If not for the power of shareholders to influence the investment policies and internal practices of the corporations they own a piece of, Nelson Mandela would probably still be imprisoned and apartheid would still exist in South Africa. Beginning in 1972, the activism of investors representing billions of dollars, including United Methodist Charities and Catholic Charities, had a profound effect on the willingness of the world’s largest corporations to maintain investments in South Africa.

At Wainwright Bank, we believe the management of one's financial affairs is not a morally neutral endeavor; where you invest your money, and who you buy your goods and services from can influence social conditions. Whether you are a depositor of modest means or a charitable foundation, we consider the stewardship of your funds to be a statement of support for our socially progressive banking philosophy.

"[The story of efforts in the U.S. to aid the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa] demonstrates that acts of protest and conscience, so often dismissed as pointless, can gradually accumulate into an irresistible force for change. It suggests, in an era when people feel overwhelmed by the power of elites, that social transformation can take place from below. It outlines the circumstances under which economic calculations about institutional self-interest can give way to broader concern for human well-being. It counters our sense of futility by reminding us that amazing changes can and do take place in history -- and that they depend not only on the evolution of impersonal forces but also on human imagination and commitment. We have control over our ideas, our ideas have material consequences, and, in the end, as a people, we become what we believe."
- Robert Kinlock Massie, Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years (New York: Doubleday, 1998).