The Impact, Value, and Sustainable Business Initiative at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton Impact) and the nonprofit Center for Political Accountability have jointly published the Wharton Impact-CPA Corporate Political Activity Research Primer, cautioning business leaders that “In today’s polarized politics, corporate political donations are in the crosshairs.”
Corporate donations to political campaigns are at an all-time high, with billions of dollars flowing into individual candidates’ campaigns and third-party entities, making it exceedingly difficult to follow the money.
Freed said boards should consider the reputation consequences of executives’ personal political activity when it overlaps with a company’s business or regulatory interests.
“The concern is not that companies are sponsoring a national celebration. The concern is that this celebration appears to offer access to the president while some of those companies have business before his Administration,”
Rising reputational, legal and shareholder risks are pushing boards to treat political spending as a governance priority.
Companies and their leadership are at a crossroads: how to constructively engage in the political process and manage political spending. Confronted with challenges and risks never faced before, their previous political spending and engagement strategies, designed for a period of predictability under stable democratic institutions, no longer advance or protect corporate interests.
The U.S. cryptocurrency industry has become one of the most aggressive players in U.S. elections, but its spending has amplified scrutiny and backlash of the industry without delivering clear wins.
Between 2011 and 2025, proposals seeking disclosure of political spending won majority support at 30 companies, according to the Center for Political Accountability (CPA).
A total of $51m for the second half of 2025 remains unaccounted for due to this technical error, according to the Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a non-profit that tracks corporate spending.