Require federal contractors to disclose political donations
Campaign finance
Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Why shareholder democracy is pivotal
Federal contractors are corporations that can disclose their election-related donations voluntarily, and many already do under investor pressure. The CPA-Zicklin Index tracks steady adoption of disclosure across the S&P 500 driven partly by shareholder proposals, and ISS data show 19 political-spending resolutions filed in the 2022 proxy season alone, with majority votes at Dollar General and Twitter. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility's members filed 60 proposals in 2025 seeking transparency around corporate political activity, split between lobbying disclosure and election spending disclosure. Owners of contractor firms can reach this outcome company by company.
How this was scoredPivotal
Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Common Ground of the American People: Government & Elections, Program for Public Consultation / Voice of the People, 2026 (study August 2017)
- 2024 CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2024-11-06
- Shareholder Resolutions in Review: Political Spending, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (ISS Corporate Solutions), 2022-07-09
- Investors File 60 Proposals Calling for Transparency Around Corporate Political Activity, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2025-04-01
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Members filed 60 proposals in the 2025 season seeking disclosure and board oversight of lobbying and election spending, with eight withdrawn after agreements and six headed to votes.
Coordinates the model political spending disclosure and board oversight proposal filed at dozens of companies each season and tracks adoption through the CPA-Zicklin Index.
Represented the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia in a proposal asking defense contractor Lockheed Martin to report on the alignment of its lobbying and political spending with its human rights policy.
6 campaigns on record
Annually evaluate and issue a public report describing the alignment of the company's political activities, including direct and indirect lobbying and political and electioneering expenditures, with its Human Rights Policy, listing and explaining instances of misalignment and stating whether and how they have or will be addressed.
With School Sisters of Notre Dame
Result: Not approved at the 9 May 2025 annual meeting: 15,949,706 votes for, 146,087,030 against, 4,113,455 abstentions and 36,684,562 broker non-votes, as certified in Lockheed Martin's Item 5.07 Form 8-K.
Lockheed Martin Shareholders Elect Board, Approve Proposals, Investing.com, 2025-05
Report semiannually on all corporate contributions spent for or against any candidate for public office or to influence an election or referendum, including indirect contributions through trade associations and groups that do not disclose their funders, with board oversight of political spending.
With John Chevedden
Result: 13 went to a vote with average support of 41.6 percent, five won majorities, and seven companies adopted policies in exchange for withdrawal
Report semiannually on the company's policies and procedures for political contributions and expenditures made with corporate funds, and on the amounts, the recipients and the officers responsible, excluding lobbying spending.
Result: Approved at three of the five and rejected at one. Meritage Homes approved it, 35,405,399 for to 25,771,870 against; Cboe Global Markets approved it, 45,950,093 to 35,947,178; Crown Holdings approved it, 54,193,891 to 48,704,745. Spirit AeroSystems recorded 37,298,726 for to 33,493,179 against and its filing does not say whether it passed. Teradyne certified the proposal as not approved, although 66,138,549 votes were cast for it and 63,581,675 against.
Disclose more about the company's lobbying, including payments to trade associations and how the board oversees them.
Result: Withdrawn after the company reached an agreement with the filer.
AbbVie added to its lobbying spending disclosure over several years and did not renew its membership in four trade associations.
Publicly report the money and in kind support the company gives to campaigns for or against candidates and to efforts to sway voters on ballot questions.
Result: Approved at the annual meeting of May 25, 2022: 239,467,536 votes for, 208,800,748 against, 6,505,439 abstentions and 148,105,876 broker non-votes, as certified in Twitter's Form 8-K Item 5.07.
Shareholders approved the proposal and the Comptroller called on the company to fully implement it. Twitter was taken private on October 27, 2022, five months after the vote and inside the twelve month window the proposal set for the report, so the report was never due from a listed company.
Report on the company's spending to influence elections, including money given through trade associations and other groups.
Result: Approved at the May 25, 2022 annual meeting, with 111,278,949 votes for, 83,994,794 against, 768,333 abstaining and 10,283,363 broker non-votes.
Dollar General substantially implemented the proposal. It consulted shareholders holding more than half its stock in the autumn of 2022, committed to report annually on direct political contributions and on indirect contributions over $10,000, and published its inaugural political spending report for 2022 in April 2023.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Common Ground of the American People's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.