In light of the report issued by The Claremont Institute regarding corporate pledges to BLM and other similar causes, Paul Fitzpatrick, the CEO of 1792 Exchange, issues the following statement commending Claremont’s work:
“The Claremont Institute has done a great service to shareholders by compiling corporate pledges to BLM and related causes. One week ago, this database would have been shocking enough, but after the largest bank collapse since 2008, it is a scandal. What’s most surprising is that the reckoning has taken this long. Consider that Silicon Valley Bank alone donated $73 million. Whatever one thinks about the various important social movements in America, here’s a hard fact: it’s a violation of fiduciary duty for corporations to use shareholders’ money to drive social change.
It’s a scandal that corporations collectively pledged more money than the GDP of entire nations or many US states to divisive organizations. Claremont’s data demonstrates that many of those pledges – which should never have been made in most circumstances – weren’t even fulfilled. Moreover, many organizations benefiting from their corporate windfall were hardly reputable based on their tax filings alone. We’ll evaluate whether and how the information should be added to our own databases beginning with updates to our Spotlight Report on Corporate Bias Ratings. Corporations should reconsider their current worship of ESG in light of this new data and how ESG harms businesses and the economy.”
