Morningstar
Corprate Bias Ratings
Risk Level:
Summary:
Morningstar is a financial services firm headquartered in Chicago. Morningstar vets vendors according to LGBTQ policies and does not provide its employees with protections against viewpoint discrimination, but has not publicly terminated business relationships based on views or beliefs. The company covers abortion-related travel expenses and the cost of "medically necessary transition-related care" for its employees and their children. Morningstar is part of Glasgow's Net Zero Alliance. Morningstar utilizes ESG criteria for investing and has recently experienced discriminatory issues with its ESG reporting services related to biases against Israelis and Jews, triggering investigations into the firm. Morningstar offers potential clients advice on how to avoid certain industries, such as fossil fuels or firearms, in portfolios. The company advocates against state-level election integrity measures. Morningstar likely discriminates against religious organizations in its charitable giving and supports and funds LGBTQ causes and organizations. For these reasons, Morningstar earns a High Risk rating.
Has denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.
Morningstar Inc. received a score of 100 on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign (1). Among other requirements, this means the company has pledged to vet vendors for LGBTQ policies and advocate for LGBTQ communities and policies. Sustainalytics, the ESG reporting arm of Morningstar, received criticism in 2022 for its “Human Rights Radar” product, which an independent review found unfairly targeted Israeli businesses and investments relative to those in other high-risk regions (2). Morningstar terminated the product, apologized, and took multiple steps to bolster its corporate transparency. The Texas Attorney General investigated Morningstar for this development (3). In July 2023, Morningstar has reportedly removed the controversy tag from 19 companies that it had labeled as controversial for doing business in Israel and the West Bank, leaving the tag on 7 of the 26 companies it had previously labeled for this “controversy” (4). Morningstar has embraced ESG investing and reporting, offering advice and strategies for avoiding investments in industries such as fossil fuels and firearms (5)(6)(7).
Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.
Morningstar uses Benevity, which disqualifies donations to religious organizations and partners with the SPLC, for its donation matching program (1).
Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.
Morningstar does not protect employees from political viewpoint discrimination (1).
Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of expression.
Morningstar has a perfect score on the HRC’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index. This score indicates the company covers the cost of “medically necessary transition-related care” for its employees and their children (1)(2). The company is a member of the Business Coalition for the Equality Act (3). CEO Kunal Kapoor has signed the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge, and the Morningstar blog has supported other CEO’s for doing the same (4)(5). Morningstar has joined the Civic Alliance, which opposes state-level election integrity bills (6). Morningstar has fully embraced ESG reporting, offering advice and strategies for avoiding investments in industries such as fossil fuels and firearms (7)(8). Morningstar is a signatory of the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance, committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 (9). Morningstar uses its reputation to advance LGBTQ causes, including publishing ideological blog posts (10)(11).
Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.
Uses corporate political contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.
Morningstar Inc. does not have a PAC.
All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
July 19, 2023
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