As corporate diversity and inclusion programs come under attack, not all companies have scaled back.

At Costco’s annual meeting Thursday, shareholders will vote on a proposal from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, that would require the company to report on any potential risks diversity programs could pose to profits.

Before the vote, Costco’s board delivered a full-throated defense of DEI, arguing that such initiatives reward shareholders and “enhance our capacity to attract and retain employees who will help our business succeed.”

Unlike Costco, some of the biggest companies in the country have rolled back efforts to increase workplace racial and gender equity — or at least been quieter about them. They’ve pulled back from these initiatives under pressure from discrimination lawsuits, campaigns by social media influencers like Robby Starbuck and efforts by President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday signed an executive order directing government agencies to investigate DEI programs at publicly traded corporations.

Costco is one of several large public companies that are publicly maintaining DEI efforts despite the mounting pressure. At many of those companies, commitments to diversity have been in place for more than a decade.

This month, Apple opposed a similar proposal from the think tank. “We strive to create a culture of belonging where everyone can do their best work,” its board wrote to shareholders.

In October, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, wrote in the company’s annual report on diversity and inclusion that these values “ensure our work force represents the planet we serve, and that the products we build always meet our customers’ needs.”

And Monday, Pinterest’s chief legal officer, Wanji Walcott, wrote on LinkedIn that the company’s “investments in a diverse and inclusive work force with equitable opportunities” create “immense value for users and advertisers alike.”

Costco, Microsoft, Apple and Pinterest did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the impact of Trump’s executive order Tuesday, which calls for agencies to identify “the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners” and propose potential legal or regulatory actions. On Wednesday, Robby Starbuck said on social media that DEI was “cornered and in a position to die but we must be punishing and relentless in finishing this ideology off.”

Shareholder proposals have become a popular way for corporate activists to contest and support diversity efforts, climate commitments and other social issues. But compared with social media attacks, they have so far yielded few results. Companies including Lowe’s, Molson Coors and Toyota announced changes to their policies after Starbuck targeted them on social media (“We’ll eventually get to Costco,” Starbuck wrote on X, but they “were not a company we had down to work on in early 2025.”). But most companies routinely reject shareholder proposals, preferring to maintain control over their policies — even if they are already considering similar changes internally.

In 2024, the National Center for Public Policy Research filed proposals to contest environmental, social and governance policies at 61 companies. None of the proposals passed, and they averaged just 2% support, according to the database Proxymonitor.org. John Deere and Boeing were among the companies to oppose the think tank’s anti-DEI proposals, though they later rolled back their diversity programs.