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60 proposals in the 2025 season seeking disclosure and board oversight of lobbying and election spending, with eight withdrawn after agreements and six headed to votes.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 publicly report the alignment of the company's lobbying, political and electioneering expenditures with its human rights policy.
Result: 15.9 million votes for, 146.1 million against, 4.1 million abstentions at the May 2025 meeting
Lockheed Martin Shareholders Elect Board, Approve Proposals, Investing.com, 2025-05
Adopt political spending disclosure and board accountability policies.
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
Adopt board oversight and disclosure of political spending made with corporate funds, citing each company's poor standing in the CPA-Zicklin Index.
Result: Majority support at all five: Meritage Homes 57.7 percent, Crown Holdings 52.7 percent, Teradyne 51 percent, CBOE and Spirit AeroSystems percentages not stated
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: Won majority support at the 2022 annual meeting. The ISS season review also counts Twitter as one of two majority votes on political spending that year.
we found no documented change. The New York State Comptroller called on the company to implement the proposal after the vote.
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 and 83,994,794 against. An ISS review of the season counted Dollar General as one of only two companies where a political spending resolution won majority support.
we found no documented change
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.