Broadridge’s 2026 ProxyPulse data put average support for political-spending disclosure proposals at 42%, alongside a broader rise in proposal backing and fewer environmental and social proposals voted on.
Across shareholder proposals, average support reached 27.9%, up from 24.3% in 2025. Broadridge said backing increased among retail and institutional investors but did not provide separate rates. Support for say-on-pay proposals reached a 10-year high, though the company did not state the percentage. Broadridge’s 2025 report showed average proposal support at 40.1% in 2021 before it fell to 24.3% in 2025.
The number of environmental and social proposals voted on dropped 47% between the 2025 and 2026 proxy seasons. Broadridge did not give raw counts. Its comparisons cover annual meetings held from Jan. 1 to June 30 in each of the five years examined.
Broadridge said retail investors’ holdings exceeded the previous season by 6 billion shares, while voting covered 2 billion more shares. In the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, more than 900 funds offered pass-through voting, up from about 400 in the previous year, Broadridge said. The company recorded 2,542 virtual shareholder meetings from July 2025 through June 2026, a record; more than 200 companies used the format for the first time. ProxyPulse aggregates street-name shares processed for more than 1,000 broker-dealers and custodian banks.
Other reports use different measures. The Conference Board, drawing on public disclosures from Russell 3000 companies, put average proposal support at 24% in 2026, up from 23% in 2025, and said proposal filings fell 20% from 2025. ISS STOXX counted 162 environmental and social proposals on ballots by June 30, down from 239 a year earlier, a decline of about 32%. The reports do not reconcile those figures with Broadridge’s 47% decrease. ISS STOXX attributed some of the lower environmental and social activity to the SEC’s suspension of substantive guidance on companies’ no-action requests, which it said encouraged private negotiations. It also cited the political and regulatory climate, declining support and improved company disclosure as possible contributors.
