Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
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1. Why focus on divesting our retirement accounts from state violence? Shouldn’t we first tackle university endowments?
1. Why focus on divesting our retirement accounts from state violence? Shouldn’t we first tackle university endowments?
Pressuring university endowments to divest is an important and worthwhile goal, but focusing only on that ignores the huge financial weight of our individual retirement accounts. The total amount held in individual retirement accounts of faculty and staff at U.S. universities is greater than that in all U.S. university endowments combined. According to NACUBO, the total value of US college endowments combined was $944 billion across 657 surveyed institutions in FY2025. By contrast, TIAA, which is just one of half a dozen large firms that service retirement accounts, manages $1.5 trillion (as of 2026) of higher education retirement savings. Moving these funds to exclude companies enabling military occupation and aggression, genocide, apartheid, prisons, border violence, and migrant surveillance and detention would make a material difference.
2. My university’s investment provider (TIAA, Fidelity, etc.) already offers a socially conscious investment fund option. If I’ve already moved my retirement funds there, haven’t I done all I can do?
2. My university’s investment provider (TIAA, Fidelity, etc.) already offers a socially conscious investment fund option. If I’ve already moved my retirement funds there, haven’t I done all I can do?
If you’ve already moved your money to one of these funds, great! It’s important to show investment providers and universities that there’s demand for more ethical investment opportunities, since existing “socially conscious” funds often go underutilized. However, at present even the best of these “socially conscious” funds do not truly exclude corporations that facilitate state violence. At best, these funds exclude related but much smaller sets of companies, like those that produce “controversial weapons.” For example, the Nuveen Environmental Social Governance (ESG) funds offered by TIAA include Caterpillar, Axon enterprises, and IBM, companies on the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)’s BDS divestment shortlist. Similarly, the ESG “Sustainability” funds offered by Fidelity hold GE Aerospace and Valero Energy, also on the AFSC shortlist.
Signing the No State Violence pledge pressures investment providers to create retirement investment options as fully divested as possible from these and all forms of state violence and to make these options widely available to university staff and faculty. Our ask is for each firm to create a fund fully divested from companies on the Weapon Free Funds list, the Prison Free Funds list, and the American Friends Service Committee BDS divestment shortlist.
3. My university’s investment provider already allows me to create my own investment fund package through an individual brokerage account, and I've done that to divest from state violence. Can't everybody?
3. My university’s investment provider already allows me to create my own investment fund package through an individual brokerage account, and I've done that to divest from state violence. Can't everybody?
That's great you've taken the time to do that, and you’ve shown divestment from state violence can be done! However, many plans don’t provide that option, and many university employees do not have the time, expertise, or confidence to follow this path even when it is available. Our campaign is based on the premise that since it is possible to create a “no state violence” fund, our investment firms should formally organize such options. Currently, no retail funds allow faculty who lack specialized financial knowledge to divest their retirement from state violence. As a result, faculty are quietly but effectively coerced into investing in companies whose actions run counter to their values. We are asking major retirement providers to each create one fund divested from state violence so that all faculty have ready access to ethical investment options.
4. I work for the University of California, and I’ve already signed the UC Move Your Money pledge and put 10% or more of my retirement account in its socially conscious option. Should I sign this pledge too?
4. I work for the University of California, and I’ve already signed the UC Move Your Money pledge and put 10% or more of my retirement account in its socially conscious option. Should I sign this pledge too?
Yes! The national No State Violence campaign is inspired by UC’s Move Your Money campaign, which is working on demonstrating demand for a No State Violence fund within the UC retirement system. As a first step, that campaign asks UC employees to move at least 10% of their retirement savings to the UC Social Equity Fund. However, while that fund is better, it’s still not fully divested from state violence. There is no inconsistency between putting pressure on all firms servicing retirement accounts through this national campaign and putting pressure on the UC provider through the Move Your Money campaign.
5. Has this kind of divestment campaign been tried before?
5. Has this kind of divestment campaign been tried before?
Yes, several campaigns have targeted retirement account providers directly. For example, TIAA-Divest was founded in 2018 to pressure TIAA to divest from assets that support the extraction, transport, trade or other contribution to the production of coal, oil and gas. TIAA did not respond affirmatively, so campaigners shifted away from pushing for internal reform to urging account holders to “dump TIAA.” Another campaign coalition, We Divest (2010-2013), pressured TIAA-CREF to divest its Social Choice Fund from companies profiting from occupation, and succeeded in temporarily convincing the provider to exclude three companies on the BDS divestment list from this fund. However, the TIAA fund has since re-invested in at least one of those companies, Caterpillar.
The No State Violence campaign is inspired by and has learned from these earlier campaigns. Our approach is to appeal to the considerable financial power of those who pledge to move their money, in order to put pressure on TIAA and other provider companies from a different direction. We are not asking TIAA and other provider companies to divest an existing fund. Rather, we are asking them to create a new, fully divested fund that faculty can move their money to. We believe that many faculty, when offered a feasible option, will choose to divest from military occupation and aggression, genocide, apartheid, prisons, border violence, and migrant surveillance and detention
6. What actions can I take to help?
6. What actions can I take to help?
First, sign our pledge to move at least 10% of your university retirement accounts to a No State Violence fund when one becomes available. Once we’ve gathered a critical mass of signatures, we’ll take this pledge directly to retirement investment providers to urge each of them to create such a fund and make it available to their customers.
Second, email us to join the organizing efforts, either nationally or on your campus.
Finally, if your retirement provider already offers a socially conscious option, you can invest at least 10% of your retirement account. (Please review the fund performance statistics before doing so–you’ll likely find them very competitive.) This helps demonstrate demand for ethical, non-violent investment options – lack of demand is the main excuse investment providers use for not offering these options. If, instead, you don’t see a socially conscious option in your menu of fund options, find out why and let us know at nostateviolence@gmail.com! It’s likely that your investment provider does offer a “socially conscious” fund to some clients but your university has elected not to include that fund on the retail menu you see. We’ll also be organizing university-specific campaigns to make these options more readily accessible.
7. Is a No State Violence fund suitable for my retirement savings?
7. Is a No State Violence fund suitable for my retirement savings?
We are not providing investment advice, but most advice-giving entities suggest your retirement savings should or could involve a mix of stocks and bonds, and international and domestic investments. Most investment providers offer Social Choice or Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) funds that try to filter investments on social and environmental considerations, and many faculty already invest a portion of their individual accounts in such funds. We are asking the firms that service faculty retirement accounts to each create a new fund in this category that filters specifically according to the Weapon Free Funds list, the Prison Free Funds list, and the American Friends Service Committee BDS divestment shortlist. Because the companies on these lists comprise a very small fraction of the total domestic and international stock markets, investment funds created to meet our criteria could easily remain large and diversified across sectors (with the exception of the defense sector) as well as countries. Any responsibly created new No State Violence fund would be appropriate as a part of a balanced retirement portfolio.
8. Will moving my money to a “socially conscious” or No State Violence fund put my retirement at risk?
8. Will moving my money to a “socially conscious” or No State Violence fund put my retirement at risk?
There are currently no large retail retirement funds that are divested from state violence, and therefore no data on their performance. Historically, socially conscious ESG (environmental, social, and governance) funds have seen competitive performance, with deviations attributable to how the fossil fuel industry performs.
Our ask is for providers to exclude companies that have been specifically targeted by major organizations opposing state violence. The exclusions of the AFSC divestment shortlist and the high-risk companies of Weapons Free and Prisons Free funds amount to less than 5% of the holdings of most index funds. Amal Invest has conducted a study backtesting three popular funds over seven years with and without genocide filters, and found that following the BDS shortlist had minimal impact. A more significant risk could come from redirecting retirement savings to the limited options offered in current ESG options, which mostly focus on large US companies.
If you are concerned, please remember that the pledge commits to moving only 10% of your account to a more ethical fund, though you are of course welcome to move more. We understand that investment decisions carry real material consequences and often come with a lot of anxiety, so please take the time to consider your decisions and consult with a financial advisor if needed. We are not financial professionals and do not offer financial advice.
9. I live in a state that has laws against divestment. Can I still get involved?
9. I live in a state that has laws against divestment. Can I still get involved?
We are not lawyers. However, these laws generally apply to state-run public funds, not to individual retirement investment decisions. Feel free to sign the pledge anonymously if you are concerned about possible consequences.
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