The just-released annual Center for Political Accountability-Zicklin “2021 Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability,” which benchmarks S&P 500 corporate political spending practices and disclosure, revealed these key findings concerning board oversight based on the 493 companies in total whose practices were evaluated for the report:
- Nearly 60% of companies (295 companies) require some level of board political spending oversight.
- More than half of companies (255 companies) have a board committee that reviews direct contributions/expenditures.
- 228 companies - or approximately 46% - have a board committee that reviews payments to tax-exempt groups.
- Just 33 companies charge a board committee with approval of their political expenditures, and this number has remained relatively flat over the past five years.
Approximately 64% of companies (317 companies) publish a detailed political spending policy on their website:
Of the 493 companies evaluated in 2021, 364 have been on the S&P 500 list continuously since 2015.
See the current CPA-Wharton Zicklin Model Code of Conduct in Appendix G of the report; this Reuters article; and additional resources on our Political Contributions & Disclosure topical page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!