TIAA-CREF stalled voting on genocide-free investing until 2009

  • TIAA-CREF did not include the genocide-free shareholder proposal for voting at its annual meeting on July 15, 2008, ignoring the groundswell of support from TIAA-CREF customers.  
  • Investors Against Genocide will raise the issue of genocide-free investing at the shareholder meeting in Denver.  Contact us if you are a TIAA-CREF customer and can join us in Denver.
  • Click here to read op-ed in The Chronicle for Higher Education.
  • Click here to read TIAA-CREF's response from June 4, 2008. 

 Support genocide-free investing at TIAA-CREF


Please join our shareholder campaign for TIAA-CREF to commit to genocide-free investing. Though TIAA-CREF is not one of the largest holders of problem companies, such as PetroChina, it should live up to its marketing credo of “financial services for the greater good."  Read the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

You can play a key role whether or not you are a TIAA-CREF shareholder. You and your organization can help by sending messages to TIAA-CREF and by spreading the word about the campaign.  We want to build support in advance of voting at the annual meeting in July 2009.
  • Submit a shareholder proposal to a TIAA-CREF fund. We've made it easy to play a part.
  • Send a message to TIAA-CREF. You don't have to be an investor to object. Financial companies want your business now or in the future, so your voice will matter. 
  • Write a letter to the editor of your local or school newspaper. Click here for a sample.
    Most local weekly and campus newspapers (not the large metropolitan dailies) will publish all letters to the editor received from town residents. You can easily find the email address by searching for your paper on the Internet. You will most likely find instructions on submitting a letter to the editor in the "Opinion" section. To make it easy, we’ve drafted a sample letter that you can cut and paste into an email and send to your hometown paper.
  • Have your organization contact TIAA-CREF.  If you are associated with a college or major customer of TIAA-CREF, it would be very significant to get the organization to request a shareholder vote.  They don't need to take a stand, only ask that the issue be presented to shareholders.  This is a simple, no-cost, request since they don't need to say who is right, only that shareholders should decide the issue without having to wait until next year.
  • Tell your friends and forward them this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education:
    Tell TIAA-CREF You Do Not Want Your Retirement Money to Support Genocide
  • Raise awareness at your workplace, especially if your employer offers TIAA-CREF funds in its retirement plans. Get your company and co-workers involved. 
  • Take Action. See this page for more that you can do to help.

TIAA-CREF's holdings

  • TIAA-CREF is one of the few large financial institutions in the world to have investments in all four of the worst offenders helping to support the genocide in Darfur — PetroChina/CNPC, Petronas, ONGC, and Sinopec.
  • TIAA-CREF has followed a policy of weak engagement for years with no results to show for it, while continuing to acquire stock in the companies about which it claims to be concerned.
  • In Q2 and Q3 of 2007, TIAA-CREF increased its holdings of PetroChina by 24 percent and 13 percent respectively.
  • In Q3 of 2007, TIAA-CREF increased its holdings of all of the four worst offending companies.
  • In Q4 2007, TIAA-CREF sold some PetroChina, but bought 9.6 million shares of PetroChina’s parent, CNPC in Hong Kong.
  • TIAA-CREF’s December 31, 2007, holdings:
  • $37-million of PetroChina/CNPC
  • $67-million total holdings of the four worst offenders — PetroChina/CNPC, Petronas, ONGC, Sinopec.
  • College Retirement Equities Fund stock account and global equities account are holders of these problem companies as of 12/31/2007. Other TIAA-CREF funds had holdings at other times.