ESG & Corporate Political Spending

ESG & Corporate Political Spending: Practical Actions For Business Leaders To Reduce Risk, Ensure Alignment & Support A Stable Economic Environment

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics continue to drive discussion across corporate and investor communities, but often overlook one of the most critical drivers of impact: corporate political influence. Our research explores the impact of corporate political spending across ESG dimensions, current tools and data sources that support greater visibility into this spending, and leading practices for transparency and disclosure and recommends actions for business leaders, including:

• Provide transparency through direct contributions and public disclosures

• Align political contributions with corporate values

• Support a stable & healthy U.S. democracy

PAC Funding For Members Of Congress Who Voted Against Certifying The Electoral College

Five months after the January 6th insurrection — which prompted companies to make bold commitments to stop funding lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 election — the question remains: does it make a significant difference if business PACs continue to refrain from funding those who denied the election results?

The Leadership Now Project analyzed the data to answer this critical question. The analysis demonstrates that business PAC funding matters significantly. Many believe that business PACs are relatively inconsequential — since on a whole they amount to only about 15% of total funding for members of Congress — but the numbers suggest otherwise.