Every dollar you park, save, or invest has massive impact.

Money is often a dirty word—and it frequently is dirty, actively funding climate destruction, prisons, war-making, the surveillance economy, plastics, and harmful defense industries. Your retirement savings, pension funds, personal investments, and everyday banking choices are pouring trillions into these systems. Major banks have funneled $1.37 trillion into coal, oil, gas, fracking, and pipelines since the 2015 Paris Agreement.¹

Much of what gets labeled "socially responsible" is still fundamentally planet-harming. Over 7,500 institutional investors worldwide currently hold $4.3 trillion in fossil fuel company bonds and shares—through pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, and sovereign wealth funds.² In the US, retirement savers have an estimated $1 trillion invested in fossil fuel companies through 401(k)s and IRAs alone.³ In Europe, over €75 billion of pension money sits in fossil fuel companies. In Asia, ESG funds remain heavily exposed to coal-reliant industries despite their green-sounding names. Across Latin America, fossil fuel investment still runs at over $90 billion a year.

Look deeper into many of these same funds and you'll also find holdings in private prison operators, defense contractors, mass surveillance technology companies, and single-use plastics manufacturers. The bad marketing goes by different names.

Three Things to Watch For

• Greenwashing: Funds use misleading environmental claims to look sustainable while continuing to finance polluting companies and fossil fuels. A "fossil fuel screened" BlackRock fund was found to hold shares in Marathon Petroleum and Phillips 66—two of the world's most active fossil fuel lobbyists. Research by NGOs Urgewald and Facing Finance found that over a third of all ESG-labeled funds in Europe invest in companies actively expanding fossil fuels.²
• Purposewashing: A company or fund claims a bold social or ethical mission with nothing real behind it. Think financial firms posting sustainability pledges with no governance changes, or funds named "Responsible Growth" with no meaningful screening criteria.
• Planetwashing: Broader than greenwashing, this is when entire financial products, indices, and corporate frameworks are dressed up to look planet-aligned while continuing to fund activities that accelerate climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and ecological harm.

These products often charge higher fees than conventional funds—meaning you pay a premium for products that are still actively destroying the planet and harming people. A big part of this workshop is helping you find the right options: lower-fee funds that either have genuine positive impact or at minimum are not doing active harm.

No matter what we do in our careers and communities, if we don't change our approach to money, the future will be much more bleak. This workshop gives you the tools, resources, and strategies to make better choices—starting with your own finances and extending to how you advocate for change at every level.

Your Money, Your Impact

Every changemaker needs to understand where their money is parked and what it is funding—then decide how much they want to actively manage it. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but knowing your options matters enormously.

What the workshop will cover:

• Avoid all types of washing - To understand how often financial institutions or companies are purpose greenwashing, climate washing, and to make the best, most affordable choices to park, save, and invest your money.
• Lower Fees and Maximize Impact: How to find the right options where fees are affordable or appropriate, and why that is essential to both making an impact and growing your financial sustainable base for the long term.
• Individual and Systems Approaches: What you can do as an individual investor, how to start influencing your organization, and tips on starting to engage at a larger system level.

Understanding how your money works

• Passive vs. active investing: Passive investing tracks a market index with minimal human intervention and lower fees. Active investing involves managers trying to beat the market, usually charging far higher fees and often delivering worse results.
• Mutual funds: Pooled investments managed by professionals. Many default retirement plan options are mutual funds, and the majority carry significant fossil fuel, defense, and prison industry exposure.
• ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds): Similar to mutual funds but traded like stocks. Usually lower fees, and now widely available in fossil-free and impact-focused versions. When chosen carefully, they are one of the most accessible low-cost tools for values-aligned investing.
• Diversification: Spreading money across different asset types, sectors, and geographies to reduce risk. A well-built impact portfolio can reduce exposure to both financial risk and planetary harm at the same time.

Choosing your level of involvement

• Do it yourself: Full control over every decision. Requires time, research, and ongoing attention. Works well for those willing to dig into fund holdings, fee structures, and ESG claims—and actually verify them.
• Passive index funds: A solid starting point for most people. Low fees, broad diversification, and increasingly available in fossil-free versions. The key is choosing the right index.
• Hiring professionals: Human advisors offer personalized guidance and can be held accountable. Always ask where exactly your money goes, what fees you're paying, and whether the firm has any relationship with the products they recommend.
• Robo-advisors: Algorithm-driven portfolios that can be set to values-aligned parameters with minimal effort and low fees.
• AI tools: Capable of scanning thousands of funds, analyzing holdings, and uncovering hidden fossil fuel, defense, and prison exposure at a scale and speed that wasn't possible a few years ago. Worth knowing how to use—critically.

What You Walk Away With

Over 50 resources for further learning and toconnect to some of the leading resources out there.

• A simple framework to map where your money is actually going.
• Tools to evaluate banks, funds, and platforms for real alignment.
• How to find lower-fee options that are either genuinely impactful or at minimum not funding harm.
• A working understanding of passive vs. active investing, ETFs, mutual funds, and diversification.
• Strategies for retirement plans, DIY investing, advisors, robo-advisors, or AI tools.
• An actionable plan to start shifting your money—even in small amounts—toward impact.

Workshop Details

May 7, 11:00 AM - 1:30 PM EDT (2.5 hours, highly interactive)

$35 — or join PCDN Career Campus where this workshop is included in your membership.

Your Workshop Leader

Dr. Craig Zelizer is the Founder of PCDN Global and has spent over three decades working at the intersection of social impact and business. That includes teaching numerous courses on business, finance, and social change at Georgetown University and beyond; angel investing in social impact startups across 20+ countries; working as a startup scout identifying early-stage ventures making a difference; and actively investing in climate-focused platforms pushing for real solutions.

He is widely published on social change, peacebuilding, and career development, and has helped thousands of professionals around the world advance careers of impact. He has built one of the world's leading social impact career communities, continues to learn and push himself in the world of sustainable finance through practice, active investing, research, and ongoing dialogue with colleagues around the world.

This workshop draws not from academic publications on sustainable finance, but from years of firsthand experience—as an investor, educator, entrepreneur, and practitioner—navigating the very choices this workshop is designed to help you make.

This workshop is for social impact professionals, students, freelancers, and leaders—from complete financial beginners to experienced investors—who want their money to reflect the world they are working to build.

FAQs

Not financial advice?
Correct—we share principles, tools, and research from our own experience. Each person is responsible for their own decisions, and consulting a certified financial advisor is always encouraged.

Format?
Live, highly interactive: presentations, hands-on exercises, open Q&A, and networking.

More questions?
Email info@pcdn.global and we'll get back to you within 1-2 business days.

Ready to make your money count?

Register for the Workshop

Sources

¹ Banking on Climate Chaos — bankingonclimatechaos.org
² Urgewald & Facing Finance: Investing in Climate Chaos 2024 — urgewald.org
³ Fossil Free Funds: Our Retirement Savings Own One Fifth of U.S. Fossil Fuel Stocks — fossilfreefunds.org
? Sphere: Retirement Savings of European Citizens Invest Tens of Billions in Fossil Fuels — oursphere.org
? ESG Investment Funds Rife with Greenwashing: Asia Overview — eco-business.com
? Latin America Energy Outlook — oecd.org
? Many Green Funds Don't Live Up to Their Claims, Time — time.com
? Purpose Washing: What Is It and Why Does It Matter — thecentrepoint.ca