When you think of activism it might bring visions of placards, street marches or sit-ins. While we'd never say never to any of those things, shareholder activism usually looks a lot different. 

If you haven't been involved in a shareholder activism campaign before then the good news is that getting involved can be more simple than other types of activism.

The big thing we need for shareholder activism is shareholders. That's where you come in. You either use shares you already own in a company, or you buy shares in the company through the SIX platform, and then tick the box that lets SIX advocate on your behalf in meetings with the company. These could be meetings with the key decision makers at the company (like the CEO), or it could be at the annual shareholders meeting which is called an Annual General Meeting (AGM). 

Beyond owning shares and letting SIX use them in our advocacy, how much more you get involved is up to you. 

Having even a small number of supporting shareholders can help push a company to listen and engage. If we reach 100 shareholders, we unlock our right to lodge a resolution or member statement at the company’s AGM for formal voting and discussion. If we can get other shareholders to vote for our resolution, then that sends a big signal to the company to take action.

These tactics can also get the public’s attention which helps increase awareness and puts more pressure on the company to act. 

So here’s what it looks like to join a campaign with SIX.

In summary:

1. Buy shares through the SIX app or use shares you already own through another broker. This is the most valuable action, so once you’ve done this step you have done your most valuable part - the SIX campaigns team can take it from here. Or continue on for other ways to deepen your involvement.
2. Follow SIX’s emails and social media for important campaign updates. You can also follow our campaign partners, who are usually NGOs, for information about other ways you can support the campaign outside of being a shareholder. This can include actions like rallies and petitions, and also include contacting large shareholders like your own super fund to vote in favour of our resolution (optional).
3. Attend the company’s AGM or assign someone to attend in your place (definitely optional - AGMs often go for many hours before our resolution even gets discussed).

There are two ways to join a shareholder activism campaign with SIX.

Option 1: Use shares you already own

If you already own shares (e.g. through another trading platform) you can take a few minutes to sign SIX’s agency agreement on our website. 

This allows you to opt into SIX’s campaigns by giving us permission to lodge member statements and shareholder resolutions on your behalf. 

Option 2: Become a shareholder

If you are not yet a shareholder in the target company (or companies), the SIX app makes it easy to become a shareholder and join a campaign. 

To get involved through the SIX app you can create a SIX account (it’s free to do so), transfer funds from your regular bank into your trading wallet, choose a campaign, then buy shares (the ASX requires a minimum investment of $500 in a company). 

This is important to note: once you have signed the agency agreement or bought shares as part of a campaign, that’s the most important thing you need to do!

You can step back and leave it with us if you would like. But we’d love you to stay involved - and here’s how.

There are lots of ways to stay across the campaign, so you can find what works best for you:

• Check out our emails: We’ll keep you informed on big campaign moments, such as when we lodge resolutions you have supported or met with the target company on our demands. If you have created a SIX account to buy shares, you will already be on our e-mail list. If you have used shares you already own, you will need to opt into our broader email updates at this link.
• Read our blogs: Blogs on our website and in the SIX app go into more detail on big campaign moments and the progress we’re making with big companies on climate, nature and social justice issues.
• Follow us on social media: Find us on your preferred social media platform, where we will post snappy updates about our campaigns and key moments. We are on instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Facebook.
• Attend our online and in-person events: We run occasional in-person and online events, sometimes on our own and sometimes co-hosting with other groups.
• ‍Follow our campaign partners: SIX runs campaigns in partnership with groups like NGOs, ethical advisers, superannuation funds and unions. You can stay across what our partners are up to, and opportunities to get involved in their campaign activities, by following them on socials, signing up to their e-mailing list or becoming a volunteer/member with them.

The most important thing you can do is contribute your shares to help SIX build investor pressure on the company we are influencing, and to help unlock the right to lodge a shareholder resolution or member statement.

But as a shareholder, you also have the right to:

• attend the AGM (either in person or online)
• make a statement or ask a question to the board
• vote on resolutions
• or assign another person (known as a “proxy”) to attend in your place.
  

From the perspective of the shareholder campaign, there is no requirement that you attend the AGM (unless you would like to, of course!). You also don’t need to be at the AGM if you want to vote your shares in favour of a resolution.

For all the details of an AGM, keep an eye out for an email from the company with all the AGM details, including instructions on how to vote and appoint a proxy. The company usually sends out this email about one month before the AGM date.

If you can’t find the email, remember to check your trash/junk folder. If you still can’t find it, reach out to the SIX team for support.

It is always up to you to decide what to do with your shares, including whether to hold, buy, or sell and invest in other campaigns or companies that align with your values. SIX will always let you know if and when we no longer intend to use shares as part of a shareholder activism campaign.

Sometimes our shareholder activism campaigns get results fast, like the weeks it took Webjet to remove cruel animal tourism activities from their website. Other times our campaigns run for a few years, like our Save the Skate campaign which is now over two years old. While we'd love for our activist shareholders to stay invested in the company for the entire campaign, we understand that sometimes people need to sell before the campaign is completed.

That's okay, we usually try to find more than 100 shareholders in each company so that people can sell if they need to, and we don't lose our collective rights to submit a resolution.

In the best case scenario, the positive impact of our shareholder activism will make the company one you're happy to keep investing in.

Will you make or lose money on the shares? Sometimes the share price of companies we're campaigning goes up, and sometimes it goes down. Usually our campaigns aim to get companies to make a change that would have a big real world impact, but limited financial impact on the company. So it'd be unusual for our campaign to have a direct impact on a company's share price.

While you're invested in the target company, you'll receive any dividends that the company pays during the time that you remain a shareholder.

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Further reading

Check out some of SIX's other blogs on shareholder activism.

• Shareholder resolutions in Australian 2023-25
• Your money, your voice, your vote: why shareholder advocacy makes business sense
• Looking back, the rise of shareholder activism in Australia
• Explainer: how does a shareholder resolution help drive a campaign win?