But I don't agree with just dismissing taking a financial stand.
Again, I'm not dismissing taking an individual financial stand. I'm questioning the effectiveness of one person's financial stand versus what they could do if they tried to make an impact in other ways.
For example, you mention this:
But more awareness will make people who care move their money
Certainly! More awareness to get people to move their money, for example, could have a much bigger impact than just removing your money, Imagine if you told two people, and they moved their money. That's double the impact of just moving yours (assuming roughly equal amounts of money). Imagine if you convinced 100 people. A 100-fold impact over merely moving your money.
Now, we can debate if moving money from the banks would even do much, as use2betrix does above, but my point is that even if we grant that it does, it won't by one person, only in large numbers/in the aggregate.
Now, if you're trying to convince people to do this, you may need to move your own money as part of it, to not appear hypocritical, but if that's all you do (move your own money), without doing anything else, you've done almost nothing (except make yourself feel good... but no real impact).
But the people putting in the pipeline need the money. There are several lists on the internet right now high lighting the banks that back the pipelines. I don't think I am the only one questioning where their money goes.
Right. The question is: how do we most effectively impact this thing we are against?
Pulling a small amount of money (and by small, I mean, a tiny tiny percent of that entity's worth) from an institution dealing with them as your main (or sole) way to effect change is quite ineffective, overall.
As you and I agree:
I am, as you pointed out, too small to matter.
So what IS the thing an individual can do to have a magnified impact?
Anyways, certainly pull your money. It can't hurt, at the least, unless it stops you from taking other action. The perfect is the enemy of the good, and pulling money, from your POV, certainly at least seems good, so start there.
I wasn't trying to encourage you to not do this, but to think about other things you could do that would hopefully be more effective. (And, to be honest, I wasn't even hoping to just target you, but the dozens or hundreds of other people that may read this and be thinking about how they might effect social change on a cause they care about. A slightly more magnified impact, if you will, than PMing you directly, though still tiny, obviously.)
Your financial stand is a good start, and I hope you continue with a next step, if this is an important issue to you. Regardless, thank you for taking some action, it's better than seeing a situation, shaking your head at its terribleness, and moving on. :)