Hundreds of millions of dollars. That’s how much corporations spend to back U.S. candidates and shape U.S. policy. A significant amount of this, coming from public companies, is undisclosed.
This means that American citizens — and even shareholders — don’t know which companies are influencing elections, how much they spend, or what the consequences are to this country. The lack of transparency — and the opportunities for bias, preferential treatment, and backroom deals — runs counter to the very concept of our democracy.
That’s where the Center for Political Accountability comes in.
The Center for Political Accountability is a non-partisan, non-profit advocacy organization leading the only successful effort that is achieving corporate political disclosure and accountability. As a non-government organization (NGO), CPA works outside the political system.
With prospects nil for legislative or regulatory fixes nationally, CPA has developed an innovative strategy that enlists the cooperation of companies themselves by demonstrating the business value of spending transparency and accountability.
What’s ahead?
At the Center for Political Accountability, our mission is — and will remain — to shine a light on corporate political spending, to continue to improve transparency and accountability, and to ensure that companies act in ways that are in accord with the values of the company, their shareholders and the principles of our nation.
Upcoming initiatives include:
- Helping companies move beyond disclosure and accountability to actual change in conjunction with robust board oversight.
- Spearheading new efforts that ensure companies follow through with their evolved policies, especially as they relate to — or collide with — their brand and publicly stated core values and policies.
- Continuing to push for adoption of the CPA-initiated Securities and Exchange Commission rule to require public companies to disclose their political spending with corporate funds.
- Working with companies to adopt the CPA-Zicklin Model Code of Conduct for Corporate Political Spending and making it the standard for governing their political spending
