To: The Vanguard Group
This is how we stop secret corporate spending
Shareholders deserve to know how corporate executives are spending their investments so they can make informed financial decisions. Please instruct your proxies to vote in favor of any resolution that requires corporations to disclose all political spending to its shareholders.
Why is this important?
Corporations are spending investors’ money and retirement accounts -- maybe even YOURS -- to influence elections and lawmakers.
But if we speak out right now we can enlist one of the biggest mutual funds in the country to put a stop to secret influence-trading.
Shockingly, most corporate political spending is hidden to even their stockholders. But any publicly traded company has to disclose all of its political spending if enough of its shareholders ask.
Here’s the problem: on their own, individual stockholders don’t control enough stock to win majority support for a pro-disclosure shareholder resolution. Most stock is held by institutional investors like mutual funds, who tend let the corporation’s executives call the shots.
So even when a majority of people who own stock want disclosure, they can’t get it done without institutional investors. That’s why we’re calling on Vanguard, the largest mutual fund in the nation, to vote FOR disclosure whenever a resolution comes up.
But if we speak out right now we can enlist one of the biggest mutual funds in the country to put a stop to secret influence-trading.
Shockingly, most corporate political spending is hidden to even their stockholders. But any publicly traded company has to disclose all of its political spending if enough of its shareholders ask.
Here’s the problem: on their own, individual stockholders don’t control enough stock to win majority support for a pro-disclosure shareholder resolution. Most stock is held by institutional investors like mutual funds, who tend let the corporation’s executives call the shots.
So even when a majority of people who own stock want disclosure, they can’t get it done without institutional investors. That’s why we’re calling on Vanguard, the largest mutual fund in the nation, to vote FOR disclosure whenever a resolution comes up.