Our Programs - Shareholder Activism
Pride Foundation's investment portfolio strengthens the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as a source of funding for our grants and scholarships. With over $20 million invested, Pride Foundation makes this portfolio work twice as hard by encouraging companies in which we own stock to include sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in their Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies. We do this by introducing shareholder resolutions and educating companies in which we own stock.
Why Is This Work Important?
Inappropriate discrimination against LGBT workers can and does occur in many workplaces. According to a September 2002 survey by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs, 41% of gay and lesbian workers in the United States reported that they had experienced some form of job discrimination related to their sexual orientation. Almost one out of every 10 gay or lesbian adults also stated that they had been fired or dismissed unfairly from a previous job, or pressured to quit a job because of their sexual orientation. Although the situation is improving, inappropriate discrimination is still a fact of life for many LGBT employees.
A non-discrimination policy that protects LGBT workers provides benefits to the entire business and all of its employees, not just the LGBT workers. The policy sends a clear message to employees and potential employees that unfair discrimination against LGBT people will not be tolerated at any level of the company. It demonstrates a serious commitment to barring discrimination against all people and helps recruit and retain qualified LGBT employees and their family members.
Appropriate non-discrimination policies also improve productivity, as they allow LGBT employees and their co-workers to focus on their job performance rather than dealing with the stress and distraction of unfair discrimination. It provides LGBT employees with a clear procedure to follow if they are subject to harassment or discrimination.
It improves the company's management and supervision of its employees, as LGBT employees will now be more likely to report inappropriate discrimination and harassment.
What Is a Shareholder Resolution?
A shareholder resolution is a procedure under Securities and Exchange Commission regulations where a shareholder may propose a company change a policy or take some action. First, the shareholder resolution is submitted by a shareholder to the company management for review. If the management does not agree to implement that requested change, the company generally must print the resolution in its annual proxy statement. All shareholders then vote on the proposal via the annual proxy ballot. The results are reported at the company's annual meeting.
The company recommends a vote for or against each shareholder resolution, and generally gives their reasons for doing so. This alone is helpful in forcing the company to analyze the reasons for its opposition to a policy change.
Our Success
Pride Foundation and its partners have worked with the following companies to encourage them to update their EEO and non-discrimination policies:
As a result of the work of Pride Foundation and its partners, Wal-Mart, General Electric, McDonald's and Emerson Electric, Micron Technology, WGI, and IdaCorp, have agreed to add sexual orientation to their non-discrimination policies, affecting more than 2.9 million employees worldwide.
McDonald's
Year filed- 1999
Year added Sexual Orientation to EEO policy- 1999
Number of employees- 390,000
General ElectricYear filed- 1999
Year added Sexual Orientation to EEO policy- 2000
Number of employees- 327,000
Wal-Mart
Resolution never filed, well documented conversations with senior management in Bentonville, AK beginning in 9/01 which continued until policy adopted in July 2003. Resolution was prepared to be filed, but we felt discussions with management were moving forward, so we had not officially submitted it yet.
Number of employees- 2,100,000
Emerson Electric
Year filed- July 2000
Year added Sexual Orientation to EEO policy- 2005 (filed resolutions every year in between and had conversations with management).
Number of employees- 137,700
Expeditors International
Year filed- 2006
Year added Sexual Orientation to EEO policy- Has not added
IdaCorp
Year filed-
Year added Sexual Orientation to EEO policy- 2008 (did not go to a vote, as management implemented the policy after we filed resolution).
Number of employees- 2,044
Washington Group International (Now the Washington Division of URS Corporation)
Year filed- December 2006
Year added Sexual Orientation to EEO policy- March 2007
When Pride Foundation began working with companies regarding their non-discrimination policies in 1997, most Fortune 500 companies did not have comprehensive non-discrimination policies.
Due in part to Pride Foundation's work and the work of many other dedicated organizations, the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies now have employment non-discrimination policies which include sexual orientation. In fact, 98% of Fortune 50 companies have them, with ExxonMobil being the only Fortune 50 company that steadfastly refuses to change.
Unfortunately there is still more to be done, particularly among mid-sized companies. We are currently working with ya number of Northwest companiesto educate those companies and protect even more LGBT employees from inappropriate discrimination and harassment.
