What Does Our Campaign Finance Reform Score Mean?

Each company’s Campaign Finance Reform Score is calculated on a scale of -100 to +100. The higher the score, the more likely that purchases from the company or brand will lead to meaningful campaign finance reform. A negative score, on the other hand, indicates that purchasing from the company or brand will help keep corporate money in politics.

At Goods Unite Us, our mission is to empower people to become political consumers so we can end — or at least slow down — corporate political donations.

Companies in this country donate about $1 billion dollars per year to political candidates and PACs. By contrast, annual corporate profits in this country are about $2 trillion dollars.

We feel that if we can get even a small percentage of the population to start being political consumers, the financial impact on companies’ bottom lines will drive them to get out of politics altogether.

This is where our Campaign Finance Reform Score comes in. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that corporations have a constitutional right to political speech. We don’t agree. And our Score is an easy way for you to fight back!

How We Calculate The Score

We calculate the Score based on two factors. The first is how much total money is donated to both parties (the more that’s donated, the lower the score). The second is what percentage is donated to progressive candidates and PACs (the higher the percentage, the higher the score).

So, for example, a company or brand that is progressive-leaning but donates a lot of money to both parties will score lower than a company that is progressive-leaning but does not donate a lot of money to either party. Similarly, a Republican-leaning company or brand that donates a lot will have a much lower score than one that just donates a little.

Is The Campaign Finance Reform Score Partisan?

That’s not our intention. Our ultimate goal is transparency.

The reason we award points to companies that support progressive candidates and PACs is not because we are trying to make the Campaign Finance Reform Score partisan. Instead, we do this because progressive candidates and PACs are, generally speaking, more likely to support meaningful campaign finance reform than Republican politicians and PACs.

Certainly there are many Republicans that support campaign finance reform. But, unfortunately, most do not. That’s why for now we feel that basing the Campaign Finance Reform Score on total donations to each party is a reasonable proxy for whether or not purchasing from the company or brand will further our mission.

Eventually we’d like to calculate our score based on contributions to specific candidates who support, or do not support, campaign finance reform. And we’re working toward that goal. But it’s not easy, and we’re still a small startup.

As always, if you have questions about our Campaign Finance Reform Score, please feel free to contact us anytime!