Adasina Social Justice All Cap Global ETF (JSTC)

The Adasina Social Justice All Cap Global ETF (JSTC) is a fund that invests in large, mid, and small-cap stocks worldwide while applying a deliberate social-justice lens: it excludes companies that fall short on labor practices, community investment, and workforce diversity, and it donates a share of its revenue to social justice organizations.

What does “social justice” mean as a fund criterion?

Adasina, the fund’s sponsor, defines social justice investment through five pillars: labor practices, community investment, diversity in leadership and the workforce, economic justice (addressing wage gaps and wealth inequality), and community ownership models. These are more specific than generic environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks, which cast wider nets. Adasina’s screening is built to answer the question: does this company create genuine opportunity for workers and communities, or does it extract wealth while externalizing costs?

In practice, that means JSTC excludes companies with histories of labor violations, union-busting, misclassification of workers as contractors to avoid benefits, or systematic wage discrimination. It also looks at whether a company is active in communities where it operates — whether it sources locally, invests in education and housing, supports small-business ecosystems. Diversity metrics matter: the fund checks whether leadership and the broader workforce reflect the demographics of the markets the company serves.

How is the fund constructed?

JSTC starts with a global universe of companies across all market capitalizations — hence “all cap,” meaning it is not restricted to large-cap stocks like many thematic funds are. That scope is important: it allows the fund to capture mid-cap growth stories and smaller regional leaders in markets outside North America and Western Europe, not just multinational giants.

The fund then applies a negative screen, removing companies that do not meet Adasina’s social-justice thresholds. This is not a binary check; it involves judgment. A company that pays above-market wages but has limited board diversity might pass, whereas one with exceptional leadership diversity but a history of worker misclassification might not. Adasina publishes its methodology, but like all values-based screening, there is room for interpretation and debate.

What remains is a diversified global portfolio. Because the exclusionary screen removes some companies, the fund does not mirror a broad market-cap-weighted index; its holdings are tilted toward companies that explicitly prioritize stakeholders beyond shareholders alone. In certain sectors — industrials, financials, technology — the concentration of socially conscious companies may be thinner, so the fund’s exposure is lighter. In consumer staples or healthcare, where there are more companies adopting labor-first models or community investment, exposure is heavier.

Does it donate to nonprofits?

Yes. JSTC commits to donating a percentage of its management fees to social-justice nonprofits. This is unusual in the mutual-fund world and distinguishes JSTC from most thematic ETFs. It turns the fund into a quasi-philanthropic vehicle: as the fund grows and fees flow to nonprofits, the amount donated grows too. It also creates a powerful incentive: if Adasina wants the fund to succeed, it must deliver competitive returns, because underperformance will shrink the asset base and thus reduce both investor returns and charitable donations.

What are the performance trade-offs?

Any exclusionary screen — whether based on social values, environmental impact, or governance standards — creates a potential performance drag. By removing companies, you reduce your investable universe and you may rule out some of the market’s strongest performers if they do not meet your criteria. A social-justice screen is particularly restrictive in sectors where employment is heavy and where labor practices are either systematic or contentious: apparel manufacturing, meatpacking, certain financial-services models, some segments of technology.

That said, JSTC’s “all cap global” scope gives it more room to hunt for quality companies than a large-cap-only fund would have. Small- and mid-cap companies in emerging markets often have closer relationships with their local communities and more transparent labor practices than sprawling multinationals do. Some of the most compelling returns in global equity over the past two decades have come from mid-cap companies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America — markets where JSTC can find socially responsible businesses that also happen to be growing.

How does geography shape the fund’s positioning?

A truly global fund is not merely a collection of U.S. and European large-cap stocks; it must have meaningful exposure to Asia-Pacific, emerging markets, and developed-market mid-caps. Social-justice values are not unique to wealthy countries, but they are expressed differently. A retailer in Bangladesh that enforces strict labor standards and invests in worker education and healthcare may be the embodiment of social justice, even if its absolute wages are lower than Western standards. A tech company in India or Brazil that hires locally, trains talent, and invests in community infrastructure represents a different kind of impact than a Western tech giant.

JSTC’s global mandate means it can capture these regional leaders without being biased toward the Global North’s versions of social responsibility. That geographic diversification also means the fund is less exposed to cyclical downturns in any single developed market and more exposed to long-term demographic and development trends in younger, faster-growing markets.

What are the real risks?

The first is performance volatility. If the screened universe underperforms the broader market — say, growth stocks surge while value stocks, which may be overrepresented in the screened portfolio, lag — JSTC will underperform. Values-based screening introduces conviction risk: if you are right that socially conscious companies outperform, you win; if you are wrong, you lag.

The second is concentration risk. If certain sectors or geographies are disproportionately screened out, the fund can become unknowingly concentrated in the sectors and regions that pass the filter. A fund that is inadvertently heavy in consumer staples and light in financials or technology is not diversified in the way a market-weight fund is.

Third is screening creep. As social-justice values evolve, so does Adasina’s screening process. A company that is compliant today might fall out of favor as standards shift. That is not necessarily bad — standards should improve — but it creates uncertainty for long-term holders.

How to research JSTC

Start by examining the fund’s holdings list and comparing it sector-by-sector and geography-by-geography to a global all-cap benchmark such as the MSCI All Country World Index. Where is JSTC overweight? Underweight? That tells you whether the screen is tilting toward or away from growth, value, or specific regions. Look at the fund’s performance relative to both the MSCI ACWI and to other ESG or socially responsible global funds to see where it stands in the competitive landscape. Read Adasina’s detailed methodology and their published list of exclusions; understanding which companies are screened out will sharpen your sense of what the fund is and is not. Finally, track the fund’s dividend and charitable donation — you should be able to see on Adasina’s website which nonprofits are receiving the proceeds and whether that aligns with your own values.