Episode Notes:

• Download the 2025 ACCP Making the Case Toolkit

• Learn more about ACCP

• Listen to the Impact Audio episode with ACCP’s former president Carolyn Berkowitz

• Check out ACCP’s 2025 Annual Conference

Transcript:

This transcript was automatically generated.

Welcome to Impact Audio. I'm Sam Caplan, vice president of social impact at Submittable. And today, I'm joined by Andrea Wood. She's the president and CEO of the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals.

And ACCP just released their twenty twenty five toolkit called Making the Case for Corporate Social Impact. And this resource couldn't have come at a better time because CSR professionals are facing a really high pressure moment where they have to prove the value of their programs in both the short and the long term to a wide variety of stakeholders. Oftentimes, their jobs depend on it. Andrea sits down with me to dig into that report and to share her perspective on what's working in the social impact sector right now, some things that are evolving and other things that are staying the same.

Super excited to welcome Andrea Wood to Impact Audio. Andrea, you are then, semi newly minted president of the, Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals.

And, welcome aboard. I'm super excited to have this conversation with you today.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Yeah. Definitely. So I say semi newly minted because you've been with the organization since January, I think. So you've you've you've got a a little time under your belt. I'd love maybe just to kick things off with a bit of an introduction, to you and to the ACCP organization.

Great. Yeah. Well, I joined ACCP in January, as you mentioned, so I've been here about four months or so. But actually, was a member, and also board member for many years before that, so I'm not new to the organization.

I have been in CSR leadership roles, for, you know, the last couple decades, first at Target and then at Best Buy. So, have been in the field quite a long time and, really excited to take over the organization right now, Carolyn Berkowitz, which I know many people know, you know, who who many people know. She has left a really solid foundation for me, in terms of creating a just a premier organization for corporate so social impact professionals. So I get to build on that really strong foundation.

And, you know, it's it's a good time to be at ACCP because I feel like our members really need support, during, I think, you know, our really challenging times right now. There's a lot going on in the external environment and also internally, and, I think what our secret sauce is is really around creating community so that our members can support each other and help each other, you know, deepen their connections, and figure out how to keep this work moving and make the biggest impact they can make in this, I think are very challenging times for for many of our members and member companies.

So you'll see, you know, sort of a sharper focus, I think, for us in particular around helping our members make the business case, for the work that they're doing, and really talk about it in a clear, way so that, they are all of their stakeholders, internal and external, really understand how important this work is both to the community and to the business moving forward.

Yeah. And and you mentioned several things there that I definitely wanna get into starting with, like, the the current environment right now, for corporate social responsibility and specifically corporations who are navigating some pretty tough waters these days. Like, what what do you make of everything?

Yeah. It's really challenging, but it's, you know, I I wanna say because I've been in this business a long time that it's not some anything that we haven't seen before in various, you know, forms.

But it is it's it's challenging in terms of budget scrutiny. I think there's a lot of economic uncertainty right now, and that certainly, you know, forces companies to do some belt tightening, or pausing. You know? So maybe they had planned to to do more, but are pausing to see what happens with the economy.

Obviously, the political environment, political pressures are putting, a lot of scrutiny from external and internal stakeholders, around CSR work as it relates to how how CSR collaborates with DEI and and ESG commitments. And so, it is challenging, but I think, you know, again, back to my original point, you know, our members are talking about the business case to say, you know, yes. We are doing this because we wanna make a community impact, a positive community impact, but this also, drives really clear business value from employee recruitment and retention to brand value, reputation. So

there are so many reasons why companies do that because it supports the business, and it's back to shared value. Right? We've all heard that term shared value before, you know, many years ago, coined by, Harvard Business Review. And and now we're back to talking about it because I think, you know, sometimes people forget that this is a clear business advantage for for companies to do this work.

Yeah. I completely agree with you. I think that for me, you know, I I go to the ACC conference every year and and several others. And, definitely, like, the biggest trend that has emerged over the last twelve months in CSR and in employee engagement has been this conversation around doing a couple of different things, within, corporate CSR. And the first is to do a better job of aligning CSR programs with the core functions of a business.

And then the second thing is really around just, like, you know, thinking about how do we demonstrate the internal value of our programs to all of our stakeholders. And it's a big shift in conversation for me because for many years, the topic of the value that CSR brings has really been focused on, like, the external community and thinking a lot about how a CSR program generates social impact and really, like, affects change in communities. And that's clearly still top of mind and really important for many corporations. But now we're beginning to see a lot of corporate leaders, looking for more opportunity to describe that internal return on the investment. So what does it mean really in terms of employee engagement and even in terms of, from your shared value perspective, like generating revenue for the business? And I'd love to hear, like, your perspective on this because it has been such a dominant topic over the last several months.

Yeah. I mean, there there are a lot there's lots of data to support that when companies do this work well, with emphasis on well, because I think, you know, sometimes, you know, some companies don't do it well. Right? But when they do it well, there is significant business impact. And I think the easiest one to measure is around employee engagement employee engagement, recruitment, and retention.

And we're finding, you know, there are lots of studies to show, particularly with, Gen z's and millennials, that they are choosing to work for companies that align with their purpose. Right? They they they wanna work for companies that they feel good about, companies that they feel like are committed to making a positive impact in the world.

And so, you know, retaining top talent and recruiting top talent, it's really important that companies are doing this kind of work. That's the easiest one to measure. You know, sometimes it's a little harder to measure the, you know, brand loyalty or, you know, customer loyalty, but it can be measured, and the companies that do it understand that talking about the social impact work that they're doing, their CSR work, you know, allows companies or allows customers to actually choose their brand over another brand because they feel good about shopping there. Right? And we also see when companies don't do this well, when companies walk away from commitments, they are seeing a backlash. Right? And so we know how important it is for customers and that customers are paying attention.

Yeah. And and then in terms of, like, sort of navigating those political waters that you mentioned at at the beginning of our conversation, what are you seeing from from your corporate members? Like, well, you know, with that, DEI has been a really, like, sort of hot button issue.

And and what I'm experiencing when I talk to corporations is that they're continuing the work, but they're using different language to talk about it. They're reframing it a little bit. I think they're trying to, like, stay out of the crosshairs, you know, and continue to do DEI because clearly it provides a a real competitive advantage for so many corporations. But at the same time, like, nobody wants to see their corporation become a target of boycott or, you know, get caught in any sort of, you know, political crosshairs, you know, in terms of, you know, the administration, that sort of really like cracking down on on DEI and and even, you know, exploring avenues to to be punitive to organizations because they feel that it may be, you know, providing an unfair advantage to to some employees.

What are you saying out of your your corporate members in terms of how they're dealing, like, with DEI as well as maybe the executive orders that have come out of the administration?

Right. You know, I think that the changes that we're seeing probably across the board are what you just mentioned, which is around, language, how how companies talk about this work.

But it's, you know, it's language that it it can be easily explained. You know? So as an example, you know, many companies are focused on serving communities that, you know, are underserved, disinvested, don't have a lot of resources. Right?

You know, because of, you know, the history of our country, a lot of those communities are, you know, very diverse communities.

But if you're focusing on the communities, in terms of, like, as an example, your strategy is economic mobility, you're gonna be serving a very diverse community. Right? And so it's about how companies talk about it. Right?

Let let's explain why we're focusing on these communities or why we're focused in these areas. Right? We're trying to address the greatest needs. Right?

And I think the other piece of this is around panel pipeline. Right? And I I always like to use this example because I'm from Minneapolis, Saint Paul, the Twin Cities, but, you know, it it's it's home to many Fortune one hundred companies. You know, there are a lot of big companies who are headquartered in the Minneapolis, Saint Paul area.

And it's also, dealing with some pretty striking demographic changes. It's an aging workforce.

It's hard to get people to move to Minneapolis and Saint Paul because it's cold. We have winter here. Right?

And so the best way that companies can recruit, you know, their talent pipeline, their future talent pipeline, is by investing in the people who are already here. Well, that you know, those people are it's very diverse. Young people are, in this community are very diverse, and so companies are investing now in supporting young people to be prepared for their jobs and the jobs of the future, and that inevitably means investing in diverse communities.

But it but there's a clear business value to that. Right? And so I think, again, explaining the business value, explaining why x company is investing in this community and in this program, because it's there's a clear business value to it as well as a community value makes a lot of sense, and that's what we're advise advising our our members to do right now is be really clear about that communication.

And so speaking about advising your members, let's talk for just a moment about ACCP. So tell me really, like, what is the mission of the organization, and how do you interface with all of your members to help them do CSR differently and and maybe a little bit better?

Yeah. Well, really, our our mission is to help our members, have the greatest impact they can make. Right? And so we do that in a lot of ways.

We do that through, you know, professional development, through, peer communities, you know, communities of of like minded companies who are trying to do similar work. We do it through resources and toolkits and webinars and trainings. I mean, you know, there's just so much opportunity for, our member companies to get the support that they need, all in you know, with the purpose of of helping companies make a greater impact in in their social impact work and their CSR work. And, it really is you know, I when I was, you know, in the field, I was a member of of a lot of different types of organizations like this, but ACCP was always my go to organization because we have such a strong sense of community.

We have companies people who are member companies who want to help each other. Even if they are competitors in the business world, they're not competitors at ACCP. They you know, it's all in the service of doing good work and and helping improve our communities. And so I really feel like that's our secret sauce is a strong sense of community, people willing to help each other, to do good work.

Yeah. I'm so glad to hear you say that.

Another thing I'd love to talk about with you is the annual ACCP conference. This is one I've been going to for many years in a row now, dating back to my own days as being a practitioner.

The thing that I love about it is that ACCP is a pretty big organization. We have two hundred and fifty plus companies comprised of two thousand members. Many of those members are at the practitioner level. And when I go to the conference, there are plenty of opportunities for networking and getting together over meals and and drinks in the evening and and exchanging best practices and ideas, and getting to to make new friends in this, you know, world of CSR.

And and being a practitioner can be fairly isolating, especially if you're at a mid sized company. Maybe there's even a couple of other people in the entire corporation that are focused on, grant making or employee volunteering or giving and matching. And this is an opportunity to come together once a year with all of your peers who are doing very, very similar work and learn from each other and really generate just a ton of camaraderie. Like, what am I what am I missing or not saying about the conference that I should be?

That that is a great endorsement. And I would say, certainly, when I was a member, I would do everything in my power to go to that conference. You know, I missed it maybe once or twice in my, you know, my two decades of being a member, because it's exact it's exactly what you said. I mean, the content is great. You know, the the curated content is, practical and helpful, and, you know, I, you know, feel I feel I felt I always felt like it would I would go back, and I would have great ideas around how to do my job better and how to lead my team better.

But in addition to that, which, you know, you you just this just happens organically. There are so many side conversations that happen. You know, if you walk around the conference area, you see people in corners and huddles, and and they're just sharing information with each other. Oh, we do this, or I have a question about this.

Can you help me figure out how to do this better? And, you know, and that is the beauty of ACCP is that people are willing to share, to help each other, to support each other, and the conference is really it's a it's a like, you can't it's a can't miss. If you can make it, do everything in your power to come because, it's you can't replicate that online. I mean, we do a lot of programming online, which is great, but the in person is magical.

Andrea, I'm wondering, how will the conference evolve now that you've taken over that the leadership of the organization?

You know, I mean, we we have a great team in place who who spend a lot of time on the content, and we are always looking to be in the moment, relevant, you know, and I think, you know, what we'll be talking about this year are the are the unique, external pressures that, you know, many leaders of CSR teams are field you know, feeling right now and and how to how to manage that.

But also with very practical information, and, you know, I think, you know, we're we're always looking to see what's coming, what's on the cutting edge. We'll have some some content on AI and particularly how CSR practitioners can use AI to be more efficient in their in their jobs, and to help them get their work done. So we'll talk about that. We have, quite a few offerings for executives, for senior leaders, you know, who are, you know, maybe looking for help for how to advocate for their work internally and externally, executive network, topical groups. So it really I know. I think the conference will feel similar to last year, but it also will be very relevant to what our CSR practitioners are facing right now, with what's going on externally and what and and what they're dealing with in terms of, leadership in their teams.

Yeah. Absolutely. And and if I could just, throw in a quick plug, I have the opportunity to, to do a a session, at this year's, conference. I'll be presenting, with, with three amazing, cohosts of a panel discussion.

They represent Merck and Novartis and a company called Endeavor, and we're gonna be speaking specifically about, how to align your CSR and employee engagement programming directly with your business.

And we'll provide some really great practical examples of, like, not only how to do that, but then how you go about, like, measuring it. So what are some of the, like, you know, KPIs that exist out there and other metrics and measures to be able to really assess the impactfulness of all of that work that you're doing. So, come check us out in September at the conference. I'm super excited, to to add another, notch onto my ACCP conference belt.

And, you know, speaking about, like, all of that great resources, that ACC provides, I wanna talk about one in particular. There's a a report that comes out every year, and it's called making the case. And I'll let you describe what this this, really useful document is, Andrea.

One thing I would I would lead with, though, is to say, like, the reason I love this document so much is that you pull together data points about CSR from nearly fifty different sources out there. So it's not just a survey where you're pulling your own members, but you're you're going really deep into the industry and gathering tons of useful data around, how practitioners, and and leaders in, corporate CSR can make the case, to continue doing that really important work.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm I'm glad you brought it up. We actually have a webinar going on, that will record for for our members, to talk about how to use use Make the Case, but it's a report that we do every year, and it provides a messaging framework, and data from trusted sources, current data from trusted sources to help CSR professionals basically make compelling cases for their work.

And so it helps shift the narrative from we do this work because it's the right thing to do to we do this work because it drives business success. Right? You know? And those two things are, you know, they they go hand in hand.

Right? And so and I, you know, and I do think, you know, back to my original point around, we're advising our member companies to really lean on the business case right now because, I think it's easier for for, you know, our members to talk about the community impact. Right? And we always wanna talk about that and tell those stories, but, we also want to talk about the business impact, and that's exactly what make making the case does.

You know, and then, you know, we you know, as an example, employee engagement and retention, you know, we have some data that shows that ninety five percent of employees, who have been surveyed are you know, think it's important for their employer to make a positive impact in their community. Right? So trying you know, tying right back to why it's important for the business to be able to recruit and retain top talent. We have data to show that, US consumers expect companies to be doing this this work.

Right? Expect them to be doing good in the world. So a lot of great data that you can just basically as a CSR practitioner, you can take and present to a variety of audiences. I actually always used it when I was at Best Buy with, you know, some of my board members, with my direct boss, you know, because, again, you know, they're not in the work every day like you are.

And so going back to them and saying, hey. I have this data that shows that this work is really important for us. It's always good to do. You think that they know.

A lot of times they forget because they're not doing the day to day with you. So, like, make a point of communicating this information, and we created we create an easy document for you to use to be able to do that.

Yeah. You do. You make it super easy for anyone to be able to make that case to, to their, coworkers or or board of directors as to really why this work is so important. There was one data point in there.

There were there were hundreds of data points in there that I thought were super interesting, but one really jumped out at me. And it said that eighty five percent of employees agree that the more a business engages employees in charitable giving decisions, the more trust that those employees have in the business. And the reason that I love this so much is that I have been a huge advocate for finding ways to democratize the process and to create more employee led participation, throughout CSR. And I think that that data point to me really emphasizes that employees themselves are looking for more opportunities to play a leading role in these employee engagement programs.

And years back, it was not that way. There was it was a very sort of management top down led, initiative, and employees were told, you know, what the volunteering events were or what the fundraising events were going to be, and they were encouraged to show up. But now it looks like employees are really saying, we want more of a voice. We wanna participate more in this.

Andre, I'm really wondering, like, are you coming across this in your conversation, with with your members? Are you seeing this democratization start to, take place?

Yeah. Actually, I just had coffee with, one of our our companies this morning who talked about, you know, that they just started an initiative to have employee councils on the various communities that they're in, to help direct their giving and volunteering. And, you know, on the one hand, it's it's a little more challenging to to manage, but we've got, you know, tech reeks resources like yours to be able to help manage things like that.

But it really creates much more engagement, and she was you know, this member was telling me how much, more engagement she's seeing because she's got these local councils now who who actually you know, it it improves your giving too because you've got these people who are on the ground. They're living in those communities. They know what those needs are much better than you might in, you know, sitting in a headquarters community. So, you know, relying on your local expertise is always gonna make your work better. So, you know, we actually do back to the conference, we're gonna have quite a bit on employee engagement, various topics on employee engagement, your your panel being one of them, but there are there are some others as well. There's a there's a renewed interest in it this year.

You know, a lot of lot of companies are leaning into it, seeing what the value is, and so we're gonna provide a lot of resources at the conference as well.

I love to hear it. I am curious, you know, going back to our initial conversation around, like, the current environment of CSR right now, are you seeing many members who are facing tough decisions around, you know, like, seeing their their CSR budgets being reduced right now or, you know, maybe postponing some, some community work that they had wanted to do, but they're they're gonna sit on the sidelines for a little while, while they wait to see, like, how things play out, or or is it the opposite where organizations are continuing to move forward?

You know, we we did a pulse survey of our members, during it was the end of end of January, so beginning of February, so not too long ago, and did ask that question around what they're expecting this year. And and almost ninety percent said that they were either planning to continue at their current level or in some cases increase their work.

So we're not seeing a pullback right now. I do know that companies are concerned about the economy, and, you know, and how it may affect budgets moving forward.

And some companies are shifting focus a bit, you know, but they're shifting focus in a way that says, okay. We're gonna do these partnerships because they are such a direct tie to our business, so really looking at their partnerships from a business perspective to say this ties to our purpose as a company, this ties to our, you know, employee passions and employee engagement, what our employees want to work on, and and so that you may see a shift there, but for the most part, right now, we're seeing companies continue to do their work at the current level.

Yeah. That is great news. Mhmm. Any any trends that are emerging in CSR? Any significant changes that you've noted among your members that that you'd love to talk about?

Well, you know, and we mentioned this a little bit before. I think that the there is more scrutiny around what, internal scrutiny, I would say, around what CSR is doing within a company, and there's more need for partnership. And so, you know, partnerships with, the legal teams, partnerships with the communications teams, with the HR teams, are really important right now. And that's again where we're trying to help our members make sure that their internal partners understand the business case for why that they're doing this work.

We're seeing some changes in language. You know, we mentioned that before. So, you know, for the most part, they're continuing to do the work that they're doing. They may change how they talk about it, or they may be a little quieter, externally in how they talk about it.

But we are encouraging companies to continue to tell their stories. I mean, they have great positive stories about the impact that they're making, and their employees wanna hear about it. You know? So maybe they're communicating a little more internally than externally, but they should be they should still be telling those stories. It's very important.

It sounds great.

My last question for you is I was wondering if you could talk about a organization or two who you think is really doing an exemplary job, in terms of CSR and employee engagement. I noted that in the making the case document, there is a full page case study of AT and T, and you're welcome to talk about that if you like or any other company out there that that we could look to as an example of an organization that's just really doing it well.

Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of companies that are looking AT and T is a great a great example where they're, you know, looking at bridging the digital divide and engaging their employees in that.

You know, there are a lot of companies that are looking at community partnerships as true partnerships, right, where they're saying, okay. This is not just about writing a check. This is not just not just about supporting you financially, but how do we think about, engaging all of the resources we can bring to bear, bring to the bring to the table? You know? And and, you know, I can just give an example from, you know, my time at Best Buy. The Best Buy teen tech centers are a great example of how, you know, there's so much, that the company does to help make that successful, you know, bringing in employees to mentor and teach, young people in the in the in these after school tech programs, internships, for young people so that they can have some work experience, you know, career mentoring, scholarships to help young people, you know, go you pursue some sort of higher education.

So, you know and there and there are actually lots of companies who are doing that. Goodyear is another example. They do a lot of investment in STEM education because they're, again, talent pipeline. Right? They're gonna need young people who have that STEM training and background for their workforce, and so they are doing a really good job of not only investing, but actually providing employee, you know, mentors and support, to help young people think about these jobs and get interested and excited about these jobs moving forward.

So if there are listeners out there and this is their first time hearing about ACCP, tell tell them, what they can do in terms of learning more about the organization and about the conference and how they can get involved, with the organization.

Yeah. So, the first place is to go to our website. It's a c c p a c c p dot org. So there's two c's in there.

There's so much information on there that's that's available for nonmembers as well. So if you wanna just tool around if you're not a member and and see what the resources are, check it out. And then, if you're interested in membership, you can just email us at membershipaccp dot org, and we'll get back to you right away and give you more information. I do also want to say we are a nonprofit. We are a five zero one(three), and so, you know, our mission is to, help our members have greater impact. And so, sometimes that helps companies join because they know that we are a mission driven organization, and they can partner with us to make sure that they are, you know, realizing their the maximum impact in their communities.

I love it. Andre, this has been such a great conversation.

Thank you so much for joining me. I can't wait to see you in person at the conference, and I hope that, all of our listeners out there, will use your document making the case to ensure that their companies have everything they need to continue doing CSR and employee engagement as best they can to making tremendous impact in their own communities. And, thank you again, Andrea. It's been fun.

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

CSR professionals are holding onto a lot right now, and it's all evolving so fast: employee expectations, corporate priorities, and internal market pressures. I'm really glad that we have organizations like ACCP putting in the work to help, and I'm so excited to see Andrea at the helm. Be sure to check out the full Making the Case for Corporate Social Impact toolkit, the links in the episode notes. That's all from me today.

Thanks for tuning in to Impact Audio produced by your friends at Submittable. Until next time.