on.

What we're not: Don't worry. We are not an investment platform. You aren't buying anything or committing to anything when you support an Ask. You're simply supporting a particular issue, and letting the target company know that you are a shareowner and you matter.

How do You create impact on Stake?

Champions advocate: When an Ask reaches its support goal, one of Stake's Champions will take that Ask directly to company management, advocating on behalf of all those that supported the Ask. Our Champions are experts at persuading companies to improve their social and environmental impact, and they are already connected to the corporate decision-makers. Stake is a tool like none before. By connecting you with a professional Champion, your voice reaches the boardroom.

Champions deliver impact: We've reviewed the academic literature on the best ways for shareowners to get a company to change. When large investors meet with companies directly, ramping up intensity over time, companies are most likely to improve their impact. The Stake platform is like none before, we make sure your voice gets heard.

Learn about your impact: When one of Stake's Champions advocates for an Ask you supported on Stake, you'll receive progress updates so you know when your company improves. You can opt-in to receiving email updates, too.

Do companies listen?

Companies care about their shareowners – they have to. Corporations have a legal obligation to generate shareowner value. They already have staff dedicated to listening to shareowners – their Investor Relations departments.

Shareowners already change companies all the time!

Recently, Boston Common Asset Management led a coalition of investors to persuade banks to limit coal financing. Trillium led an investor statement opposing North Carolina's discriminatory bathroom bill, part of an ultimately successful effort. And over the years, fund managers have also pushed companies to stop funding organizations supporting climate denial, address the gender pay gap, phase out antibiotic use, and much more.

Stake gives you a seat at the table to add even more power behind those efforts, and to highlight your personal voice and values.

Our Story

The Stake team has a history or social and environmental organizing - we’ve been activists our whole lives. We believe in the power of collective voice, which is strongest when it comes from people that have a stake. Members of Congress only care about their constituents, while companies have to listen to their shareholders.

Shareholders already have the power to influence their companies by voting on annual proxies, which may ask a company to make social and environmental improvements. But almost no one uses that power - most people literally throw their proxy ballots in the trash!

Since these proxy votes aren’t binding, they just serve as a way for companies to know what their shareowners care about. We realized that people don't need to proxy vote to let their companies know what they care about.

So we created Stake!

  1. We make it easy for you to create an Ask so you don't have to go through the burdensome process of filing an official shareholder resolution to get an issue on a proxy ballot.
  2. You can support issues at any time - you don't have to wait a year for a company's annual meeting to improve corporate behavior on the issues you care about.
  3. Only some topics can make it to the official proxy vote. On Stake, you can support any issue you care about.

Strong Security

We take great measures to ensure your security. We employ bank-level security, and we don't touch any of your sensitive credentials at all. You are safe with us.

Read our Security Policy for more detais.