Praxis Mutual Funds®, a leading faith-based, socially responsible family of mutual funds from Everence® Financial, is proud to become a member of the Thirty Percent Coalition, which advocates for diversity in the corporate boardroom. Since its founding in 2011, the Coalition has gained support from over 90 members representing public and private companies, institutional investors and asset managers, government officials and advocacy groups working to increase gender and racial diversity in senior leadership and the corporate boardroom.
“Supporting efforts to increase diversity aligns with the core values we embrace in our stewardship investing approach,” said Chad Horning, CFA®, President of Praxis Mutual Funds. “We look forward to working with and learning from the Thirty Percent Coalition and its members on ways we can continue to promote gender equality and inclusion through our work here at Praxis.”
A growing body of research highlights the numerous benefits of diverse corporate leadership teams, with financial performance being one of them. Numerous studies show a positive correlation between diverse leadership teams and company performance, including a study by Catalyst that showed Fortune 500 companies with the highest percentage of women on their board outperformed those with the least representation by 53 percent.
“As investors, we seek to invest in companies that align with widely-shared values and also integrate various environmental, social and governance factors,” said Benjamin Bailey, CFA®, Vice President of Investments and Senior Fixed Income Investment Manager for Praxis Mutual Funds. “We believe that companies with strong governance practices have gender and racial diversity and multiple studies have shown these companies also have better financial performance.”
“Supporting and investing in women, their families and in diverse communities across the country and around the world has been a hallmark of our community development investing and positive impact bond program for years,” said Mark Regier, Vice President of Stewardship Investing for Praxis. “And it will be a growing part of our shareholder advocacy efforts in the years ahead. We look forward to working with the Thirty Percent Coalition and other leaders in this space, across the industry, to strengthen the role of diversity in our society."