Got a great cause? Here's how to build clout.

As a community organizer in the South Bronx, Elena Conte doesn't exactly fit the profile of a Wall Street mover and shaker. To the contrary, she works daily with some of New York City's poorest denizens to rid her neighborhood of toxic air and the nonstop stench of burning sludge.

But thanks to a recent partnership with nearby Sisters of Mercy nuns, her neighborhood's concerns will soon get a prominent hearing at Synagro, which owns the company that turns malodorous New York sewage into fertilizer pellets. The secret? Clout, as in the kind that comes with having millions to invest, as the sisters' Mercy Investment Program does.

"We've never tried anything along these lines, but we understand in other cases it's been very effective to make the case from within" as a shareholder coalition, Ms. Conte says via telephone from her office. "We're willing to try anything that's legal to make this company be a good neighbor.... It stinks here."

By bending the ear of an institutional investor, Conte's Sustainable South Bronx group has tapped into one of the most effective ways for citizens groups to influence corporations. The invested assets of institutions, such as state pension funds and college endowments, exceed $3.2 trillion. That's more than the annual federal budget of the United States - and represents more than a 25 percent stake in the nation's public companies.

Of course, winning over the decisionmakers at institutional funds isn't easy. Obstacles can arise. Yet a growing number of activists are trying nonetheless - and reporting a measure of success.

"I think it's related to the political landscape," says Dan Rosan, a health-issues specialist at the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility. "People who want to make positive change in the world see it's tougher and tougher to do that through public policy. Shareholder activism, when it's done properly, can be very effective" as an alternative mechanism.

The key, according to those who have had success, requires adapting one's tactics to the particular organization. A lifelong contributor to a state pension fund, for instance, is likely to have stronger standing to propose a policy than does someone who has never lived in the state (although outsiders, using different methods, can be persuasive, too).

Before graduating from Williams College in 2004, Mark Orlowski felt the entire college community should know where the school's $1.3 billion endowment was invested and how its managers were voting on issues that came before shareholders. As a tuition-paying stakeholder in the college, Mr. Orlowski gained a seat on the Williams College Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and helped establish a policy of posting investment information on the Web.

Many college endowment committees have welcomed greater input from students, alumni, and other key constituencies in recent years. Since 2000, about two dozen colleges and universities have either added or expanded a process for gathering constituent input, according to Orlowski, who has since cofounded the Responsible Endowments Coalition.

"When you look back, just about all of it was a result of student engagement and encouragement," Orlowski says.

In upstate New York, residents concerned about emissions from Eastman Kodak's manufacturing operations in Rochester, used shareholder resolutions to call on the company to reduce its air and water pollution. The residents - as taxpayers who help fund the salaries of state employees - shared their research with the New York State Comptroller's Office, which oversees the pension fund. Result: The Comptroller's Office signed on and helped propel a number of environmental improvements at Kodak, according to Mike Schade, western New York director of the residents group, the Citizens Environmental Coalition (CEC).

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