Reinvestment, a framework that charts a different course for Harvard’s future, has been part of Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard’s platform since well before the university committed to divestment. Most simply understood, reinvestment means moving money away from companies or industries that are causing harm (e.g., the fossil fuel industry, or the prison industrial complex) and toward investments that will repair that harm. We argue that Harvard's far-reaching impacts and its mission as a nonprofit research institution embed it with a responsibility to act for the good of the public, as well as that of its own students, workers, and community — not just for its own benefit. Reinvestment is one tool Harvard can use to fulfill this responsibility.

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In Whose University: The Case for Reinvestment at Harvard, we argue that Harvard has accumulated wealth by profiting off injustice and oppression since its founding. Our campaign makes the case that Harvard, as an “anchor institution” with a supposed commitment to its students, to the global community, and to the future, should not have the right to invest billions of dollars of wealth in the stock market without any regard for the effects of that money in the world. What's more, we argue that it is now time for Harvard to start making amends for four hundred years of harm, and begin redirecting its money toward building a different future.

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The demands laid out in this report are first steps toward a fundamental transformation of Harvard’s endowment. Rather than focusing on investment solely for Harvard’s own profit, we seek a shift in priority from profit at any cost to investment for the long-term benefit of the Cambridge-Boston community and the world. We seek an endowment that centers different voices, interacts with the Cambridge and Boston communities in generative ways, and makes democratic, transparent decisions. To learn more about our reinvestment demands, read the report now!