Caterpillar Inc. is one of the largest companies in the United States and employs over 113,000 people. As a major employer, Caterpillar should support the religious freedom of its employees. Caterpillar is already required to comply with many laws prohibiting discrimination against employees based on their religious status and views.



Respecting diverse religious views allows Caterpillar to attract the most qualified talent, promote a diverse and vibrant business culture, and is a key component to make sure it fully engages each of its employees. One of the best ways companies can do that is by supporting employee philanthropy.



Employee-matching gift programs are an important way to foster volunteerism and community engagement within company workforces. But the 2024 edition of the Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index(1) found that 61% of scored companies exclude or threaten to exclude religious organizations from their employee-match programs for the organizations’ religious status or advocacy. This includes Caterpillar, in its gift-matching policy(2) that allows gift matching to entities such as secular institutions of higher education, but imposes a vague and arbitrary requirement of further scrutiny on entities such as religious educational institutions and nonprofits, stating that the latter “may be considered” only if the recipient organization “serve[s] a secular purpose.”



Caterpillar should support philanthropic freedom for employees or every religious and political stripe, not pick and choose certain viewpoints and certainly not screen out some or all religious charities. This tells employees that their faith is not welcome at work.



According to the 2023 Freedom at Work survey, 60% of employees were concerned that their company would punish them for expressing their religious or political views at work, and 54% said they feared the same for sharing these views even on their private social media accounts.(3) Caterpillar can partially address this shortcoming by allowing employees to direct matching gifts to religious charities.



Recent Supreme Court decisions in Groff v. DeJoy and Muldrow v. City of St. Louis have also clarified that religious protections for employees extend to all terms, conditions, and privileges of employment, not just monetary compensation. Caterpillar may be legally exposed if it does not support employee philanthropy for religious employees on equal terms with non-religious employees.