Civic involvement reports

In this section:

Civic Involvement Reports

2013 Calendar Year General Mills political expenditures
As a corporate citizen, we occasionally support the legislative process by contributing prudently to state and local candidates and political organizations when such expenditures are permitted by federal, state and local law.

We recognize the importance of accountability and transparency for our political expenditures. Our policy describes our approval process for using corporate funds for political expenditures. The Public Responsibility Committee of our Board of Directors reviews our policy, and a list of our political expenditures is made available during the last calendar year, and we disclose the list here:

 Date Recipient Office / purpose Amount
2/18/13 Grocery Manufacturers Association Political Education Fund State political education fund $5,000.00
5/23/13 Grocery Manufacturers Association
 No on 522 Washington Ballot Initiative Campaign
 $434,635.47
10/19/13 Grocery Manufacturers Association
 No on 522 Washington Ballot Initiative Campaign  $434,635.08
    Total 2013 $874,270.55

Notes:

General Mills is a member of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), and we support their position on labeling.  The Grocery Manufacturers Association has made and reported a number of 2013 contributions to the “No on I-522 campaign” in Washington State.  Though General Mills did not contribute to the “No on I-522 campaign” directly, we have supported broader efforts by the GMA on labeling and other issues nationally.  GMA assigned and attributed a percentage of member payments to that broader effort as funding its reported contributions to the No on I-522 campaign in Washington, reporting an amount for each company.  For General Mills, that amount totals $869,270.55, as reported on the Washington Public Disclosure Commission web site.

We have made no known expenditures for political purposes to any 527, 501c4, “super PACs” or independent expenditure committees to date – and have no current plans to do so.

TRADE ASSOCIATIONS
Purpose of Trade Association Memberships
General Mills advances its mission by partnering with others that share our goals. Trade associations and other independent groups help advance these goals, and provide many other benefits including professional development, best-practice sharing, and business support services. For these reasons, we belong to many associations worldwide, and are active members of the associations to which we belong.

Reporting on Major U.S. Trade Association Memberships
We provide an annual report of our leading U.S. trade association memberships for lobbying purposes. Each group is required to provide a breakout of the portion of dues or payments made that are used for lobbying purposes and thus non-deductible for tax purposes. Below is a list of groups to which the portion of our payments for the reported calendar year allocated for lobbying purposes is $25,000 or greater. This list does not include groups of which we are members solely for business or marketing purposes rather than public policy, lobbying or advocacy.