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Shareholder activism and responsible lobbying in turbulent times – Four insights from the 2025 season

11/08/2025

Shareholder proposals at annual meetings of companies have evolved into an important tool for raising standards of corporate responsibility and governance. This is particularly true in the area of responsible lobbying and corporate political activity more broadly, where a new corporate ecosystem for better conduct is in the making, despite big transparency and data gaps that we at The Good Lobby have been tracking and pointing out for a while.

But how do shareholder proposals on lobbying and corporate political contribution fare in these turbulent times, particularly in the US, right in the centre of the storm? 

The 2025 season of shareholder meetings just finished here some interesting things we learnt:

  • a continued priority and effective way for engagement: proposals on corporate political activity are holding up well, compared to other ESG issues. While the absolute number of submissions in this area dropped, average rates of shareholder support increased. And all of the five ESG-related proposals that garnered majority support – a very powerful message to management – were related to corporate political activity. In a nutshell, shareholder action on corporate political activity enjoys  majority (even cross-partisan) appeal.
  • strong headwinds but also a pushback: US regulators under Trumpian sway allowed 16 companies to exclude shareholder proposals related to lobbying on grounds that this constitutes undue micro-management. Quite ironically, this guidance by the SEC looks like undue micro-management in itself and a blow to shareholder rights. Irrespective of such moves and a broad range of other assaults on the responsible shareholding ecosystem, major investors also pushed back. Three pension funds in New York, for example, instructed their asset managers to ensure that their investees align lobbying with climate aims. 
  • continuing innovation: lobbying-related shareholder proposals in 2025 continued to be fine-tuned and expanded to yet more policy domains. Borrowing from climate action two proposals asked companies to examine how their membership in business associations lined up with corporate purpose climate goals. Another directed at Google’s parent Alphabet sought information on how the company’s lobbying aligned with its commitments to child safety.
  • anti-ESG manoeuvres by conservative activists failing to garner support: arise in proposal that sought to curtail ESG practices in companies is underway, yet this is more a catch-up process to progressive advocacy in this space and support for such proposals is extremely limited, hovering below five percent.

In short: working towards more responsible corporate lobbying on the shareholder route has become more complicated but shines as a rare bright spot in the current political climate. And given that the latter also comes with troubling regressions in business-government relationships to more cronyism and undue influence a focus on responsible lobbying is more important and material than ever. 

Sources: 

Written by Dieter Zinnbauer.