Educating Consumers about Corporations

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Buying Influence, Inc., a non-profit organization headquartered in Kansas City, MO. The organization is educating consumers about corporations and their treatment of women and minorities within their corporate culture. Educating consumers about publicly traded corporations has the potential to raise the awareness about responsible corporate practices, or lack thereof.

According to Linda Eakes, President, “Our primary focus is on educating consumers about how they can influence large corporations to make more socially responsible decisions,” says Eakes.

Dr. Maria Kunstadter is the founder and CEO of Buying Influence Inc. Maria lives and works in Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Kunstadter holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Drury College and a D.D.S. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “At Buying Influence, we are educating consumers about corporations. We are providing the information that will permit individuals to consciously make informed purchasing decisions regarding the corporations they support with their spending dollars. In other words, by educating consumers about corporations, they can make their own decisions.”

Buying Influence reviews data about publicly-traded corporations. Staff members at the organization collect, screen, and evaluate the data. Using these facts and data they rate the corporation to indicate the company’s performance in their treatment of women and minorities in two areas: pay equity (receiving equal pay for equal work) and being fairly represented in the highest levels of management and on the corporate board of directors. Corporations are assigned a letter grade A (excellent) through F (failing), educating consumers about corporations at a glance. “We evaluate the data according to our stated criteria on an issue (in this example, women), and assign the corporation a letter grade to indicate how well they scored on that issue,” according to Eakes. “We are providing a service that gives the consumer a simple way to quickly make a judgment call about whether to buy from a particular company.”

“On the issue of wage discrimination, the numbers are really quite astounding. In the workplace women earn about 74 cents for each dollar men make, even in studies accounting for things like similar education and experience,” adds Dr. Kunstadter. “Women represent less than 2% of publicly-held corporate board seats, and minorities are barely a blip on the radar screen at less than 1%! Yes, it’s a hot issue, and it is one that we spend considerable time doing: educating consumers about corporations.”

Educating Consumers about Corporations: The List of Criteria

When we educate consumers about corporations, we have very specific areas in which we are collecting data and making judgment calls. They include:

1. . Women and minority representation at all levels, especially the highest levels of management, including board of directors
2. Whether the company has this list of items, and how long they have had it in place:
   • A wage parity plan
   • Diversity director
   • Mentoring program for minorities and women
   • Recruitment program for minorities and women
   • Affinity groups
3. Educating consumers about corporate sponsorship of affiliate groups, political contributions, non-profit organizations