Meet iconik: Amplifying Shareholder Impact Through Engagement

In 2022, the Russell Family Foundation (TRFF) joined the UN-convened Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) and committed to transforming our investment portfolios to net zero GHG emissions. With positive climate impact as our guiding principle, TRFF is mobilizing every tool we have in our portfolio, from where we invest to how we engage so that both our capital and our ownership practices support a healthier planet and more resilient communities.

For long-term asset owners, one of the most effective ways to advance this transition is through active engagement with the organizations we invest in. By making our voices heard, we can encourage companies to strengthen their strategies, improve transparency, and operate in ways that contribute to shared prosperity and environmental well-being. A central mechanism for this engagement is proxy voting. When shareholders vote on issues such as a climate strategy or emissions disclosure, the cumulative signal helps guide corporate accountability and long-term market stability. 

To best use proxy voting as the powerful tool it can be, we’ve partnered with iconik, a leading U.S.-based proxy service that tailors each vote to clients’ investment policies. iconik aims to shift power and influence from corporate managers back to investors, and give organizations a path to vote in accordance with both their investment policies and mission statements. By partnering with iconik, we’re amplifying our voice and voting intent to better engage as asset owners. 

iconik’s Approach to Proxy Voting 

As Alex Thaler, Co-Founder and CEO of iconik explains, iconik helps foundations address two fundamental questions in their approach to proxy voting: how is voting power being exercised right now, and is that voting power actually aligned with our mission? To do so, iconik offers two main tools. 

Its rules engine, VoteForge, lets investors follow or create voting policies that reflect their preferences and priorities, then automatically casts ballots accordingly and reports back on outcomes. Through iconik, TRFF can build a tailored voting policy across key environmental, social, and governance topics. When company meetings occur, iconik auto-votes proxies in line with that profile (TRFF can review and adjust votes if desired). iconik then provides reporting dashboards that show how ballots were decided across the issues a client cares about, creating a verifiable link from policy to practice. 

iconik also offers Prism, a research environment that compares a mission-aligned voting profile to the historical voting records of funds or managers, so owners can see where manager votes diverge from their policy issue by issue. This makes it easier to engage managers with specifics instead of generalities. iconik also makes the underlying data easier to assemble across different ownership structures. Having a clear, auditable policy means our preferences are ready to follow our capital as those options expand.

The combination of these tools allows asset owners to understand how their mission translates into voting priorities and whether those priorities are currently being met, as well as ensure that their votes going forward align with their values. This gives asset owners agency in the system, letting them send a clear, repeated signal on how they want companies to behave.

Alex explains that this approach to mission-aligned investing complements other approaches including those based on divestment. Divestment can, however, transfer influence to new owners who may be less concerned with sustainable goals, potentially giving the company a stronger mandate to continue any extractive practices. Although decisions about whether to engage or divest are unique to each organization, Alex aims to provide richer options for managing and deploying stock investments by making mission-aligned proxy voting more accessible to foundations.  

Part of Our Total Portfolio Approach 

For TRFF, engagement is a core pillar of our NZAOA strategy and our broader commitment to total portfolio activation. iconik helps us put that pillar into practice: it helps us diagnose alignment, execute votes at scale, and verify outcomes. We developed our own tailored voting profile through iconik’s VoteForge to align our votes with our mission. We also set up alerts for the highest emitters in our portfolio, so that we can stay up to date on what’s on the ballot for the issues and topics most important to us. 

Foundations and other charitable organizations collectively own trillions of dollars of stock. Modest, transparent steps can add up; making your intent visible through the votes you cast is a powerful way to contribute to the broader transition. In an environment where support for climate-forward proposals can fluctuate, clarity and consistency matter. By reclaiming our vote and coordinating our voice, we aim to accelerate credible transition plans, strengthen board accountability, and keep just-transition considerations at the center of corporate decision-making.