BLACKROCK, INC. | Report on excluding religious charities from its employee-gift match program at BLACKROCK, INC.

Status
Omitted
AGM date
Resolution details
Company ticker
BLK
Lead filer
Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI)
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Financials
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders request the Board of Directors conduct an evaluation and issue a report within the next year, at reasonable cost and excluding proprietary information and disclosure of anything that would constitute an admission of pending litigation, evaluating how excluding religious charities from its employee-gift match program impacts the risks related to religious discrimination against employees.
Supporting statement
BlackRock, Inc. is one of the largest companies in the United States and employs over 19,500 people. As a major employer, BlackRock should support the religious freedom of its employees. BlackRock is already required to comply with many laws prohibiting discrimination against employees based on their religious status and views. Respecting diverse religious views allows BlackRock 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 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 BlackRock, which excludes matching gifts to organizations it deems to “incite[] hatred” and may exclude gifts to any religious program. BlackRock should support philanthropic freedom for employees of every religious and political stripe, not pick and choose certain viewpoints and certainly not screening 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. BlackRock 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. BlackRock may be legally exposed if it does not support employee philanthropy for religious employees on equal terms with nonreligious employees.

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