Meet Make My Money Matter: the group aligning your money with your values
Have you ever wondered what pensions, banks, and finance have to do with fossil fuels and climate change? Well, there are a lot more links than you might think…
We caught up with Grace from Make My Money Matter to find out more about the importance of understanding what your hard-earned cash is being used for, and how we can encourage more people to go green with their green!
“When it comes to influencing these big institutions, it’s important to remember that individual actions can become collective actions”
What is Make My Money Matter and how did it get started?
Make My Money Matter is a campaign group that was co-founded by filmmaker Richard Curtis in 2020. It aims to make sure that people’s money - and where they keep it - aligns with their values and creates a fairer planet for us all.
What are some of the main aims of Make My Money Matter?
We want to make sure that pensions are aligned with net zero targets and that they’re not financing things that are detrimental to the planet, including deforestation. One of our current campaigns aims to stop the UK’s high-street banks from funding fossil fuel expansion and to get them to engage with their clients around their climate transition plans to make sure they’re aligned with net zero.
How can individual actions persuade banks to change their ways?
When it comes to influencing these big institutions, it’s important to remember that individual actions can become collective actions. So yes, you individually interacting with your bank might not change the world - but when thousands or hundreds of thousands of people do it, that’s when you can see real change start to happen.
We’ve already seen in 2022 that two banks (Lloyds and HSBC) took the first step to end direct financing for fossil fuel expansion projects. The dial is moving in the right direction and a lot of banks have set themselves targets, it’s just really about holding them accountable to those targets and that’s where consumer pressure can really come in.
What are some of the key things that people can do to use their money for good?
On an individual level, it’s looking at what your pension is invested in and what those holdings are. If they don’t align with your values, many pension providers provide a green or ethical fund which you can switch over to and is quite simple to do. If you’re thinking about your choice of bank, you can see if they finance fossil fuel expansion. If they do, you can engage with them directly as a consumer and ask them to stop, but you can also switch your bank as well to one that aligns more closely with your values.
Do you think there’s a lack of awareness about the power of people’s pensions?
100%. Often when we talk to people the term pension is really misunderstood. People don’t think of it as their money that’s being invested, they think of it as something that comes out of their paycheck and sits in a vault somewhere until their retirement. Lots of people we talk to are really shocked when they find out about the types of things that their money is being invested in. That’s really a key part of our campaign, to raise awareness so that people know what their pension is doing.
How can people get involved with the work that you’re doing?
There are a few different things that people can do with us. Firstly, you can get your employer to sign up to our green pensions charter. You can also advise them to look at our resources like our guide on climate action and resources for employers on how to engage with their pension scheme and they type of questions they should be asking. We also have petitions around pensions and deforestation. When it comes to banks we have an action resource guide explaining the types of actions people can take, and an open letter to the big five UK high-street banks which people can sign as well.
