When Costco asked investors to vote against an anti-DEI shareholder proposal at the company’s recent annual meeting last month—and won their support—it should have been a nonevent.
Such an exchange is typical in the corporate world: A small group of investors buy a tiny stake in a company and use that platform to call for a specific change, like pushing it to adopt better climate change policies or take succession planning more seriously. Their proposal then goes to a vote among all shareholders at the company’s annual meeting. Boards usually urge everyone to reject the ideas for the simple reason that companies don’t like to be told how to run their businesses.
Over the past few years, anti-DEI resolutions like the one Costco faced have become increasingly common, but their support rates are usually in the low single digits.
In any other year, Costco’s vote would have garnered little to no attention. But this year, Costco’s stance became a noteworthy symbol of resistance.
As President Donald Trump issues executive orders to end DEI, and one company after another rolls back their DEI initiatives, a fresh crop of shareholder proposals that would have once been unremarkable are now a closely watched battlefront in the war against corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives.
To be sure, the results of proxy votes are nonbinding, making the exercise somewhat symbolic. But companies will find it hard to ignore a proposal that’s popular with investors. It’s also worth noting that several companies that have received resolutions have moved to have the proposals excluded from their 2025 shareholder votes, which requires approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Here’s a look at anti-DEI shareholder proposals set to be presented this year.
Fortune reached out to all of the companies on this list and will update the story with any relevant responses.
American Express
Meeting date: April 17, 2025
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a conservative activist think tank, is requesting that the financial company remove DEI considerations from its executive pay formulas. American Express has moved to have the proposal excluded from its meeting. “The shareholder proposal challenges a metric that is no longer being used in the company’s scorecard,” according to a company spokesperson.
Apple
Meeting date: Feb. 25, 2025
Apple has asked its shareholders to reject a proposal from the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a conservative advocacy group, asking that the tech company cease all DEI-related activities, including dropping its diverse supplier programs. Apple’s response to the proposal centered on the company’s preference for not being micromanaged. In its proxy statement, the company wrote: “We strive to create a culture of belonging where everyone can do their best work.”
Berkshire Hathaway
Meeting date: May 3, 2025
Berkshire Hathaway has asked the SEC to exclude a proposal from the NCPPR asking the company to perform a legal audit of its race-based initiatives. Its letter to the SEC cited studies on the benefits of diversity, and included a quote from Warren Buffett speaking at Berkshire’s 2023 annual meeting: “If [I] had been born Black, a woman, or in a different country, [I] wouldn’t nearly [have] enjoyed the same type of life [I] have].”
Bristol Myers Squibb
Meeting date: TBA
A shareholder proposal submitted by the NCPPR requests that the company consider abolishing its DEI program, policies, department, and goals. The drugmaker wants to omit the proposal, calling it “vague and open to interpretation.”
Coca-Cola
Meeting date: May 1, 2025
Coca-Cola hopes to block a proposal on executive pay and DEI hiring goals, submitted by the NLPC, from its general meeting. In a letter filed with the SEC, the company states: “The Coca-Cola Company maintains ‘employee representation goals’ designed to achieve diversity so the company ‘mirror[s] the markets we serve.’ The company expects ‘by 2030, our employee population across all job levels will align with U.S. Census data by race/ethnicity: Black: 13%; Hispanic: 18%; Asian: 6%.’”
Deere and Co.
Meeting date: Feb. 25, 2025
Deere scaled back DEI last July, following an online campaign by conservative influencer Robby Starbuck. However, the NLPC had also submitted a shareholder proposal asking Deere to produce a report on its racial and gender hiring statistics. The NLPC argues that emphasizing diversity in hiring leaves companies open to legal challenges from employees, and that white employees may feel that they are the victims of discrimination. In its 2025 proxy statement, the company urges shareholders to vote against the resolution “because Deere is committed to treating our employees, who propel us toward achieving our business ambitions, fairly and inclusively.” Deere also states that it already provides investors with comprehensive hiring data.
General Motors
Meeting date: June 4, 2025
The NLPC is calling on the automaker to drop the practice of attaching DEI goals to executive pay. In a letter to the SEC, GM said the company had already substantially implemented the proposal.
Goldman Sachs
Meeting date: April 24, 2025
The NLPC has submitted shareholder proposals over diversity aspirations and executive pay incentives, including the compensation of CEO David Solomon. A spokesperson for Goldman recently told Fortune: “We strongly believe that organizations benefit from diverse perspectives, and Goldman Sachs is committed to operating our programs and policies in compliance with the law.”
IBM
Meeting date: TBA
In partnership with an IBM shareholder, the Heritage Foundation, a powerful conservative think tank, has asked the company to drop pay incentives for executives tied to DEI targets. IBM has moved to block the proposal on the grounds that it falsely depicts the company’s practices.
JPMorgan Chase
Meeting date: May 19, 2025
The NLPC and the NCPPR are targeting the bank for DEI incentives in executive pay and its general DEI programs, respectively, claiming the practices leave the bank open to reputational and legal risks. The company has moved to have the proposals blocked since, among other reasons, they pertain to the company’s ordinary manner of doing business. (The SEC generally allows companies to exclude resolutions about a company’s ordinary operations.) The bank also said the executive pay shareholder proposal does not accurately represent the company’s practices.
CEO Jamie Dimon has been vocal about the bank’s resistance to anti-DEI groups. “We’re going to continue to reach out to the Black community, the Hispanic community, the LGBT community, the veterans community,” he said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this year.
A spokesperson for JPMorgan declined to comment on the anti-DEI proposals and directed Fortune to the bank’s philosophy around diversity as outlined by Dimon’s most recent annual letter to shareholders.
Levi’s
Meeting date: TBA
The NCPPR is asking Levi’s investors to vote in favor of its request that the company “consider abolishing its DEI program, policies, department, and goals.” Levi Strauss & Co. has moved to have the proposal left off its proxy, saying that, among other reasons, it makes false claims. The decision from the SEC is still pending.
Levi’s CEO Michelle Gass recently told Women’s Wear Daily, “We’ve been committed to diversity and inclusion for literally decades, and it’s the core to who we are. So our commitment remains unchanged. We will do what’s right for our people, for our business. And at the end of the day, building a diverse and inclusive workplace helps us deliver stronger results.”
Mastercard
Meeting date: June 18, 2025
The NLPC says it has submitted a proposal to the credit card company over executive pay and DEI goals. The proposal, seen by Fortune, asks “the board of directors’ Human Resources and Compensation Committee to consider eliminating discriminatory DEI and ESG goals from compensation inducements.”
Mastercard did not respond to a request for comment, but the company touts the value of inclusion on its website.
McDonald’s
Meeting date: TBA
McDonald’s recently scaled back some of its DEI programs after facing online activism from Robby Starbuck. The NLPC has also submitted a shareholder proposal over executive pay at the company and its connection to diversity targets. But the company hopes to keep the issue from reaching its annual meeting, telling the SEC that it has already implemented many of the requested changes.
Merck
Meeting date: TBA
The NLPC submitted a proposal over Merck tying DEI goals to executive pay. The company hopes to omit the proposal from its annual meeting both because the pharmaceutical company has implemented many of the suggested changes, and because the proposal relates to the company’s ordinary operations.
Mondelez
Meeting date: TBA
The NLPC wants investors in the food and beverage company to support its call for a corporate financial sustainability report outlining Mondelez’s “association and support for controversial issues” such as LGBTQ+ rights. The conservative think tank claims the company lost money when it partnered with PFLAG to produce Pride-themed Oreo cookies. Mondelez has moved to have the proposal excluded from the company’s proxy statement, arguing that it resembles a proposal submitted in 2024 that did not receive enough support to be resubmitted.
PepsiCo
Meeting date: TBA
The NLPC has called on PepsiCo to “revisit its incentive guidelines for executive pay, to consider eliminating discriminatory DEI goals from compensation inducements, to reduce risk exposure.”
Pepsi did not respond to a request for comment. The company’s commitments to diversity and racial equality are described on its website, and in its most recent DEI report.
