Dear Friend,

On any given day, I'm in deep conversation with members of the Corporate Accountability community.

I might meet with a donor like you, finding hope in our shared vision to realize democracy by curbing corporate power. Then, I'm working with our climate team located around the world, supporting their leadership as they develop organizing plans to hold polluting and extractive industries accountable. I might round it out on a call with our board chair, Akinbode Oluwafemi, in Lagos, Nigeria — a fierce organizer who we've been in movement with for a decade.

Across time zones, cultures, and roles, we are all working collectively to challenge corporate abuse. And this year, we've strengthened processes that put more power behind the work and vision of campaigners in the Global South.

(By "Global South" we mean the state of people and communities around the world, including in the U.S., who are experiencing multiple and intersecting global systems of oppression).

The stakes are high for these communities, who have long been targeted and exploited by corporations. They set the bar for the change that is necessary.

As we organize together, we employ a full set of strategies for challenging corporate power. We organize direct pressure on corporations, generate media, conduct hard-hitting research, and hold convenings to build power.

We also approach resourcing as a strategy. We do this in many ways, including through providing behind-the-scenes research, co-leading global coalitions, and direct grantmaking.

Resourcing as a strategy helps us organize toward tangible impacts — some of which you'll see in this report. I'm inspired by not only the results of this organizing, but also the connections we've built with donors like you who make this strategy possible.

Organizing is, at its heart, about relationships. In this fractured world, I hold on to this truth even when I might feel Zoom-weary. And I treasure the fact that Corporate Accountability is a community oriented around shared goals, with each of us holding a piece of this work. I'm grateful to be learning, growing, and building the world we need, together with you.

Read more +

Patti Lynn

Executive Director

CAPPA team — Our sister organization, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), convenes a community parliament for people to discuss the local threat of water privatization and strategies for advancing public alternatives in Lagos, Nigeria. These meetings were a focal point of the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition, highlighted below. Photo credit: CAPPA.

Joining forces with local partners to power impact

You helped build power to stop the abuses of transnational corporations in frontline communities around the world. Pairing our analysis, research, and resources with the expertise and power of local, grassroots organizations adds up to unstoppable strategies for long-term wins.

Click to learn more!

Houston, Texas

Through our industry monitoring, we learned about a pending water privatization deal that would impact one million people in the Houston area. We immediately joined forces with our local ally West Street Recovery, a grassroots environmental justice group. Together, we sounded the alarm about the private water industry's track record of rate hikes, labor abuse, and dangerous cost-cutting. Our joint efforts paid off, garnering high-impact media that drew connections between the current privatization threat and ongoing criminal investigations into a water privatizer that already operated in another section of the city. After weeks of local outrage, city officials canceled that existing privatization contract. Together, we made a big step forward. And we're seizing on the momentum to ensure that all of Houston's water system stays in public hands.

Latin America

Throughout Latin America, many communities face similar struggles — corporations poison the land and water while threatening activists with violence. This year, we brought together Indigenous leaders and organizers from diverse communities to develop strong regional plans for movement building, research, communications, and policy work. We are building a powerful global movement to Make Big Polluters Pay. Supporting a united front in a region historically exploited by Big Polluters advances global climate justice and strengthens the solidarity and scaffolding driving this transformative international movement.

Richmond, California; Ecuador; Argentina

This year, for Anti-Chevron Day, you made it possible for us to amplify the demands of communities directly affected by Chevron’s abuses for a greater impact than ever. We shared the might of our corporate research; participated in global and virtual events that raised awareness; and mobilized our members to take action.

In Richmond, California, we supported a day of action and participated in the True Cost of Chevron coalition alongside Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, Richmond Our Power Coalition, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), and others. Around the world, we mobilized people to demand that BlackRock, one of Chevron’s biggest investors and shareholders, divest.

And, with organizers from the Union of Communities Affected by Texaco/Chevron (UDAPT) and the Mapuche Confederation of Neuquén, we joined forces to share their communities' stories and ongoing work to challenge the corporation, via video and a press conference.

During that week, our social media posts alone reached millions of people. Together, we amplified our message and made sure that Chevron executives were faced with a clear and growing global call to stop abusing our land and water and pay for its widespread abuses.

Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Ghana

Nearly a decade ago, we began partnering with our allies in Lagos, Nigeria to stop water privatization. Now the Our Water, Our Right Africa Coalition spans the entire continent. With your support, on World Water Day, we and our allies mobilized thousands of people through community meetings, delegations to government officials, digital and in-person actions, and more. Together, we are challenging water privatization and building a world where everyone has access to safe water.

Movement Solidarity Fund

Corporate Accountability's Movement Solidarity Fund moves financial resources to campaign organizations and liberatory movements that are challenging corporate power and advancing justice. The fund aims to advance change by leveraging the power and resources that we have access to in the Global North and directing them to our collaborators and leaders on the front lines of corporate abuse. It is a vital strategy not only to win our campaigns, but also to build movements to create transformational change.

In 2023...

We redistributed funds to allies on the front line, thanks to gifts from our members and funders. Through these grants and joint campaigning, we have been able to achieve successes for the movement, as told in the stories above.

We continued to make grants to our core campaign partners:

Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA)

Flint Rising

Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ)

Institute of the Black World 21st Century

We also allocated smaller, one-time grants to organizations around the world challenging systemic racism and corporate abuse, making it possible for organizations to move forward with critical projects, including:

Website development, social media campaigns, and movement artwork

Advocacy with shareholders and local elected officials

Events, press conferences, and media work

Through our partnership with Corporate Accountability in the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition, we are building solidarity across borders. We're educating people on the continent and in the United States about our connected struggle, the threats corporations pose to our right to water, and showing them that we have the power to stop it.

Geoffrey K. Ocansey|Ally, Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition

CAPPA Egypt — Allies Aderonke Ige of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and Leona Morgan of Diné NO NUKES rally the crowd in Egypt, demanding that leaders reject false solutions. Organized and planned by Demand Climate Justice (DCJ). Photo Credit: Keltie Vance, Corporate Accountability.

Kicking Big Polluters out, advancing real solutions

With your support, the global campaign to Kick Big Polluters Out of climate action won a critical step forward this year: at last, attendees of the global climate treaty meetings will be required to declare their affiliations for all the world to see.

It should be obvious: those who profit from climate destruction cannot write climate policy. But for decades, fossil fuel lobbyists and other Big Polluter representatives have shown up at the U.N. climate talks often under the radar, undermining progress with impunity.

This victory is a crucial step on the long road to ending Big Polluters' stranglehold and advancing true climate justice. And it's been years in the making: a coalition of 450 organizations strong. Hard-hitting research and media exposure. Years of people like you taking action. And, most recently, more than 130 elected officials in the U.S. and EU — which have historically advanced Big Polluters' agenda at these meetings — publicly demanding change from their own obstructionist governments.

Now that we know exactly who is at the table, we’re mobilizing even more like-minded organizations to join the campaign to Kick Big Polluters Out. With Big Polluters exposed, we also have more power to hold them accountable for their abuses and continue building momentum for our campaign to Make Big Polluters Pay. Together with allies, we’re making major strides in advancing meaningful, equitable solutions for climate justice around the globe. And you made it possible.

Read more +

What made this possible:

The global campaign to Kick Big Polluters Out

Millions of people standing together and demanding real solutions

230,000

people call on the UNFCCC to Kick Big Polluters Out at treaty meetings in Bonn, Germany. (June 2015)

100,000

people call on the Trump administration to stand down after the U.S. is yet again exposed on the global stage doing the bidding of Big Polluters. (November 2017)

300,000

people and 403 organizations across the globe join the People's Demands for Climate Justice. (December 2018)

Organizing elected officials around our demands

With our allies, we launch the Liability Roadmap that gives government leaders the tools they need to advance Big Polluter liability and accountability. (September 2020)

130+ elected officials from the U.S. and EU call on their polluting governments to address corporate influence at the climate talks. (May 2023)

Shifting the narrative in the media on who is responsible for the climate crisis and who needs to pay

The campaign makes the front page of The New York Times as a critical mass of government delegates from the Global South stand up at the conference to challenge Big Polluters' stranglehold. (May 2017)

Throughout past years, we and our allies exposed that hundreds of fossil fuel lobbyists registered for the talks. This news emerged as a leading story on the BBC and other outlets. (November 2022 and 2023)

1.6 billion

people reached around the world through 150 unique stories published during COP23. (November 2022)

Corporate Accountability's climate campaign exposes the entities at fault and reminds us that we have a role to play in making things right. We are taking on a giant, and together, we'll win.

Dean Muller|Corporate Accountability Member

Challenging corporate-powered systemic racism

To effect transformative, lasting change, we have to confront and expose the harmful interplay between race, class, and corporate abuse. The Black Collective, a program created and led by Black staff at Corporate Accountability, educates our staff and community around the world on how corporate power was built on systemic racism and has depended on racist actions to grow over time. It also mobilizes people to take action.

From Chevron allegedly poisoning the air and land in predominantly-Black Richmond, California, and Indigenous communities in Latin America to water contamination destroying the water infrastructure and security of Black communities in the U.S. — profit-fueled corporations exploit communities of color around the globe. We and our allies in the U.S., Africa, and Latin America grow stronger when we share and learn from our experiences challenging racist, classist corporate tactics. And through the Black Collective, we’re building and deepening partnerships with Black-led organizations around the country to hold corporations accountable for their racist actions.

Read more +

This year we funded three organizations advancing reparations:

Repair America Collective

Dedicated to advancing racial justice by advocating for policies and practices that address systemic disparities in healthcare, education, and more. Our funding allowed them to build capacity for environmental justice, land retention, and asset protection work.

Reparations United

California-based group aiming to get full reparations and unify the grassroots movement. Our support helped fund a community concert and rally that raised awareness around reparations and brought together community members, activists, and sponsors to further the movement.

The Land Trust

Committed to helping Black folks keep land in their community to preserve wealth across generations. Our funding helped them move forward on three critical cases.

Doing this work is always an uphill battle. Corporate Accountability has been a valuable partner in our journey organizing for justice. They stay focused on the long-term vision and wisdom of Black and Global South communities.

Glennie & Hannah LeBaron|Corporate Accountability Members

United Nations Climate — Pictured from left: Ally Pascoe Sabido of Corporate Europe Observatory and Rachel Rose Jackson, director of climate research and policy, call out Global North governments for their corporate-backed agendas at international climate talks. Photo credit: Corporate Europe Observatory

Stopping corporate greed, exposing harmful lies

For 45 years, we've exposed and challenged corporations' destruction of people's health and our planet, successfully holding corporate abuse to account. Our victories open doors and set precedents for progress — like our organizing to kick Big Tobacco out of global public health policy, which has paved the way for our climate campaigning. And it's all possible thanks to you.

Climate

From the Bay Area to the Amazon, Chevron pollutes, extracts from, and harms communities. And, it uses junk schemes to cover up its abuses and greenwash its image. As part of a global week of action, led by communities most harmed by Chevron’s abuses, we published a hard-hitting report that exposed its schemes. The Guardian published an exclusive article on this research, influencing people around the world including Al Gore, who mentioned it in a widely-viewed TED talk.

Read the report >

Tobacco

When we learned that one of the world's most abusive tobacco corporations had formed a partnership with the government of Canada, we jumped into action. Together with our partners at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Canada, as well as allies around the globe, we exposed this scheme for what it was: yet another attempt to deflect attention from Big Tobacco's harms and give Philip Morris International (PMI) a foothold with international policymakers — in blatant violation of the guidelines of the global tobacco treaty. And this year, Canada kicked PMI out of the partnership, in a huge win for public health and corporate accountability.

Now, as we look forward to the next treaty meetings, we're partnering with government officials, liability experts, allied organizations, and people around the world to elevate the call to Make Big Tobacco Pay, putting accountability for Big Tobacco center stage. As we celebrate the 30-year anniversary of this precedent-setting campaign, we're feeling more energized than ever. Not only has our tobacco campaign set a roadmap for the larger corporate accountability movement, but it's also proven that it is possible to kick corporations out.

Food

Big Food and Big Soda are manipulating global health policies to protect their profit — at the expense of our health, the environment, and more. This year, we and our allies spoke truth to power at shareholders' meetings for Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and McDonald's. We demanded these corporations fully disclose all their global political spending — a crucial first step in securing accountability for their problematic political activities. We also produced new research on effective Global South-led activism and policy focused on protecting public health from the food industry's influence and manipulation. And we won't stop there. We'll keep organizing to ensure this research advances strong health policies in the U.S. and around the world, stops corporate abuse of our food systems, and moves us toward a world where all people are nourished.

Thanks to Corporate Accountability, we have a blueprint for how countries around the world are holding the industry accountable and are setting stronger public policies to safeguard public interest from industry profit-making.

Jamie Bussel|Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

People power: our community's foundation

People joining together to take collective action around the world can create powerful change. Together we are stronger than any of us acting alone. Our shared impact is possible because of the many people who resource this work with their time, financial support, connections, and more. With support from individuals like you, committed to shaping a world where everyone can thrive, we have the political independence and the strength that we need to be bold and strategic.

Profile

Anna Mudd

Community Builder, Educator, and Corporate Accountability Member

Anna Mudd spends considerable time thinking about the deeper, more existential issues around social justice. At Harvard Divinity School, she educates high school teachers on integrating the principles of religion and social justice into their teaching. A self-described kid of community organizers, Anna grew up discussing community building at the dinner table and came to take exposure to organizing wisdom as a given.

She is keenly aware that this is not the case for everyone. She has seen how the dominant pro-corporate narrative in our society has left some of her friends feeling hopeless and disempowered. Anna’s donor involvement with Corporate Accountability connects her deep learnings and existential questioning with actual tools for movement building. And through organized approaches, like co-hosting a virtual house party, she can now share more strategically to empower others.

"It's been such a gift to have the opportunity to expose friends and folks in my family to how collective action can precisely and strategically push back against these abstract structural powers."

Read more +

Profile

Terry Winograd

Corporate Accountability Board Member

Terry Winograd started contemplating social and political issues as a student in the late sixties, during a time of global rebellion. "It wasn't just about love and peace and harmony, but also equity, justice, and political values," he shared. As a computer science student, he helped organize the local chapter of Computer People for Peace and remains dedicated to examining the role of technology in social justice and activism.

Terry uses his social and financial capital, earned during the tech boom, to support both political campaigns and activist organizations like Corporate Accountability. As he sees it, the two powers that run the world are governments and corporations. Having been engaged with Corporate Accountability since its early days organizing boycotts against Nestle, he appreciates that we're a global-focused organization challenging corporations directly.

"We're fighting a foe who is well entrenched, well-funded, and needs to be stopped. What makes Corporate Accountability's approach appealing is directly naming the bad actors and being clear about what we — people all over the world — are doing to stop them."

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Our strength in numbers

672

monthly donors have been sustaining us for five years or more

$1,037,000

in matching funds unlocked thanks to 1,480 people who stretched their giving with us this year

21,185

people took action on multiple campaigns

1,700

people discussed our campaigns with our organizers and how to get more deeply involved

Network of allies

We continue to build and deepen our relationships with some of the world's most skilled organizers and powerful corporate campaigners to advance the shared mission of corporate accountability. Many of the allies we work closely with come from and represent communities most targeted and exploited by corporations. Meet a few of the organizers below.

Profile

Pablo Fajardo

Farmer / Lawyer with the Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT)

Over 30 years ago, Pablo Fajardo's Amazonian community went up against Chevron in a landmark case over crimes committed in the Ecuadorian Amazon. That's when he decided to become a lawyer. All the local lawyers were representing the corporations. So no one stepped in to defend the rights of the communities who lost their land due to oil pollution. With the support and small contributions of his fellow farmers, Pablo attended school at night earning the degrees to legally represent the people.

For Pablo, the strength and energy to stand against corporate abuse stems from the earth, the generations of community members who have cared for the land, and the wisdom cultivated by grassroots movements. With UDAPT, a founding participant in Anti-Chevron Week, he is on a mission to make the Amazon a place where the Indigenous people have the human right to live a life of dignity.

Pablo started working with Corporate Accountability in Geneva many years ago on human rights treaties. Now, he also works with the Latin America climate team to strengthen the movement to Make Big Polluters Pay in the region, building connections between organizers facing similar struggles and creating space to strategize and support one another.

"We need to unite the strength between the folks in the Global North and the Global South so companies and industries learn to respect life, no matter where they operate. If we don't do something real and strong right now, we will leave a world of struggle for future generations."

Read more +

Profile

Ben Hirsch

Co-Director and co-founder, West Street Recovery

Ben Hirsch has been involved with West Street Recovery since its founding as an informal collective response to the impact of Hurricane Harvey on a historically Black ward in Houston. After the hurricane, a disproportionate number of Black homes endured severe sewage and water problems with almost no city response. This pattern of injustice recurred repeatedly after natural disasters. Like Corporate Accountability, West Street Recovery thinks the commodification of essential resources, profit maximization, and white supremacy are at the root of the current environmental crises.

When Corporate Accountability reached out to Ben and his team about a pending water privatization threat in the city, it didn't take long for a partnership to take hold. He knows privatized water means profit will be the main motive of the private water corporation, not universal access. And he recognizes that Corporate Accountability is "appropriately mad about the privatization of water" when issues around utility justice can often be abstract, especially in the aftermath of a disaster.

"You have really good values and you're really motivated," Ben says of Corporate Accountability's team. "Your eyes are on the prize. And the prize is not ‘let's talk, talk, talk about water privatization.' The prize for Corporate Accountability is ‘let's stop water from being privatized.'"

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Our network of partners

Here are just a few of the many organizations across the globe we work with toward a world where we all have the chance to thrive.

See our full list of partners →

As part of our work to advance international policies that hold corporations accountable, we maintain official relations with the following United Nations agencies:

The World Health Organization (WHO)

The Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Our team

Corporate Accountability is made up of organizers from many backgrounds and places around the world. The range of perspectives and experience brought by our board, staff, and team of organizers ensures we're campaigning creatively and building toward a world where everybody thrives.

Board of directors

Akinbode OluwafemiBoard Chair

Executive Director – Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA)

Lagos, Nigeria
Paige KirsteinBoard Vice Chair

Vice President Client Success – True Link Financial, Inc

Columbus, OH
Tetet Nera-LauronBoard Secretary

Advisor of UN Programme
Development Worker – Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Paranaque City, Philippines
Vrinda ManglikBoard Treasurer

Portfolio Manager – Growald Climate Fund

Oakland, CA
Patti LynnBoard Assistant Secretary

Executive Director – Corporate Accountability

Boston, MA
Vandria Borari

Lawyer, artist, and activist

Lower-Tapajós region of Amazon in Brazil
Sarah Hodgdon

Partner – The Management Center

Arlington, VA
Michél Legendre

Michél Legendre Consulting
Social Movement Leader & Organizer

Brooklyn, NY
Martha Newell

Board Member – Conscious Connections Foundation and High Stakes Foundation

Missoula, MT
Irene Patricia N. Reyes

Project Officer – Southeast Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)

Mandaluyong City, Philippines
Terry Winograd

Retired Professor – Stanford University

San Francisco, CA

Learn more about our team →

Justice is at the heart of every piece of Corporate Accountability's work. Together, we are speaking truth to power and growing the global movement to kick corporations out. And we must keep going, even when it gets hard.

Tetet Nera-Lauron|Corporate Accountability Board Member

Financials

This fiscal year marked the second of three years of planned investment to move resources swiftly towards our mission in the context of a sound cash position.

FY 2023 Audited Financial Report

July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023

FY 2023
Support & revenue

Individual Contributions
Grants

FY 2023
Expenses

Program
Management & General Operations
Fundraising

FY 2023
Program expenses by activity

Grassroots Organizing
Grantmaking
Media Organizing
Research & Development
Membership Development
Program Communications
International Organizing

FY 2023
Program expenses by campaign

Climate
Water
Tobacco
Movement Power
Black Collective
Food

Support & revenue

FY 2023

Individual contributions

$6,978,038

Grants

1,040,975

Other income

10,642

Total support & revenue

$8,029,655

Expenses

Program

FY 2023

Grassroots organizing

$2,635,154

International organizing

1,216,225

Program communications

1,013,521

Membership development

540,544

Media organizing

679,734

Research & development

671,626

Grantmaking

1,298,516

Subtotal program expenses

$8,055,320

Supporting services

FY 2023

Management & general

$409,220

Fundraising

394,285

Subtotal supporting services

$803,505

Total expenses

$8,858,825

Net assets

FY 2023

Beginning of year

$6,539,105

Change in net assets

-829,170

End of year

$5,709,935

Download financial report →

Dear Friend,

Our Mission & Vision

Highlights

Joining forces with local partners to power impact

Movement Solidarity Fund

Kicking Big Polluters out, advancing real solutions

What made this possible:

Challenging corporate-powered systemic racism

This year we funded three organizations advancing reparations:

Repair America Collective

Reparations United

The Land Trust

Stopping corporate greed, exposing harmful lies

Community

People power: our community's foundation

Our strength in numbers

Network of allies

Our network of partners

Our team

Financials

Support & revenue

Expenses

Net assets

Thank you

Get Action Alerts

Dear Friend,

Our Mission & Vision

Highlights

Joining forces with local partners to power impact

Shining a light on the dangers of water privatization

Climate justice activists and Indigenous leaders unite to Make Big Polluters Pay

Allies around the globe united to amp up the pressure on Chevron

Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition grows stronger

Movement Solidarity Fund

Kicking Big Polluters out, advancing real solutions

What made this possible:

Challenging corporate-powered systemic racism

This year we funded three organizations advancing reparations:

Repair America Collective

Reparations United

The Land Trust

Stopping corporate greed, exposing harmful lies

Community

People power: our community's foundation

Our strength in numbers

Network of allies

Our network of partners

Our team

Financials

Support & revenue

Expenses

Net assets

Thank you

Get Action Alerts