CPRT Mini-Workshop: Is Political Spending Disclosure Essential for Good Corporate Citizenship?

As students, employees, consumers and investors consider the companies they want to work for, buy from or invest in, they are increasingly interested in how those firms use their political influence, including political spending. Indeed, as we heard from the Center for Political Accountability in July, trendsetters view disclosure as a strategy for reducing risk and a way to build trusted relationships with consumers, employees and other stakeholders.  

Yet for many companies, adopting high levels of transparency can feel like an increased business risk. Which is greater, the risk of disclosing or the risk of NOT disclosing? What risks might non-disclosure create for misalignment between brand identity and political spending? Considering the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that defined corporate political spending as protected free speech, is political spending disclosure now considered a requirement of good corporate citizenship? 

For this special session, we are delighted to have the CPR Taskforce’s Research Assistants moderate a discussion for students and professionals around political spending disclosure, risk and corporate citizenship – with a particular focus on employee/employer relationships. 

Please join us for an action-oriented discussion, where we will explore: 

• Types of corporate political spending and current disclosure requirements and practices 
• Pros and cons of political spending disclosure as it relates to brand risk and relationships 
• Two tools for exploring a company’s current level of political spending disclosure 
• Whether communicating openly about political spending is a sound strategy for building trust

This session is intended for students interested in corporate political responsibility, as well as professionals in Risk Management, Public Affairs, Legal, Communications, Sustainability, Human Resources, DEI, and other affected functions, as well as CPR champions, and academic experts from other sectors interested in a constructive, non-partisan, principles-based discussion.

Light pre-reading and data-gathering suggestions will be provided one week before the session.

The session will be hosted as a webinar and no participants will be recorded. 

Elizabeth Casey, Sydney Hyde, Henry Shaver and Elise Willingham are Undergraduate Erb Fellows currently serving as Research Assistants to the Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce, where they support faculty research, help moderate events, and produce educational materials.  

Elizabeth Doty is the Director of the Erb Institute’s Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce (CPRT) a peer-to-peer forum for executives who want to help their companies apply a more proactive, integrated and principled approach to civic and political affairs.  

The CPRT is strictly non-partisan and does not advocate, promote or support any political party or candidate. While members and partners may express their views freely, we do not endorse or advocate particular policies or legislation but may provide thought processes for evaluating proposals based on CPR principles.