ProxyMonitor.org, a website managed by the Manhattan Institute's legal policy team, sheds light on the influence of outside shareholder proposals on publicly traded corporations.

Central to ProxyMonitor.org is the Proxy Monitor database, a record of all proxy proposals submitted by shareholders of the 250 largest American public companies for annual shareholder meetings for the years 2006 through 2024—proposals are submitted several months prior to the meeting, which is often the year before the meeting is held, e.g., proponent submits proposal in November of 2007 for an annual meeting scheduled for April of 2008.



Users can search the Proxy Monitor database by year, company, industry, proponent (primary sponsors of shareholder proposals), proponent type, and proposal type (general or specific.) Searches on the Proxy Monitor database generate tabulated data which can be exported or downloaded. Tabulated output includes each of the search parameters, as well as proposal titles, vote totals, and basic voting rules (i.e., whether abstentions are counted in vote totals). Users have various options for reordering, sorting, and categorizing data on the search output page.



By double-clicking each individual proposal, users can generate a full summary and text of a proposal, as well as the sponsor’s statement and the management’s response. In addition, users have the option of clicking an external link to access the actual proxy statement containing each proposal, on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Manhattan Institute intends to continue to update the Proxy Monitor database and expand its offerings over time.