Weber Shandwick - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Weber Shandwick is Medium Risk.

Weber Shandwick 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. Weber Shandwick 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	Lower 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:

Lower

Rationale:

Weber Shandwick has not publicly canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (1).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Weber Shandwick does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs. The company’s charitable giving focus areas are inclusion and belonging, sustainability, and mental health” (1).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Weber Shandwick appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its business structure through the establishment of gender and racial targets for its recruitment. From its News & Insights Page, “In 2021, we set aggressive goals to increase diversity…we surpassed our representation hiring goals with BIPOC employees representing: 25% of the U.S. workforce, 32% of U.S. hires, 53% of U.S. interns, 62% of our inaugural NYC Co-Op class, 75% of intern to employee conversion offers in our New York Co-Op program” (1). Weber Shandwick does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (2)(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:

Weber Shandwick opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (1)(2). The company supports DEI within its business practices, employing a DEI Council and a DEI Officer (3)(4). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of Weber Shandwick using its reputation to advance ideological causes or policies (5).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Weber Shandwick donated to the National Urban League, Campaign Zero, and Amnesty International (1). Otherwise, Weber Shandwick has not used corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (2).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

Weber Shandwick does not operate a PAC or engage in its own lobbying at this time (1)(2)(3).