THE HOME DEPOT, INC. | Disclosure of Director donations at THE HOME DEPOT, INC.

Status
Filed
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
4
Resolution details
Company ticker
HD
Lead filer
National Legal and Policy Center
ESG theme
  • Governance
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
RESOLVED: Shareholders request the Board adopt as policy, and amend the governing documents as
necessary, to require that director nominees furnish the Company, in sufficient time before publication of the
annual proxy statement, information about their political and partisan giving. The information would be most
valuable if it contained:
- a list of his or her donations to federal and state political candidates, and to political action
committees, in amounts that exceed $999 per year, for the preceding 10 years;
- a list of his or her donations to nonprofit (under all IRS categories) and charitable organizations, in
amounts that exceed $1,999 per year, for the preceding five years.
Information that nominees provide to the Company shall be made conveniently available to shareholders and
the public at the time the annual proxy statement is issued.
Whereas clause
WHEREAS: Viewpoint disagreements around the world have intensified, and businesses are caught in the
middle. While shareholders should expect corporate engagement over matters that affect operations and
viability – like taxation and regulation – many companies get involved in contentious matters unrelated to
those companies’ core businesses and are off-putting to many customers, often damaging their brands and
reputations.
Supporting statement
SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Corporate support of potentially controversial stances, especially on social and
cultural issues, can damage relationships with customers, employees, and investors, and present material
risks to companies' reputation and sustainability. For example:
- Consumers boycotted Bud Light following advertising efforts featuring transgender influencer Dylan
Mulvaney. The backlash resulted in the brand losing its status as the best-selling beer in the United
States.1 Parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev lost 28 percent in pre-tax profit during the second
quarter of 2023, and the situation worsened in Q3, resulting in another 29 percent drop in adjusted
U.S. earnings.2
- Target Corporation highlighted its sale of sexually and socially charged children's products and huge
corporate donations to deeply partisan organizations whose goals are antithetical to Target's core
customers. The resultant backlash lost the company $10 billion in market value over ten days.3 Its
quarterly sales fell for the first time in six years,4 despite increased consumer spending during that period.5

The Home Depot, Inc. (“Company”) is not exempt. It donated $1 million6 to a group7 supporting lenient
criminal justice policies following the death of George Floyd, policies that have destroyed many U.S. inner
cities. Unsurprisingly, the Company has suffered a crime epidemic at its stores, affecting its bottom line.8
Corporate underperformance can be avoided if directors exercise greater risk oversight objectively. Home
Depot reported in its 2023 proxy statement,9 “We also have Board-level oversight of political speech on behalf
of the Company.” However, shareholders are uninformed about Board members’ ideological and political
views. Greater transparency is needed to allow shareholders to know whether our Board suffers partisan
capture and therefore the group-think and ideological blinders that have cost some companies dearly in
recent years.

How other organisations have declared their voting intentions

Organisation name Declared voting intentions Rationale
Kutxabank Gestion SGIIC SAU. Against

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