The recently released annual “2025 CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability” benchmarks corporate political spending practices and disclosure among nearly all of the S&P 500 (494 companies as of April 15, 2025) and the 489 companies in the Russell 1000 index that are not constituents of the S&P 500 (as of June 30, 2025).*
Results are focused on the former group of companies, with the report revealing little change from last year’s report among the balance of the Russell 1000 (see pages 15-16 of the 2025 and 2024 reports). Not surprisingly, the report reveals significant differences in practices and disclosure between the two company groups.
Among the key S&P 500 findings are these concerning board political spending oversight:
- Just over 65% of companies require general board oversight.
- Nearly 59% of companies have a board committee that reviews direct contributions / expenditures.
- More than half (52%) of companies have a board committee that reviews payments to tax-exempt groups.
- Nearly 12% of companies charge a board committee with approval of their political expenditures.
A sample disclosure report and model policy disclosures are accessible here.
*See footnotes 2 and 5 and associated text of the report for an explanation of the S&P 500 and Russell 1000 companies.
See the CPA-Zicklin Framework for Corporate Political Spending and CPA’s Guide to Corporate Political Spending in Appendix I and J of the report, respectively, and additional resources on our Political Contributions & Disclosure page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!