Not so long ago, faithful Catholics upset over a company’s hostile stance toward Christianity or traditional moral values had little recourse beyond boycotting the business, something that corporate executives knew was unlikely to have much impact and would be difficult to sustain.

Today, thanks to a growing number of financial firms offering clients guidance and new research tools to help them align their investments with the principles of their faith, individuals and small institutional investors can make a difference in how businesses operate, experts say.

This faith-based approach to investing is gaining in popularity. Last year, assets managed by faith-based funds exceeded $100 billion for the first time, according to a study by faith-based firm Brightlight. Yet the concept is still new to many people. While 48% of investors in a recent survey said they were interested in faith-based investing, only 21% of respondents were familiar with such funds, according to Praxis Investment Management, another faith-based firm.

The problematic political agendas of many corporations today are fueling interest in the concept. Chris McMahon, president and CEO of MFA Wealth and Aquinas Wealth Advisors in Pittsburgh and host of a new EWTN program The Faith and Finance Report, said that U.S. corporations typically had a neutral moral outlook 15 years ago, but since then many have opted to go “woke” with “radically anti-Catholic” boards of directors supporting causes at odds with Catholic belief. 

Some prominent corporations have been donors to Planned Parenthood, for example, which is a leading abortion provider and promoter of the use of artificial contraceptives. Additionally, he noted, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, allowing states to prohibit abortion, some companies pledged financial support to employees who wanted to travel to other states to have abortions.

Others support transgender causes; he pointed to the 2023 retailer Target’s LGBT Pride collection that included “tuck-friendly” wear and rainbow-colored onesies for infants.

The picture has improved in 2025, he concedes. However, such activists “are not being fired, but folded into other departments that use different language.” Catholics and other religious people who hold to traditional morality now have “a voice” in the business world, but due to the duplicitous behavior of some companies in masking their progressive agenda, “we have to be more diligent in recognizing policies at odds with our faith.”

His company, he noted, offers a free financial tool investors can use to grade the performance of their investment portfolio and show steps one can take to ensure it aligns with one’s faith. Additionally, McMahon wrote a book released in 2025, Faithful Finances: Six Steps to Establishing a Catholic Financial Life, a plan to assess one’s financial situation and to align it with one’s faith.

Jessica Chominski is a financial adviser at Stonecrop Wealth Advisors in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester. She agreed with McMahon that individual investors can take steps to defund companies that engage in activities with which they object and that “we’re not seeing the sacrifices in returns that we once did.”

She added that as someone who had been active in the pro-life movement, “what we previously did when we saw companies supporting abortion was to boycott them. Their boards might roll their eyes and even take a hit in the upcoming quarter’s return, but they believed over time they could wait it out and customers would return.”

But today, she continued, mutual fund companies friendly to Catholic morality can now approach such companies “with shareholder pressure and make greater strides at changing policies than what our boycotts once did. It’s not just a bunch of homeschool moms doing a boycott.”

When companies pledged support for employees seeking abortions out-of-state after Dobbs, for example, “large mutual fund companies friendly to Christianity could insist on policy changes in writing or say, ‘We’re out.’ If secular groups supporting secular causes such as environmentalism can influence corporate boards, why can’t we Christians do the same for causes important to us?”

She, like McMahon, recommends that individual investors begin by researching what companies their funds are investing in. She said, “Now is the time for us Catholics to make an impression on the market. We can make an impact.”

Corporate Engagement

There are also greater opportunities for those involved with institutional investing to make a difference. Sam Saladino is CEO & founder and Pia de Solenni is vice president of corporate engagement of IWP Capital (iwpcapital.com), whose mission is “to inform and apply a faith-based investing consensus that addresses the most pressing challenges of our time and advances the Church’s vision for faithful action in our economic lives.” 

The pair see the positive impact that motivated Catholics who are institutional investors can make, whether they be private companies or religious organizations such as Catholic dioceses. Their firm uses a Faith and Family Values (FFV) scorecard so that investors can ensure that their money is not being used by companies that engage in activities with which they object. 

Under the category of “Protecting Human Life,” for example, the firm screens out companies involved in such practices as abortion and euthanasia; the “Promoting Human Dignity” category screens out companies involved with such practices as adult entertainment and sex reassignment surgery and treatments.

Saladino noted, “Many people don’t realize how a small player can make a big difference.”

He gave the example of a corporation that had previously denied matching funds for employee donations to Christian charities (which did so for other charities) that changed the policy after a $25,000 investor’s financial adviser approached the board to change the policy.

De Solenni noted that in previous years, Christians have been “asleep at the wheel” in advocating for policies friendly to their belief system, while secular activists were vocal in promoting theirs. She is pleased to see this changing somewhat, declaring, “People need to understand what a positive impact investors can have.”

In her role with IWP Capital, de Solenni screens potential investment opportunities according to their products and services. She explained, “If we find out a hospital does abortions, it is a fail. If they give to Planned Parenthood, we engage them to try to get them to change their policies.”

She noted that Saladino had approached Wells Fargo and persuaded its leadership not to give money to Planned Parenthood.

Saladino noted that a few decades ago there were limited options for Catholic faith-based investors. Today there are many, such as funds offered through the Knights of Columbus. Additionally, some established companies — he cited Charles Schwab — allow investors to choose a faith-based investing option.

They, too, note that faith-based investing does not harm returns. All 21 screens for Catholic values done by IWP Capital, for example, eliminate 9% of all possible investments yet show no difference in returns, Saladino noted.

The pair encouraged Christians on corporate boards to live their faith when making business decisions, and they urged Catholic investors to be more aggressive in challenging boards when they believe their policies go astray. This includes encouraging businesses to steer clear of political and social issues. De Solenni said, “If a company makes and sells tires, let it stick to that.”

She continued, “Christians have $22 trillion invested in the stock market. With that amount invested we can have a great influence on companies. When they do things we don’t like, we can speak up and they’ll listen to us.”