e.l.f. Beauty - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

e.l.f. Beauty is Medium Risk.

e.l.f. Beauty is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. e.l.f Beauty occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

e.l.f. Beauty integrates ESG into its business practices. Suppliers are required to control “greenhouse gas emissions in all phases”, and e.l.f. Beauty “partner[s] with [its] suppliers to prioritize actions and processes to ensure continuous improvement” in their environmental performance (1)(2). However, e.l.f. Beauty has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (3).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

e.l.f. Beauty does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

e.l.f. Beauty requires employees to take unconscious bias training (1). e.l.f. Beauty appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its leadership composition. From its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy: “We have a goal to have…over 40% diverse employees” (2). e.l.f. Beauty protects its employees against viewpoint discrimination (3).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

In October 2022, e.l.f. Beauty joined the Every Body Campaign, which is “the largest beauty industry-backed reproductive justice initiative in history” (1). e.l.f. Beauty offers DEI education to its employees, including a masterclass on LGBTQ issues (2). e.l.f. Beauty advocates for diversity in company leadership boards. From its press release: “e.l.f.’s ambition is to help double the rate …and diverse members added to corporate boards by 2027” (3). e.l.f. Beauty released a short film featuring a queer artist in the 2024 Tribeca X Award Competition (4). e.l.f. Beauty is committed to DEI in its business practices. From its 2024 DEI policy: “We promote DEI at all levels of our workforce, and our senior leadership team takes full ownership of our DEI initiatives and programs” (5).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

e.l.f. Beauty provides a benefits package for employees that covers travel/lodging costs for an abortion (1). In 2022, e.l.f. Beauty donated all its Every Body campaign proceeds to SisterSong, an abortion activist organization. e.l.f. Beauty has donated over $25,000 to organizations supporting women’s reproductive rights, and racial/gender justice (2)(3). The company has donated $50,000 to the Pull Up For Change Small Business Impact Fund to advance the economic wellness of a particular racial group (4)(5). e.l.f. Beauty is a partner of It Gets Better, an LGBTQ+ focused nonprofit that develops educational resources, operates youth leadership programs, and promotes storytelling and community initiatives for LGBTQ+ youth. Through its It Gets Better EDU program, the organization provides educators with classroom resources that encourage the inclusion of LGBTQ+ terminology, stories, and identity-related topics in K–12 learning environments. The organization also encourages educators to share its educational resources with students, discuss pronouns in the classroom, and incorporate LGBTQ+ stories into their curriculum (6)(7)(8)(9)(10). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of e.l.f Beauty using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (11).