The Erb Principles for Corporate Political Responsibility
A non-partisan approach to help make CPR the norm

The Erb Principles for CPR offer an actionable, non-partisan template to help companies determine whether and how to engage in civic and political affairs responsibly.

Combined with similar efforts by other actors, we believe these principles will foster an environment in which more companies will thrive, more Americans will prosper, we can find solutions to shared challenges and strengthen trust in civic institutions.

A Summary of the Erb Principles for CPR

  1. Legitimacy: How can the firm determine whether to engage with an issue and what the right course of action is?
  2. Accountability: How can the firm align its actions with its commitments to purpose, values, stated goals, and stakeholders?
  3. Responsibility: How can the firm actively support the systems on which the economy, society, and life depend?
  4. Transparency: How can the firm communicate openly and honestly about its political activities?
Download the full text of the erb principles

Put the Principles into Action with the CPR Decision Tool & Executive Conversation Guide

Explore what it looks like to put the Erb Principles for CPR into action using a specific upcoming decision. Designed to help executives make responsible high-stakes decisions in a polarized world, this tool walks you through four steps in drafting decisions and clarifying rationale:

  • What is the challenge?
  • Should we engage in this area and why?
  • How can we engage responsibly?
  • How will we communicate and follow-up?
Get the Tool

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The latest CPR content and news from the Erb Institute, our partners, and outside outlets

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What People Are Saying

Diverse perspectives on the value of the Erb Principles for CPR

“IBM is proud to have joined the Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce and contributed to the development of these principles so that companies trying to navigate this moment can have an actionable framework to follow and so that, collectively, we can strengthen society’s trust in the ways that businesses impact policymaking.”

Christopher Padilla
Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs at IBM

“The new Corporate Political Responsibility principles are a great tool for standardizing a consistent methodology for determining a congruent approach that aligns policy and public affairs with purpose and sustainability commitments.”

Sandy Skees
EVP/Purpose & Impact Global Lead, Porter Novelli

“By offering objective criteria to define when, why and how corporations should participate responsibly in the public policymaking process, the Principles help define a path toward transcending division and fostering the broad stakeholder collaboration necessary to solve the full range of global challenges facing us.”

Bob Stout
Senior Fellow, Future 500 & Senior Consultant, Energy Transitions Commission

“Corporate Political Responsibility is essential for rebuilding civic trust and unlocking the great economic opportunities of our time. The Erb Principles provide invaluable guidance for companies who want to act responsibly in civic and political affairs, aligning their influences to safeguard civic institutions, informed civil discourse and a level playing field for Net Positive businesses that thrive by helping people prosper.”

Andrew Winston
Co-author, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More than They Take

“In these polarized times, business has an incredibly important role to play in building public confidence in our constitutional democracy and its institutions. The key is not to take one side or the other, but the third side, the side of the whole country and its future. That is the aim of the CPRT and the Erb Principles.”

William Ury
Co-founder, Harvard Program on Negotiation and Co-author, Getting to YES

 

​​”As workers and investors, we have a common interest in having companies make money the right way, but our political and social values are as diverse as the American people’s. We don’t want politicized companies that use our money to tilt our political process in any direction. The Erb Principles recognize these realities and seek to ensure that corporations that engage in political spending and other political activities do so on a more trustworthy and accountable basis.”

Hon. Leo E. Strine, Jr.
Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware, of counsel at the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and the Michael L. Wachter Distinguished Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School

“With the scale of the challenges before us, we need business leaders and investors to lead in a way they have never led before, where all their activities—internal and external, direct and indirect—support the systems on which our markets, society, people, and planet all depend.”

Mahlet Getachew
Managing Director, Corporate Racial Equity & Legal, PolicyLink

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Inaugural Supporters

The supporters of the Erb Principles for CPR have committed to sustaining their current CPR practices and taking new actions over time that align with the principles. Supporters have committed to complete one of three actions in the next 12 months.

THREE INITIAL ACTIONS

CPA-Zicklin Model Code of Conduct for Political Spending

GRI 415 Related to Public Policy

Policy Prohibiting Election-Related Spending from Corporate Treasury Funds

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