About Corporate Social Responsibility at the ELCA

The Corporate Social Responsibility program operates on the belief that God's business involves all of life and that God calls the Church both corporately and individually to use all that is committed to its care to practice good stewardship of the creation (Genesis 1:26), pursue justice (Amos 5:24), care for people in need (Matthew 25:40), and seek things that make for peace (Luke 19:41-42). The Corporate Social Responsibility program seeks to dialogue with business representatives on the social implications of company practices and to affect ELCA investment policy in socially responsible ways.

The Corporate Social Responsibility Program (CSR) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is mandated by the ELCA Constitution:

CODIFICATION EXPLANATION
The provisions of the Constitution, the Bylaws, and the Continuing Resolutions that pertain to the same matter have been placed together. This arrangement requires that the three types of material be identified by means other than physical separation.
The three types of provision are identified by the following devices:
a. All constitutional provision are printed in bold face type.
b. All bylaw provisions are printed in light face type.
c. All continuing resolutions are printed in italic type.
d. A numerical codification indicates general subject, constitutional provisions, bylaw provisions, and continuing resolutions

Chapter 14.
CHURCH COUNCIL

14.21.14 The Church Council, acting through the designated churchwide unit, shall have responsibility for the corporate social responsibility of this church and shall have the authority to file shareholder resolutions and cast proxy ballots thereon on stocks held by the churchwide units that are not separately incorporated. In addition, the Church Council may make recommendations to the churchwide units that are separately incorporated concerning the filing of shareholder resolutions and the casting of ballots on stocks held by those units.

(11-05) ELCA CONSTITUTION – CHAPTER 14 / 101

Chapter 16.
PROGRAM UNITS OF THE CHURCHWIDE ORGANIZATION

16.12.D05. Church in Society Unit
The Church in Society unit shall assist this church to discern, understand, and respond to the needs of human beings, communities, society, and the whole creation through direct human services and through addressing systems, structures, and policies of society, seeking to promote justice, peace, and the care of the earth. To fulfill these responsibilities, this program unit shall:

i. give expression to this church’s concern for corporate social respon-sibility, both in its internal affairs and its interaction in the broader society. To do so, this program unit will:

1) exercise, at the direction of the Church Council, the rights of this church as a corporate shareholder on issues of social concern on stocks held by the churchwide units that are not separately incorporated. In addition, the Church Council may make recommendations to the churchwide units that are separately incorporated concerning the filing of shareholder resolutions and the casting of proxy ballots on stocks held by those units;

2) facilitate the formation of an Advisory Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility that will include representatives from the Board of Pensions, the Church Council, and other units of this church and that will give counsel and advice to all appropriate units of this church on corporate social responsibility; and

3) work with national ecumenical groups on issues of corporate responsibility.

(11-05) ELCA CONSTITUTION – CHAPTER 16 / 123