General Electric will begin disclosing contributions to 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organizations and non-tax-deductible contributions to major trade associations, both of which can be spent on elections. The agreement was reached with Investor Voice after filing a proxy proposal on the subject.
For the first time, GE has agreed to robust disclosure of payments made to trade associations and secretive “social welfare” organizations, also known as 501(c)(4) groups – payments that might be used for election-related purposes. Investor Voice filed a shareholder proposal in September that urged the company to embrace greater transparency by disclosing such payments.
In public comments delivered to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor Voice urged the Agency to resist pressure from self-interested corporations and their lobbyists to cripple the shareholder engagement provisions of the proxy process.
At Chevron’s May 30, 2018 annual meeting Newground Social Investment and Investor Voice called for a lower and more reasonable 10% threshold to convene a Special Meeting (it’s currently 15%). Here is the full text of the statement presented by Simon Billenness on our behalf.
At the May 30, 2018 annual meeting of shareholders, Newground Social Investment and Investor Voice called on Amazon to end a ‘double standard against stockholders’ and adopt a fair, democratic, simple-majority formula for counting shareholder votes.