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Shareholders & Governance
Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Why shareholder democracy is pivotal
What a company tells its customers about its products, its services and its own operations is written by the company, so honest communication is a choice its owners can require and nobody outside the company can make for it. The publisher of this issue places it with customers, and the record now shows shareholders reaching the customer-facing half of it. Green Century withdrew its Starbucks resolution in 2025 after, on its own account, the company agreed to check its customer-facing recyclability claims against the Federal Trade Commission's Green Guides and remove any misleading labels, and it reached an agreement with Sealed Air to stop using 'store drop-off' recycling labels by the end of the year. On the disclosure half, the Center for Political Accountability's resolution was filed at 28 companies in 2025, thirteen went to a vote, five passed, average support reached 41.6 percent against 26.2 percent a year earlier, and seven more companies adopted disclosure policies in exchange for withdrawal. Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility filed sixty such proposals that season, and the number of S&P 500 companies scoring 90 percent or above for political disclosure rose to 103 in 2024 from 35 in 2016. Companies and their trade groups spend to keep this from becoming compulsory. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NCTA, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the Electronic Security Association and the National Federation of Independent Business petitioned against the Federal Trade Commission's rule on automatic renewals, which would have barred misrepresenting material facts to subscribers and required cancellation to be as easy as signing up, and the Eighth Circuit threw the rule out on July 8, 2025, six days before it was due to take effect. NCTA's own membership list names Charter, Comcast NBCUniversal, Disney and Paramount Skydance, and Verizon reports paying the Chamber 120,000 dollars in 2024, so these are associations a shareholder vote can reach. A separate line in the federal appropriations acts bars the Securities and Exchange Commission from spending any money to write a corporate political spending disclosure rule at all, though nothing in the record names who asked for that line. Mandates can be kept off the books that way, and none of it stops a company from telling its customers the truth, which is a decision made by its board and its owners, and which is why this sits at the top of the scale.
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
- We Asked the American People What They Want From Corporate America, Here's What They Said, JUST Capital
- JUST Capital 2025 Ranking Methodology, JUST Capital
- Shareholder advocacy targets flexible packaging, reusables and recycling labels, ESG Dive
- Support for Shareholder Proposals Regarding Political Accountability and Disclosure Remains Strong, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
- Investors File 60 Proposals Calling for Transparency Around Corporate Political Activity, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
- 2024 CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (Center for Political Accountability)
- Opening Brief, Custom Communications, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, Eighth Circuit No. 24-3137, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (hosting the petitioners' brief)
- Eighth Circuit Cancels Click-to-Cancel, Crowell & Moring LLP
- Members - NCTA, NCTA, The Internet & Television Association
- Verizon Political Engagement Report 2024, Verizon Communications Inc.
- Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Public Law 117-328, Division E, Sec. 633, U.S. Government Publishing Office
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Members filed 60 proposals for the 2025 proxy season seeking disclosure and board oversight of lobbying, election spending and climate lobbying, with eight withdrawn after constructive dialogue.
Coordinates the model political spending disclosure shareholder resolution; 28 were filed in 2025, 13 went to a vote and 5 passed, with average support of 41.6 percent.
33 campaigns on record
Adopt and report on political spending disclosure and board oversight.
Result: 12 proposals went to a vote with average support of 31.7 percent, four above 42.5 percent; agreements to implement some or all of the proposal were reached with ten companies; six companies used the SEC's new unilateral exclusion rule.
FEP's proposal pressed Capital One on its climate- and social-responsibility-linked spending, including its sponsorship relationship with the Human Rights Campaign.
Result: Withdrawn after Capital One reached a settlement with FEP.
According to FEP's own account, Capital One ended its sponsorship of the Human Rights Campaign, removed related corporate-partnership designations, and agreed to further engagement with FEP.
The proposal asked Elevance's board to commission an independent study on adopting a policy against corporate contributions to partisan 527 political organizations, after the company gave more than $9.7 million to the Republican Governors Association and $1.3 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association since 2010.
Result: Received about 8.7% support at the May 2026 annual meeting.
we found no documented change; Trillium described this first-year result as a basis for continued engagement.
Q2 2026 Shareholder Advocacy Impact Report, Trillium Asset Management
The proposal asked JPMorgan to report on whether its lobbying and public-policy advocacy align with the company's own stated public-policy positions.
Result: A similar proposal received 31.6% support at the 2023 annual meeting; support fell to 13.2% at the 2026 annual meeting.
we found no documented change to JPMorgan's lobbying disclosure practices as a result of these votes.
JPMorgan shareholders reject call for more lobbying disclosures, American Banker
Report semiannually on monetary and non-monetary political contributions, direct and indirect, and on board oversight of that spending.
Result: 13 proposals went to a vote and 5 passed; average support 41.6 percent, up from 26.2 percent in 2024; seven companies adopted disclosure policies and the proposals were withdrawn.
Disclose and strengthen board oversight of lobbying expenditures (32 proposals), election spending (23) and the consistency of climate lobbying with stated climate goals (5).
Result: Eight proposals withdrawn after company dialogue, including at AbbVie; the SEC allowed Air Products to omit its proposal, followed by more than 13 further successful company challenges; six proposals went to spring ballots.
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.
Asked the board to evaluate and report on how the bank's public promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion affects its risk of discriminating against people on the basis of race, colour, religion including religious views, sex, national origin, or political views.
Result: Filed under Rule 14a-8 on 9 December 2024 for the 2025 annual meeting. East West Bancorp asked the SEC staff on 13 February 2025 for permission to leave the proposal off its proxy card, arguing under Rule 14a-8(b) and Rule 14a-8(f)(1) that Inspire had not proved a full year of continuous share ownership, since the custodian letters covered different periods and named clients rather than Inspire itself. Inspire withdrew the proposal, and on 1 April 2025 the SEC staff said the matter was moot and it would have no further comment. The proposal was not voted on.
We found no documented change by East West Bancorp.
Asked the company to publish a report evaluating how its policies affect employees on the basis of protected characteristics, which Inspire framed as a question of respecting the civil liberties of the workforce.
Result: Voted on at the annual meeting of 21 May 2025 as Item 8, 'the stockholder proposal regarding a report on respecting workforce civil liberties'. The company reported 1.50% in favour, which is the share of votes cast for and against (11,233,860 for, 738,347,843 against, 7,943,266 abstentions, 182,350,030 broker non-votes). The proposal was not approved. Three other shareholder proposals were voted at the same meeting, on a simple majority vote standard (44.60%), fossil fuel disclosure (7.34%) and a net zero audit (1.71%). Inspire also filed a notice of exempt solicitation urging a yes vote, signed by about fifty investors and financial professionals.
We found no documented change by The Southern Company that any source attributes to this vote.
Form 8-K, results of the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders, The Southern Company via SEC EDGAR
Asked Alphabet to evaluate and report on whether its generative artificial intelligence products treat people differently according to their religion or their political opinions, and on the civil liberties risks that would follow.
Result: Voted on at the annual meeting of 6 June 2025 as Item 10, 'a stockholder proposal regarding a report on risks of discrimination in GenAI'. About 0.46% of the shares voted for and against were in favour (57,074,931 for, 12,419,353,797 against, 39,186,294 abstentions, 619,907,425 broker non-votes). The proposal was not approved. Inspire also filed a notice of exempt solicitation urging a yes vote, signed by about sixty investors and financial professionals.
We found no documented change by Alphabet that any source attributes to this vote.
Form 8-K, results of the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders, Alphabet Inc. via SEC EDGAR
Asked Apple to disclose each year how its corporate charitable contributions affect the risk that the company discriminates against people over their speech or their exercise of religion.
Result: Voted on at the annual meeting of 25 February 2025 as Proposal 7, 'Report on Charitable Giving'. About 1.87% of the shares voted for and against were in favour (169,119,141 for, 8,884,470,350 against, 87,816,017 abstentions, 3,038,264,304 broker non-votes). The proposal was not approved. Three other shareholder proposals were on the same ballot from other proponents, including a request that Apple cease its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, which drew 210,451,697 votes in favour.
We found no documented change by Apple that any source attributes to this vote.
Form 8-K, results of the 2025 annual meeting of shareholders, Apple Inc. via SEC EDGAR
Asked Deere to publish a report on its charitable giving, and in particular on how its employee matching gift programme treats religious organisations. Bowyer Research says Deere's rules exclude seminaries, schools of theology, Bible schools and organisations working only for sectarian purposes from matching, which the firm describes as inconsistent treatment of employees of faith.
Result: Precatory proposal filed under Rule 14a-8 and voted on as Proposal 8 at the annual meeting of 26 February 2025. Votes for 2,549,298; votes against 200,450,816; abstentions 2,066,411; broker non-votes 31,663,030. That is 1.26% of the votes cast for and against, or 1.24% if abstentions are counted in the base. The proposal was not approved. Deere's board recommended a vote against it.
We found no documented change to Deere's charitable giving or matching gift rules that any source we retrieved attributes to this proposal.
Asked the company to prepare a report, at reasonable cost and leaving out proprietary or legally privileged information, assessing the risks that come from using data unethically to develop artificial intelligence, the steps it takes to reduce those risks, and how it measures whether those steps work.
Result: Voted on at the December 5, 2025 annual meeting as the proposal for a report on AI data usage oversight. Not approved, but it drew the strongest support of any NLPC proposal in this record: 683,895,858 votes for, 4,435,809,588 against, 63,749,211 abstaining, and 1,137,975,835 broker non-votes. Microsoft reported this as 13.36% support, which is the share of votes for and against.
we found no documented change
Asked the company to report on how much its businesses depend on China and on the risks that dependence creates.
Result: Voted on as Proposal 7 at the May 4, 2024 annual meeting. Not approved: 6,418 votes for, 453,752 against, 2,607 abstaining. That is 1.39% support counting only votes for and against, or 1.39% if abstentions are included in the base. Berkshire counts Class A and Class B shares together on a converted basis, so the totals are small in absolute terms, and the filing does not report broker non-votes separately.
we found no documented change
Asked Alphabet to report on the risks arising from its equal employment opportunity policy, in a proposal the company listed on the ballot as an EEO policy risk report. The filer used this proposal title elsewhere in the same season for a request that a company report on the risks of not explicitly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of viewpoint and ideology in that policy.
Result: Voted on as Item 4 at the annual meeting on June 7, 2024 and rejected. The SEC filing reports 28,683,052 for, 12,587,699,628 against, 36,073,595 abstaining and 584,773,150 broker non-votes. That is 0.23 percent in favour on either basis, counting only votes for and against or including abstentions in the base. This is the lowest support of any of the filer's proposals recorded here, and Alphabet's dual class share structure concentrates voting power in a way that affects the comparison.
we found no documented change. All twelve shareholder proposals at this meeting were rejected.
Asked Apple's board to publish a report on the risks of leaving viewpoint and ideology out of the written categories protected by its equal employment opportunity policy. The filer argued that employees with conservative or dissenting views were unprotected as a result.
Result: Voted on as Proposal 4 at the annual meeting on February 28, 2024 and rejected. The SEC filing reports 116,754,721 for, 8,911,884,765 against, 104,848,421 abstaining and 3,275,055,901 broker non-votes. That is 1.29 percent in favour counting only votes for and against, or 1.28 percent if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change. According to the filer's own account of the meeting, Apple's board declined the request to review its equal employment opportunity policy.
Asked Walgreens Boots Alliance to report on the risks arising from its equal employment opportunity policy, in a proposal the company listed on the ballot as an EEO policy risk report. The filer used this proposal title elsewhere for a request that companies report on the risks of not naming viewpoint and ideology as protected categories in that policy.
Result: Voted on as Proposal No. 8 at the annual meeting on January 25, 2024 and rejected. The SEC filing reports 8,163,750 for, 586,124,153 against, 5,846,116 abstaining and 128,393,075 broker non-votes. That is 1.37 percent in favour counting only votes for and against, or 1.36 percent if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change.
Asked the company to analyse whether its stated human rights commitments are consistent with how it actually operates.
Result: Voted on as Proposal 9, listed in the company's filing as the human rights congruency analysis, at the May 22, 2024 annual meeting. Not approved: 7,652,198 votes for, 483,793,099 against, 6,466,431 abstaining, and 97,578,631 broker non-votes. That is 1.56% support counting only votes for and against, or 1.54% if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change
Asked Deere to report on whether its greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy commitments are congruent with the interests and viability of the agricultural, forestry and construction customers it serves.
Result: Voted on as Proposal 4, listed in the company's filing as the sustainability congruency report, at the February 28, 2024 annual meeting. Not approved: 3,033,263 votes for, 195,280,536 against, 3,086,823 abstaining, and 35,486,770 broker non-votes. That is 1.53% support counting only votes for and against, or 1.51% if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change
Asked the company to report on whether its public commitments on privacy and human rights match what it actually does, particularly where those commitments meet the demands of the governments it operates under.
Result: Voted on as Proposal 8, listed in the company's filing as the privacy and human rights report, at the February 28, 2024 annual meeting. Not approved: 147,994,563 votes for, 8,879,045,656 against, 106,447,688 abstaining, and 3,275,055,901 broker non-votes. That is 1.64% support counting only votes for and against, or 1.62% if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change
NLPC petitioned Comcast's board to adopt a policy requiring director candidates to disclose their personal charitable and political campaign contributions.
Result: Comcast successfully petitioned the SEC to exclude the proposal from its proxy statement; no shareholder vote occurred.
NLPC compiled and published campaign-contribution data on Comcast's director nominees itself, drawn from FEC records, in a proxy memo opposing all 10 director nominees; we found no documented change by Comcast to its own disclosure practices.
Asked the bank's board to publish a report on how it oversees the risk that it discriminates against people on the basis of race, colour, religion including religious views, sex, national origin, or political views, and on whether such discrimination affects people's exercise of constitutionally protected civil rights.
Result: Voted on at the annual meeting of 1 May 2024 as Proposal 4, titled by the company 'Stockholder proposal requesting a report on the risks of politicized de-banking'. About 2.4% of the shares voted for and against were in favour (552,843 for, 22,687,494 against). Counting the 118,146 abstentions in the base also gives about 2.4% (3,844,720 broker non-votes). The proposal was not approved. Inspire also filed a notice of exempt solicitation urging a yes vote.
We found no documented change by First Citizens BancShares that any source attributes to this vote.
Asked the bank's board to publish a report on how it oversees the risk that it discriminates against people on the basis of race, colour, religion including religious views, sex, national origin, or political views, and on whether such discrimination affects people's exercise of constitutional civil rights.
Result: Voted on at the annual meeting of 26 April 2024 as Item 5, a request for a report on risks of politicised de-banking. About 1.3% of the shares voted for and against were in favour (1,322,381 for, 101,929,606 against). Counting the 1,129,492 abstentions in the base also gives about 1.3%. The 8-K as retrieved did not disclose broker non-votes for this item. The proposal was not approved. Inspire also filed a notice of exempt solicitation urging a yes vote, signed by more than 100 investors and financial professionals.
We found no documented change by Zions Bancorporation that any source attributes to this vote.
Form 8-K, results of the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders, Zions Bancorporation via SEC EDGAR
Asked the bank's board to publish a report on how it oversees the risk that it discriminates against people on the basis of race, colour, religion including religious views, sex, national origin, or political views, and on whether such discrimination affects people's exercise of constitutionally protected civil rights. Inspire described the practice it was targeting as politicised de-banking.
Result: Voted on at the annual meeting of 17 April 2024 as Proposal 5, titled by the company 'Shareholder Proposal Relating to a Report on Risks of Politicized De-Banking'. About 1.6% of the shares voted for and against were in favour (10,634,204 for, 673,164,762 against). Counting abstentions in the base gives about 1.5% (19,189,364 abstentions, 110,818,886 broker non-votes). The proposal was not approved. Inspire also filed a notice of exempt solicitation urging a yes vote, signed by more than 100 investors and financial professionals.
We found no documented change by Regions Financial that any source attributes to this vote.
Asked BNY Mellon to publish a report on the risks the bank faces from what the proposal called politicized de-banking, including the risk of discriminating against potential clients on the basis of their religious or political views.
Result: Precatory proposal filed under Rule 14a-8 and voted on as Proposal 5 at the annual meeting of 9 April 2024. Votes for 19,467,731; votes against 588,664,175; abstentions 11,780,709; broker non-votes 50,755,114. That is 3.20% of the votes cast for and against, or 3.14% if abstentions are counted in the base. The proposal was not approved. The company's Form 8-K records that the corporate secretary presented the proposal at the meeting because neither the proponent nor the proponent's representative was there to present it. No representative of the proponent attended the meeting; the corporate secretary read the resolution so that it could be voted on.
We found no documented change to BNY Mellon's client-selection or account-closure policies that any source we retrieved attributes to this proposal.
Asked Walmart to report annually on the extent to which its operations depend on, and are vulnerable to, China. The filer's own title for the proposal was a Communist China audit.
Result: Voted on at the May 31, 2023 annual meeting and not approved. Walmart's Form 8-K reports 29,319,635 votes for, 2,193,655,176 against, 15,467,824 abstaining and 211,698,370 broker non-votes. That is 1.32% support counting only votes for and against, or 1.31% if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change
Asked the company to report on its operations in China and on the risks those operations create for the business.
Result: Voted on as Proposal 5 at the April 3, 2023 annual meeting. Not approved: 82,010,559 votes for, 1,024,266,893 against, 45,955,885 abstaining, and 246,275,740 broker non-votes. That is 7.41% support counting only votes for and against, or 7.12% if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change
Asked Apple to report annually on the extent to which its operations depend on, and are vulnerable to, China. The company's own ballot title for the proposal was a Communist China audit.
Result: Voted on as Proposal 6, listed in the company's filing as the Communist China audit, at the March 10, 2023 annual meeting. Not approved: 413,232,649 votes for, 9,001,346,586 against, 145,645,730 abstaining, and 3,199,709,505 broker non-votes. That is 4.39% support counting only votes for and against, or 4.32% if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change
The resolution asked AT&T to publicly disclose how its political contributions align with the company's own stated public-policy priorities and sustainability goals.
Result: Withdrawn after AT&T agreed to As You Sow's request.
AT&T committed to publish data on how its political spending aligns with its stated positions. We could not confirm that this data has since appeared in the company's published political engagement reporting.
Asked the bank to publish a report, updated twice a year, on any requests it receives from government officials to close customer accounts, covering who made each request, what it involved, when it was made, what the bank decided and why.
Result: Filed under Rule 14a-8 and never put to a vote. On March 21, 2023 the staff of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance told the bank it would not recommend enforcement action if the proposal was left out of the proxy statement, on the ground that it could be excluded under Rule 14a-8(i)(7) as relating to ordinary business operations. The staff wrote that the proposal relates to, and does not transcend, ordinary business matters.
we found no documented change
The CPA-Zicklin Index scores companies on whether they disclose political spending, how they set internal rules on political contributions, and whether the board oversees that spending.
Result: The 2022 edition was the first to cover the full Russell 1000; 78% of S&P 500 companies fully or partially disclosed political spending or restricted at least one type of spending, and the average S&P 500 score rose 3% year over year.
More than half of S&P 500 companies had board-level oversight of political spending by 2022, according to the source, reflecting a trend of rising disclosure scores over the decade the index has run (since 2012).
Asked Twitter to report on the risks arising from its equal employment opportunity policy, in a proposal the company listed on the ballot as an EEO policy risk report. The filer used this proposal title elsewhere for a request that companies report on the risks of not naming viewpoint and ideology as protected categories in that policy.
Result: Voted on as Proposal No. 4, the sole stockholder proposal, at the annual meeting on May 27, 2020 and rejected. The SEC filing reports 7,846,369 for, 487,516,238 against, 11,833,680 abstaining and 116,834,178 broker non-votes. That is 1.58 percent in favour counting only votes for and against, or 1.55 percent if abstentions are included in the base.
we found no documented change.
Asked Starbucks to report on the risks of leaving viewpoint and ideology out of the written categories protected by its equal employment opportunity policy. The filer says its aim was to have those categories added, and framed the proposal as protecting employees with conservative views.
Result: Voted on as the sole shareholder proposal at the annual meeting on March 18, 2020 and rejected. The SEC filing reports 11,939,598 for, 777,393,209 against, 15,268,711 abstaining and 187,494,578 broker non-votes. That is 1.51 percent in favour counting only votes for and against, or 1.48 percent if abstentions are included in the base. The Manhattan Institute's proxy monitor work independently reports the same 1.51 percent figure and states that abstentions were excluded from its calculation.
we found no documented change. Starbucks' executive vice president and general counsel Rachel Gonzalez opposed the proposal at the meeting, calling it unnecessary and not beneficial to shareholders, and pointed to the company's existing To Be Welcoming programme.
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 JUST Capital's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.