It’s no secret that corporate America has gone all-in on woke policies in recent years. For the better part of a decade, companies have danced to the tune of progressive activists by aligning themselves with ideologies like divisive and discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs or radical gender ideology. Meanwhile, mainstream conservatives and Christians have faced the specter of cancellation by major banks, social media platforms, and more.
But the momentum is shifting in corporate America—thanks in no small part to Alliance Defending Freedom’s corporate engagement and shareholder work.
On top of that, recent landmark rulings on DEI and gender ideology at the U.S. Supreme Court have given businesses even more motivation to ditch divisive politics and recommit themselves to serving every American consumer, employee, and shareholder with excellence.
And after November’s election, companies are scrambling to save face with the American public and a presidential administration openly committed to rooting out ideological commitments undermining the God-given freedoms protected by the First Amendment.
ADF’s Viewpoint Diversity Score Enters Year Four
By God’s providence, Alliance Defending Freedom is fully prepared to meet the moment.
This June, we launched the fourth edition of our Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index—the premier benchmark for measuring corporate respect for free speech and religious liberty. In our 2025 Index, we scored 100 companies in the finance, tech, software, and social media industries, comparing corporate policies and behavior to the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of every American.
The Index is more than just a diagnostic tool. It exposes the very corporate policies that empower censorship and discrimination. These policies become the targets of our multi-levered strategy: shareholder engagement, strategic legislation, and, when necessary, litigation.
A Growing Track Record of Victory
Our strategy is yielding major results. Leveraging our Index findings, legal expertise, and related shareholder proxy work this year, we have secured 22 policy and behavioral changes at the largest companies in the country on debanking, deplatforming, DEI, and religious liberty in the workforce. ADF attorneys leveraged these Index findings and recommendations when they met with companies to make these crucial changes, and all were secured with the help of our coalition of like-minded shareholder advocates.
Our work with JPMorgan Chase is a perfect example of the impact we can have. After Chase debanked the National Committee for Religious Freedom in 2022, ADF worked with David Bahnsen to file a shareholder resolution asking for transparency on debanking. At the same time, we worked with investors and over two dozen state attorneys general and treasurers to draw national attention to the matter.
This led to ongoing engagement between ADF and Chase, which subsequently removed its vague and easily weaponized “social risk” policy for payment processing. Chase also added a promise to the first sentence of its 2023 climate report to affirm it “provides financial services for individuals and industries across geographies—regardless of political, social or religious viewpoints.”
That was only the beginning. Earlier this year, during negotiations over another ADF-sponsored shareholder resolution, Chase agreed to update its code of conduct to expressly prohibit political and religious viewpoint discrimination against any of Chase’s customers, employees, suppliers, and contractors.
This bold move from a respected industry leader like Chase has already prompted other financial institutions to adopt similar protections. And we hope it will continue to do so. No one should have to worry that they’ll lose access to their bank account, their insurance, or the public square because of their religious or political views.
Here’s a snapshot of other accomplishments from this year:
- Statements from four other major financial institutions, including Charles Schwab and Citigroup, promising to serve all customers regardless of religious or political views;
- Viewpoint-neutral ad-buying commitments from five members of the now-defunct censorship cartel known as the “Global Alliance for Responsible Media,” including Mastercard, IBM, and PepsiCo;
- Statements from major pharmacies like Walmart showing resistance to far-left political pressure to dispense the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone; and
- Protections for religious liberty so that employees of faith can stand on equal footing with their secular peers.
Together, our partners represent numerous and diverse religious denominations, institutions, and everyday Americans. They are united by the common belief that businesses and our country do best when companies do not take partisan stances on divisive political issues but instead focus on providing excellent goods and services while respecting the fundamental values that have built our nation. This allows companies to best innovate, attract the widest pools of talent, and serve the broadest possible customer base.
The Momentum is Real—And We’re Just Getting Started
The cultural winds are changing. The Trump administration has taken aim at many of the issues that animate our work. The legal landscape is rightly becoming more hostile to discriminatory DEI ideology that treats some people worse than others based on skin color or sex. States such as Tennessee and Idaho have adopted our model legislation to protect against discriminatory debanking.
Many companies are waking up to the harms caused by politicizing their businesses and are enacting policies that respect the diverse religious and political views of their customers, employees, business partners, and shareholders. What a privilege it is to play a role in that change.
But there is much more work to be done, as detailed in the 2025 Index Report. “Hate speech,” “intolerance,” and “misinformation” policies that create systemic risks of viewpoint discrimination are still widespread. While some companies are ditching DEI, others are rebranding it. And many companies still support hyper-partisan organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and fail to treat their religious employees equally when it comes to workplace culture.
