The City of Olympia Adopts Ethical Investment Language and Policies
Over a year of sustained pressure and working with Olympia City Council Member Clark Gilman, Palestine Action South Sound and the Rachel Corrie Foundation secured a meaningful BDS policy for Olympia.
by Bill Dole
What Are We Invested In?
In the fall of 2024, a group of people in Olympia, WA reached out to city Council Member Clark Gilman. At this time it had already become apparent that there was a genocide happening against Palestinians in Gaza, carried out by the Israeli military and supported by U.S. tax dollars.
Soon after Israel’s full scale invasion of Gaza following October 7, 2023, activists gathered in Olympia to form an organization that soon took the name Palestine Action of South Sound (PASS), which calls for a permanent ceasefire, an end to the siege of Gaza — now nearing twenty years — and an end to Israeli occupation. PASS operates through committees, and it is the legislative committee that began to work with Gilman.
By the time the PASS legislative group had reached out to Gilman, some individuals within the committee had already filed a Public Records Request to learn what the City held in Israeli bonds or other holdings concerning Israel. The findings turned out negative. Nothing in the Public Records Request told us that the City had any holdings regarding Israel. We wanted to keep it that way.
One of the members of the legislative committee has been a long-time friend of Council Member Gilman. She suggested we ask him to talk with us about what the City was invested in and to assure us the City was not invested in holdings supporting Israel. We began to have productive weekly conversations in which we all, including Gilman, learned more about what the City was invested in, how the City could rewrite its investment policy, and processes to pass divestment efforts.
One thing we wanted to avoid was the atmosphere we experienced when Olympia passed a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire resolution in Gaza and the West Bank, which passed in December 2024. There was contentious public commentary and efforts to water down the resolution by council members. We wanted to avoid public comment that could derail our work to assure that the City had no money that supported Israel’s actions and long-standing policies.
We had an advantage that many advocacy groups working for ethical investment or divestment efforts at city or state level often don’t have. We had a council member that wanted to work with us.
Our Process and Language
After weeks of discussions — including with Gilman, who continued to join our weekly meetings — we learned that the City should pursue ethical investment policies and that it’s possible to pass such efforts through a consent portion of a city council meeting where the majority (4 of 7) vote on an item without public discussion.
We are indebted to the American Friends Service Committee, which advised us at their weekly virtual Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) Office Hours and other meetings to pursue ethical investment policies without public debate if possible. They also helped us craft the language proposed to City Council. The language introduced in Olympia reads in part:
The City will refrain from investment in companies with primary business functions in harmful industries such as tobacco, fossil fuels, mass incarceration or immigrant detention, and weaponry of any kind, or in companies with a consistent record of direct involvement in severe human rights violations such as slavery and prison labor, war crimes, illegal military occupation, racial segregation, or apartheid.
This intentionally broad language does not mention Israel. It is written to assure that the City does not invest money in any institution that supports human rights violations including racial segregation and apartheid — both of which Israel has been accused of by human rights organizations, including several within Israel itself.
It would be wrong, however, to say that Israel’s policies were not part of our discussion about ethical investment. As mentioned, we were prompted to begin this work because we wanted to know what our city was invested in, and how we could assure that it’s not engaged in supporting Israel. We discussed whether “genocide” should be something the City refrains from investing in (we concluded that “genocide” falls under severe human rights violations, and the less push-back on the language the better). Several members of our PASS committee have been to Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. I’m also an employee of the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice (RCF) and several members of our committee are also currently and formerly involved in RCF work.
We were able to develop the policy language, learn the structure, and learn how it could be introduced by May 2025. That month, the City of Olympia Finance Committee voted to adopt a draft resolution of the language. However, for various reasons — including political campaigns and multiple issues the City has needed to address in our charged political climate — the language was never proposed to the full city council in 2025.
This year, after council members took their oaths of office, the finance committee proposed the same language with an updated and more expensive packet explaining the monitoring system, the role of the city, and the process of ethical investment. The Draft Investment Policy Update can be found on February 23 finance committee proposed agenda.
Introduced as part of the City Council consent agenda, on March 24, 2026, the Olympia City Council unanimously passed the ethical investment policy. We are the latest addition to the list of cities that have adopted ethical investment policies, closely following St. Louis, which passed its ethical investment policy in November, 2025.
Other Local Ethical Investment and Divestment News
In Washington State’s short legislative session this year (January 12-March 12) there were several important bills introduced. One was the Responsible Investment Act, Senate Bill 6304, which ensures that responsible principles of investing are incorporated into the investment decision making of the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB). Previous work with WSIB has made it clear that they are invested in harmful industries, and that state legislation is the best way to change that. Senate Bill 6304 did not make it through the essential committees for a final floor vote this year, and we expect a multi-year campaign.
We are pleased that this March the Washington State Treasurer’s Office fully divested from $62 million in bonds previously invested in Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar manufactures the armored D-9 bulldozer which has long been used by the Israeli military in home demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. A militarized Caterpillar D-9 operated by two Israeli soldiers was also the machine that killed Rachel Corrie in 2003.
A March 25 article in the Seattle Times demonstrates the popular sentiment surrounding ethical investments and the movement to refrain from investing in companies with a consistent record of direct involvement in severe human rights abuses.
Praise for Olympia Ethical Investment
The City of Olympia’s Finance Director, Michael Githens, said of the policy: “[the] newly adopted update to the Investment Policy incorporates environmental, social, and governance language to guide investments to better align with the City of Olympia’s broader objectives of the community.” He stated, “This is a way of investing that involves evaluating companies based on how well they perform in the areas of environmental responsibility, social impact, and corporate governance. Githens added, “The City typically holds few investments in this realm, but the investment language makes sure that now and in the future, we follow specific guidelines. The language will allow the City to still maintain a portfolio that maintains an investment approach to further the City’s goals of achieving safety, liquidity, and return.”
Our RCF colleague Emily Antoon-Walsh shared, “As a pediatrician and a parent in Olympia, I am proud that our city has taken this step towards ethical investment. It should not be controversial to say that we do not want our money to harm children. From Gaza to Dilley, Texas, adults can either look away, or show up as helpers. Children see how we respond in this time of great harm. Let the message we send with our actions be one that recognizes the humanity of everyone. Removing our dollars from doing harm is one step we want our city to take.”
Lin Nelson, former RCF board member and one of Rachel Corrie’s professors, emphasized that “the Ethical Investments principle that the Council has adopted is very significant, especially at this time of global peril for so many. Olympia will be joining other communities committed to urgently reshaping our priorities.”
Council Member Clark Gilman, without whom this success would have been impossible, said, “I am very proud that Olympia adopted ethical investment amendments to our investment policy. We didn’t take this action in a vacuum. This success happened through the sustained efforts of community volunteers from the legislative committee of Palestine Action South Sound and the guidance of Dov Baum from the American Friends Service Committee.” He continued, “It is often said that the budget document is our most important policy statement. I believe that the investment policy is a most important statement of community principles.”
Gilman said that 2026 Investment Policies “also charged the city finance director with reviewing existing investments to ensure compliance with our policy and seeking new opportunities for affirmative investments that will provide community benefit.”
We all considered the language we wanted Olympia to pursue as a template for other cities, counties, and states. Reflecting on the campaign, Council Member Gilman said, “I hope this inspires other local governments to join us in saying our investment dollars should not support human rights violators, fossil fuels, or weapons of war.”
Bill Dole is the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice Policy and Communications Coordinator and a member of the Palestine Action of South Sound Legislative Committee.