Our Guide features ICCR member-sponsored proposals for 2026 corporate proxies along with a preliminary overview of the proxy season. Please feel free to share this resource widely with your networks. And, if you are an investor, we urge you to exercise your shareholder rights by voting your proxies.
Please join us on Friday, 3/20 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm ET for a preview of ICCR members’ 2026 shareholder proposals and our 2026 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide.
Our webinar will help contextualize the more than 400 resolutions filed by ICCR members for this proxy season, with a deeper discussion by proponents of the rationale for key initiatives.
Learn about ICCR member resolutions on the following topics:
- The impacts of growing AI-driven data center energy demand, including a shifting of costs for new data center construction onto residential consumers, and an expansion of fossil-fuel infrastructure;
- The human rights risks for companies involved in U.S. immigrant detention and deportation, and the reputational risks faced by retail stores where day laborers who gather for hire are vulnerable to federal immigration raids;
- How growing regulatory pressure, litigation, and consumer demand for transparency are creating risks for food and beverage companies using additives in their products; and,
- The necessity of strong guardrails for AI to prevent and mitigate potential legal, reputational, and customer trust risks.
As always, there will be a Q&A after the presentations where you will be invited to ask questions of the presenters.
All registrants will receive a link to download the Guide following the webinar.
SAFETY & CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT:
ICCR grants access to this webinar only to registered users whose identities have been verified beforehand. To attend, you must register using your name, email address and organization/affiliation. We will be manually confirming the identify of participants who have signed up to attend and reserve the right to remove any person.
In response to the settlement of the lawsuit filed by the Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) against AXON, Josh Zinner, CEO of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), issued the following statement:
“ICCR member Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) has settled its lawsuit filed against Axon Enterprise, Inc. (AXON), which sought to prevent AXON from excluding NCF’s shareholder proposal requesting greater transparency around the Company’s political spending. The matter has been resolved. AXON has agreed to broad and detailed annual disclosure and transparency on its direct political spending.
“The proposal had called for AXON to publish a report detailing how it determines when and where corporate funds are used to support or oppose political candidates or influence elections. Shareholders have been requesting this information from companies for decades, to better understand potential risks from election-related spending. Hundreds of companies already report on these metrics.
“In November 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it would no longer review company requests to exclude shareholder proposals. For decades, the SEC’s involvement provided meaningful guidance to companies and investors and facilitated a successful private ordering process that often led to productive negotiations between companies and shareholders.
“At the time of the SEC’s announcement last year, corporate governance experts warned that in the absence of the SEC’s guidance, companies could face lawsuits by investors if they were to unilaterally exclude shareholder proposals from the proxy. To date, at least five lawsuits have been filed by investors to prevent companies from unilaterally withholding proposals from their proxy statements. In addition to the NCF lawsuit, these include cases brought by: the New York City Employees Retirement System against AT&T (which also settled); PETA against PepsiCo (also settled); As You Sow against Chubb Limited; and the Comptroller of the State of New York against BJ’s Wholesale Club Holding.
“The recent litigation by shareholder proponents shows the legal and governance risk that companies face by unilaterally announcing an intent to withhold proposals from the proxy statement. The SEC’s retreat from its no-action process creates great uncertainty for companies, and upends a 50-year-old process that has facilitated productive engagement between companies and investors on matters related to long-term value creation.”
NEW YORK, NY — Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) announced earlier this week that it has filed a lawsuit against Axon Enterprise, Inc. (AXON) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit seeks to prevent AXON from excluding NCF’s shareholder proposal requesting greater transparency around the Company’s political spending.
This filing by NCF comes at a pivotal moment for shareholder rights in the United States. In November 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it would no longer review company requests to exclude shareholder proposals. For decades, the SEC’s involvement provided meaningful guidance to companies and investors and facilitated a successful private ordering process that often led to productive negotiations between companies and shareholders. In addition to NCF’s lawsuit, four New York City pension funds also recently filed a lawsuit against AT&T regarding that company’s decision to similarly exclude a shareholder proposal.
At the time of the SEC’s announcement last year, corporate governance experts warned that in the absence of the SEC’s guidance, companies could face lawsuits by investors if they were to unilaterally exclude shareholder proposals from the proxy. These recent lawsuits from NCF and the pension funds in New York demonstrate how investors, deprived of a longstanding tool for engagement with corporations, are left with more costly options, such as filing lawsuits, to meaningfully steward their investments.
The proposal calls for AXON to publish a report detailing how it determines when and where corporate funds are used to support or oppose political candidates or influence elections. It also asks AXON to disclose all direct and indirect political contributions and to present the report to the board and make it available on the Company’s website. It is very common for shareholders to request this information from companies to better understand potential risks from election-related spending. Hundreds of companies already report on these metrics.
AXON recently notified the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its intent to exclude the proposal, asserting that it constitutes “micromanagement.” NCF disputes this claim, noting that SEC staff have consistently rejected similar arguments. Under SEC rules, AXON’s notice triggered NCF’s right to seek a judicial determination, and NCF has elected to do so. The suit requests expedited injunctive relief to ensure the proposal appears in AXON’s 2026 proxy statement, expected to be filed in mid-April.
“Companies should not be allowed to unilaterally determine what issues their shareholders can consider,” said Laura Campos, Senior Director of Economic Justice at NCF. “Upending the shareholder proposal process in this way harms rather than helps the processes by which investors and corporate leadership can work together to create and sustain long-term value. Lawsuits like this one filed against AXON were previously considered a last resort. But now, for many, they’re the only option.”
“The SEC’s retreat from the No Action process is leading to a great deal of uncertainty for both companies and investors,” said Josh Zinner, CEO of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. “For shareholders, it could be increasingly difficult to engage with the companies they hold on issues of long-term corporate value. For companies, this abdication by the SEC will create additional legal and financial risk and undermines a long-standing private ordering process that enabled productive communication with their shareholders.
The court has also set a hearing on a preliminary injunction for March 4, 2026, at 3:00 pm.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Alex Tucciarone, atucciarone@iccr.org
Jon Zella, communications@nathancummings.org
Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) is a multigenerational family foundation honoring the Jewish tradition of social justice. NCF is working to shift power structures to co-create a more just, vibrant, sustainable, and democratic society. We support movements, change makers, and social entrepreneurs who are crafting solutions that advance racial, economic, and environmental justice.
Topics including plastics GHG emissions, DE&I and human rights have also seen robust support on ballots.
Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility announced they had filed 60 shareholder proposals for the 2025 proxy season calling for increased disclosures and strengthened oversight of corporate political activities at a diverse set of companies and sectors. These proposals included 32 resolutions on lobbying, 23 on political election spending, and five asking companies to assess if their lobbying on climate issues is consistent with their stated climate goals and objectives. You can read more about these proposals in ICCR’s 2025 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide.
The vast majority of companies engage in various forms of public policy advocacy to influence legislative and regulatory decisions, primarily through lobbying and campaign contributions. This advocacy takes place at all levels of government, ranging from municipal and state levels to federal legislative and regulatory processes. Open Secrets reported that total annual corporate lobbying expenditures surpassed $5.5 billion in 2024 and $6.2 billion in 2023, with the pharmaceutical, tech, financial services, and oil & gas sectors among the top spenders, either through direct lobbying or indirectly via third-party organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber). Additionally, the Chamber alone invested $823 million in lobbying activities from 2015 to 2024.
Through their memberships in trade associations like the Chamber and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and their donations to Super PACs, 527 committees, “social welfare” organizations, and model legislation groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), corporations wield considerable influence on many issues.
“Companies exercise considerable power in their direct lobbying and indirectly through trade associations,” said Matthew Illian, Director of Responsible Investing for the United Church Funds, which held successful dialogues with four companies leading to the withdrawal of their proposals. “Investors are urging full transparency as well as careful evaluation of whether corporate lobbying activities align with a company’s stated values and priorities, as any misalignment may create reputational risk. We are pleased to see a number of companies responding positively to these appeals, resulting in withdrawal agreements and improved corporate responsibility.”
One such company responding positively to investor engagement is AbbVie. “Over the years AbbVie has incrementally added to its lobbying spending disclosure and also did not renew membership in four trade associations. We believe these actions help to address some of the risks, which is our goal as investors, and this year we were pleased to come to a productive agreement and withdrew the resolution,” said Zevin’s Marcela Pinilla, Director of Sustainable Investing.
Said Tim Smith, ICCR’s Sr. Policy Advisor, “Some corporations have significant influence over public policy issues and must evaluate if this advocacy is truly in the public interest. This is particularly true for climate lobbying,” Smith added. “Companies that lobby against sensible climate policy are engaging in short-sighted behavior that delays urgently needed action. Any delay in enacting climate-forward policies will exacerbate its negative impacts and increase the cost to address them.”
“In this political environment where changes in climate policies are coming fast and furious, it’s critical for companies to clearly articulate their climate public policy priorities and harmonize their lobbying activities with protecting those priorities,” said Andrea Ranger, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Trillium Asset Management. “If they are not doing so, they may be letting trade associations, for example, advocate against the progressive climate laws, regulations, and programs they need to meet their decarbonization goals.”
ICCR members first filed proposals questioning corporate political activity in 1974, and since 2011, investors have submitted approximately 600 proposals seeking expanded lobbying reporting. These proposals generally receive strong shareholder support. This year, investors filed 32 lobbying proposals; however, early in the season, Air Products challenged its resolution at the SEC. Breaking from past practice, the SEC sided with the company and allowed the resolution to be omitted. This decision resulted in a surge of over 13 additional successful challenges by companies citing similar arguments.
However, many companies continued constructive lobbying discussions with shareholder proponents, which led to expanded disclosure and the successful withdrawal of resolutions at eight companies. Moreover, the proposals will appear on the proxy ballots of six companies to be voted on at annual meetings this spring.
Investors have also engaged portfolio companies around their donations to political candidates, citing the danger of corporate capture of government policy- and regulation-making with the potential to favor corporate activities over the interests of the voting public. This year, investors filed 23 proposals seeking increased disclosures around corporate political donations.
“Companies need to pay attention to the impact and risks of their political spending,” said Bruce Freed, President of the Center for Political Accountability (CPA). “CPA has several resources to help guide companies and their investors including its Corporate Underwriters report which examines how company political spending has reshaped state politics and created serious risks for companies, shareholders, and our democracy, and our Guide to Corporate Political Spending and Guide to Becoming a Model Code Company which give management and directors a framework for approaching, governing and assessing political spending to safeguard companies.”
Added Smith, “ICCR members and other responsible investors have long petitioned companies to expand disclosure and oversight and to adopt standards guiding their corporate political activities to ensure they are responsible. As long as companies participate in lobbying and political spending activities, we expect shareholder proposals on these topics will continue to be filed.”
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on LinkedIn, Bsky and X.
ICCR has been publishing the Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide annually since 1974 as a way to educate and build support for member proposals. In our Guide, you will find all ICCR member-sponsored proposals for 2025 corporate proxies along with a preliminary overview of the proxy season and short features from proponents about their engagements on key environmental and social issues. Please feel free to share this resource widely with your networks. And, if you are an investor, we urge you to exercise your shareholder rights by voting your proxies.
Regulator siding with companies on “micromanagement” grounds could spell trouble for governance resolutions this proxy season.
Josh Zinner, CEO of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, considers the priorities for responsible investors under a second Trump Presidency.
With the 2024 Presidential election now ended and President-elect Trump scheduled to take office on January 20, 2025, ICCR makes the following statement:
NEW YORK, NY, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2024 – Since our founding in 1971, members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility have come together to do the important work of holding corporations accountable for their impacts on people and the planet.
For those who come to ICCR through a lens of faith, our religious traditions share common messages about care for creation, care for the stranger, and support for the poor and vulnerable. The faith and values that bring all investors, religious or secular, to our collective work at ICCR are unifying – not dividing – and they are grounded in an intentional faith in the power of the private sector to act in support of the public good. Despite the obstacles, after over 50 years this faith has not waned, and we remain resolute in our work alongside an ever-expanding network of allies to press for greater corporate accountability for the environmental and societal impacts of business.
We are clear-eyed about the potential challenges we face with a second Trump Presidency, and we reaffirm our commitment to standing in solidarity with those communities —including women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, low-wage workers, and others— whose rights are most at risk. ICCR also reaffirms its commitment to racial justice as a moral and ethical imperative.
As fiduciaries, ICCR members are keenly interested in the long-term financial success of the companies we hold in our portfolios, yet we understand that companies’ financial success must be accompanied by accountability for any harmful societal impacts. Without enforceable accountability structures, companies may choose to place short-term profitability over all other considerations, which is both systemically dangerous and unsustainable over the long term. As shareholders with a vested interest in strong governance, we will continue to use our influence to press for robust risk management systems, increased transparency, and accountability via public disclosures and reporting, as well as meaningful regulatory guardrails.
Specifically, we recommit to work on the following issues of systemic importance to the health of our society, environment, economy, and democracy:
We will continue to advocate for our members’ rights to engage their portfolio companies and to file shareholder proposals utilizing the 14a-8 process as a mechanism to raise concerns about environmental and social impacts to protect the long-term value of our investments. Shareholder proposals and proxy voting are two key elements of shareholder democracy that together serve as cost-effective mechanisms for shareholders to monitor and hold corporate boards and management accountable and to spur needed governance reforms. Today, these accountability mechanisms are both more relevant and needed than ever. As investors concerned with the long-term health of our systems, we must work to preserve these important cornerstones of responsible corporate governance.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning in June of the decades-old doctrine of Chevron deference, investors must continue to support strong regulatory guardrails to rein in corporate overreach that negatively impacts the public interest and creates broader systemic risks. Voluntary corporate action to limit negative externalities is important but does not substitute for strong, mandatory rules that level the playing field for responsible corporate actors. Regardless, multi-national corporations will need to comply with emerging legislation and regulations coming out of the EU regarding human rights and environmental due diligence.
Shareholder engagements to address the climate crisis will remain a top priority because the economic and planetary risks, if left unaddressed, will only increase. The clean energy transition is already well underway with enabling policies increasingly in place around the world, and the costs of renewable energy alternatives falling dramatically. The Inflation Reduction Act includes $369 billion in investments to tackle climate change, bringing America closer to cutting climate pollution in half from 2005 levels by 2030. The manufacturing investments in red states are popular job producers and are in the interests of the majority of companies and communities.
This important work to clean up the environment and provide good jobs must not only continue but be accelerated. While intransigence and obstructive policies in the face of the inevitable shift may delay climate progress, the risks to business of a warming climate have become too real and significant to ignore. Climate change loads systemic risks into our financial markets that threaten the portfolios of all investors, including hard-working Americans saving for retirement. ICCR will champion those companies with the foresight to adequately manage these risks and continue to press those that don’t. We want to underscore the importance of America’s ongoing participation in the Paris Climate Agreement and working with the global community to address this existential global threat. Given the toll climate change has taken on our planet, our economy and vulnerable communities around the world, climate inaction is simply not an option.
Investors’ efforts to foster more just and equitable workplaces and to restore dignity to workers – particularly low-wage workers who are struggling to stay afloat – will be critical. ICCR members will continue to advocate for protections for workers both here in the U.S. and in global supply chains, such as the right to organize, a living wage, paid sick leave, and a safe and healthy workplace. These basic protections are integral to the long-term sustainability of companies, as well as to the health of communities and a vibrant economy.
We view a healthcare delivery system centered on people, not profit, as integral to a prosperous society and economy. We expect companies to adopt principles rooted in equity and justice and to safeguard the human right to health, which will improve the health and well-being of communities, especially communities that bear a disproportionate burden of disease. Key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act including government negotiation of drug prices, a new cap on Medicare Part D cost sharing, and penalties for pharmaceutical manufacturers that raise prices faster than inflation, are historic measures that will begin to rein in the ever-escalating cost of healthcare in the U.S. Investors must work to ensure that we do not lose these hard-won gains, and must engage leading pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies on concerns related to access and affordability of healthcare, life-saving medicines and vaccines, and other health technologies.
We affirm our expectation that businesses will use their influence to buttress our democratic institutions, recognizing that both the public and private sectors depend on a resilient constitutional democracy and a strong rule of law to provide the economic and legal certainty that facilitates long-term market stability and investment. Millions of corporate dollars flowed into this election cycle. For decades, investors have sounded alarms about the strains that corporate lobbying and political spending put on our democratic institutions. As investors, we must actively engage corporations to help ensure that their involvement in the political process through lobbying and election spending does not orient public policy towards short-term corporate profits at the expense of the long-term public interest.
ICCR and its members will continue to work alongside our partners in the responsible investing community as well as the many NGO and civil society organizations that are advocating for impacted communities both at home and abroad. Together we will hone our focus, refine our strategies, and build our resilience to meet the challenges ahead.