To Give or Not to Give?

Corporate partner Doug Raymond authored an article for Directors & Boards that addresses how businesses’ boards should evaluate whether political spending is appropriate.

Raymond highlights how payments by businesses for political objectives have become increasingly controversial in recent years; therefore, boards of directors should make sure that they are exercising their duties of oversight and that they understand what management and the corporations are seeking to accomplish by making such payments.

Raymond suggests that boards put on their agendas the oversight of such political payments in order to minimize the risk of public embarrassment or misalignment with key stockholder constituencies. If a board concludes that there are good reasons for permitting political expenditures, the article outlines best practices for doing so.