BlackRock released its Investment Stewardship Annual Report, which captures its proxy voting and stewardship activities for January 1–December 31, 2025.
Key takeaways include:
- Globally, BlackRock supported ~11% of 807 shareholder proposals voted on in 2025. More specifically, BlackRock supported ~20% of governance-related shareholder proposals (89 of 455) and ~1% of proposals related to company impacts on people and climate and natural capital (3 of 352). The primary reasons BlackRock did not support proposals in the latter category were its assessment that companies already had processes in place to address the risks and its determination that proposals were too prescriptive.
- ~72% of proposals related to company impacts on people and climate and natural capital that BlackRock voted on were associated with companies in the US, where such proposals have garnered increasingly low support.
- BlackRock supported ~90% of director elections globally. The primary reasons BlackRock did not support certain directors in 2025 were concerns regarding director independence, board composition, director overcommitment, and executive compensation. More generally, BlackRock voted consistent with management’s recommendation on ~88% of management proposals.
The report includes numerous engagement and other voting statistics by topic and by region; case studies; an explanation of BlackRock’s separate stewardship approaches for its index and actively managed funds; and more.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!