Center for Political Accountability
Mission: To bring transparency and accountability to corporate political spending through innovative shareholder engagement.
The Center for Political Accountability (CPA) leverages shareholder power to pressure corporations to disclose their political spending and be accountable to shareholders.
Year Founded: 2003 • (202) 464-1570 • mail@politicalaccountability.net • politicalaccountability.net
Current Democracy Work
Of more than 30 shareholder-advocate groups, only CPA directly engages companies in adopting and improving disclosure and board oversight of their political spending. Working closely with its shareholder partners, business organizations, companies, and academic institutions, CPA fosters dialogue and action through direct engagement with companies, stakeholder roundtables, and scholarly collaborations. In conjunction with The Wharton School’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, CPA developed the annual CPA-Zicklin Index that benchmarks leading U.S. public companies on their political disclosure and accountability policies. First issued in 2011, the Index was expanded in 2015 to cover the entire S&P 500.
Recent Successes
More than 140 major companies, including a majority of S&P 100 companies, have reached agreements with CPA and/or its shareholder advocates on disclosing political contributions. Building on these successes, CPA helped launch the first business school course in the nation focusing on corporate political accountability at the NYU Stern School of Business in 2015.
Your Entry Points
While few of us are corporate decision-makers, many more can influence corporate behavior through indirect shareholding in pension and mutual funds. Learn about the political disclosure practices of leading U.S. public companies in the CPA-Zicklin Index and then vote with your savings dollars to make sure your investments benefit only the most responsible corporations.