Looking Back on Four Years of Portfolios on the Ballot
Before Portfolios on the Ballot launched in 2023, TSC aimed to show investors who use a company-specific focus that portfolio-wide risk is embedded throughout the economy and that those risks are actionable in corporate proxies. We did this by working with investors to create campaigns that explicitly addressed portfolio-wide issues. After a few years of this work, we noticed that others were beginning to support proposals and other initiatives that had clear systemic implications and that were supported, in many cases, by systemic, portfolio-level arguments.
We decided to publish a pilot celebrating investors’ growing use of a systemic lens. That first edition of POTB included 11 groups of shareholder actions, ranging from proposals on antimicrobial resistance at McDonald’s (MCD) and climate risk in BlackRock’s (BLK) stewardship to human rights concerns at several big tech companies.
Fast forward to 2026, and Portfolios on the Ballot (POTB) has grown from a pilot program to a dynamic, information-rich resource with dozens of featured shareholder actions that are updated throughout the proxy season, all of which are explicitly addressing the interests of diversified shareholders via the macroeconomic impacts of individual company actions.
This year, POTB launched with nearly 60 shareholder actions identified for their systems-level rationale in the proposal or the supplementary materials. Compared to 2025, we saw a significant increase in shareholder proposals that embedded portfolio-value and systems risk arguments directly into the proposal text itself. The topics have addressed a wide range of systemic level topics and have continued to expand, connecting issues like climate risk and biodiversity, workplace safety, indigenous rights, AI, public health, and corporate governance to portfolio-level risk.
All of this has come at a time when the voice of shareholders has been under threat. For that reason, during POTB this year we not only featured proposals, but also several initiatives aimed at continuing to support transparency among proposals and ongoing shareholder voice—because diversified investors have a uniquely broad pecuniary interest in companies behaving responsibly, preserving shareholder voice is essential. We’ve also expanded to collect and amplify examples of investor stewardship that go ‘beyond the ballot,’ such as policy interventions and rethinking investment practice.
While the broader shareholder proposal environment led to a great deal of uncertainty entering the proxy season, the growth we’ve documented in POTB indicates that system-level stewardship is here to stay. While uncertainty remains, many organizations continue to take action that recognizes the interdependency between social and environmental systems and the financial outcomes of diversified shareholders. Thank you for your leadership, and we look forward to next year’s POTB!
Read more in TSC’s most recent newsletter: Spotlight on POTB or sign up for TSC’s weekly proxy season highlight email.
