The State of Corporate Purpose: Insights from CECP's 2021 Giving in Numbers Report

Episode notes

Learn more:

• View the full CECP 2021 Giving in Numbers Report 

• Check out the guide Measuring Social Impact: A Guide for Grantmakers and CSR Professionals

Interested in more quality content focused on effective corporate giving?

• Launch and Scale Your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program (Guide)

• How to Structure Your Corporate Giving Program (Blog)

• CSR is Evolving: Trends, Insights, and the Case for Partnering with Social Enterprises (Webinar)

• The Review (Bi-monthly newsletter by Sam Caplan)

Transcript

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KERIANN LYNCH STRICKLAND: Welcome to Impact Audio. I'm Keriann Strickland, CMO at Submittable. Today's episode is our season one finale.

I'm so proud of what the Impact Audio Team has produced this year. Starting something new is always a little scary, but they've gone above and beyond what I thought possible. And the guests? Wow, what brilliant minds and generous humans. Thank you for sharing your time and your thoughts with us.

For those of you have been listening all season, our original Impact Audio fan club, we appreciate you, and we can't wait to listen with you next season.

And if you're joining us now, please, do take some time to go back and listen to prior episodes. I promise they're well worth your time.

And now our season's final episode.

We'll focus on the state of corporate purpose with insights from the CECP 2021 Giving In Numbers Report.

Submittable's own Sam Caplan, Natalya DeRobertis-Theye, and Laura Steele got together to break down with the survey results mean for the sector. I'll turn it over to them.

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LAURA STEELE: We're gathered here across three time zones today, which I think is pretty impressive. Natalya, where are you?

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: I'm here at Submittable HQ in Missoula, Montana. Where are you, Laura?

LAURA STEELE: I'm actually in Southern California getting ready for the holiday. Sam, what about you?

SAM CAPLAN: Nice, I am in lovely Bentonville, Arkansas, home of the Walton Family Foundation, Walmart Corporation, and the Arkansas home base for Submittable.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: That's exactly right.

LAURA STEELE: Sam, so you brought us this report, the Giving In Numbers Report. Do you want to talk about a little bit what it means for the industry?

SAM CAPLAN: Yeah, definitely. So the Giving In Numbers 2021 edition just recently dropped, as they say. And this is a super important report for the corporate social responsibility, corporate purpose industry.

It's produced by the Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose or CECP.

It's an organization that's really like a coalition of more than 200 of the world's largest companies. It was founded by the actor and philanthropist Paul Newman back in 1999. And the first Giving In Numbers Report came out in 2004. So this has been happening for almost 20 years.

And it's really cool because it provides us like a year-over-year data-driven look at how corporate social responsibility is evolving. And we called out a bunch of really interesting data points and statistics and sort of turned those into some insights that I think we're pretty excited to share with our audience today.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: So Laura, speaking of those insights, what was something that stood out to you?

LAURA STEELE: I think just the general dedication to CSR across the industry. I think if you're not investing in CSR, you're really behind at this point. And that was really well illustrated in the report.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: Yeah, absolutely. To throw a few stats at everyone, the report showed a 63% increase in direct cash giving, 68% increase in foundation cash, and 65% increase in non-cash. So particularly product donations, which is no big surprise, medical products and things like that with the pandemic in 2020 was way on the rise.

SAM CAPLAN: Yeah, and I think that another data point that I thought was really reassuring for CSR is that this has been increasing since 2016. So the report shows that there's this four-year trend of cash giving that has increased year over year over the last four years. So that's a pretty interesting data point for us. But I would also say going back to your point, Laura, it's equally reassuring to see that corporations are continuing to invest.

In the employees who staffed these corporate purpose teams, it showed that the number of FTEs has grown by 22% since 2018.

And another really interesting perspective is that even when corporations have some sort of reduction in staff, the CSR teams remain stable, and in many cases, they even increase the headcount on this number of teams. So all that to say, it's very reassuring to see that corporations, I think, are really getting that corporate purpose, and CSR has become a really critical and expected component of the work that they do.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: Absolutely, that one stood out to me as well, Sam. And I think, to Laura's point, it seems that community investment is sort of reigning supreme in terms of the full CSR landscape.

And your community investment program can look like a lot of different things, but it does look like corporations across the board are really recognizing the importance in investing in their own internal staff so that they can, in turn, make those investments in the community that are so important to employees finding that sense of purpose. We see that importance reflected in investor reporting, as well as we know consumers are savvier than ever. Laura, I know you had an interesting observation about the growth in savviness among consumers and the importance of corporations taking that really into account when it comes to thinking about their CSR work.

LAURA STEELE: Yeah, I think just looking at the landscape of what it means to be a consumer these days, most people are aware of what they're buying, who they're buying it from, and what those companies stand for. And so, if you're a company and you're not engaged and addressing community needs and advancing social good, you're going to suffer in your bottom line.

SAM CAPLAN: Yeah, and one thing I would point to in the report that demonstrates that Laura, is that they indicate that giving for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and social justice we're really on the rise over the course of last year. So out of all the companies that were surveyed, 93% said they increased their giving in those particular focus areas.

I think another data point that I found super interesting here was that CECP did a pulse survey in 2019, and the respondents considered that their companies anti-racism actions reinforced their own individual beliefs and purpose. That was 83% of respondents who said that their company's anti-racism statements reflected their own beliefs.

I think it's like something super important to note that companies are beginning to understand that they have to also reflect the values of their employees and their customers to really be viable in the marketplace out there. And so I think we're beginning to see what I hope will become a long-term trend in CSR, where there is a really renewed emphasis on values, especially corporate values reflecting those same values from their staff and their customers.

LAURA STEELE: I think also when we think about the investment in CSR, particularly the full-time employees as you mentioned and those pieces of the company being quite protected, that makes me feel optimistic because it's really about building that infrastructure, especially around diversity, equity, and inclusion. You can't just say, oh, we're going to reach some metric around diversity by next year without really doing the work and putting infrastructure in place and practices in place to support those initiatives. And so I think the fact that companies are really investing in those teams and those practices really gives me hope for us making progress on these issues and not just becoming something that is popular to say for the public or for employees.

It's really following through with action.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: I think that's such an important point, Laura. And I noticed that as well, particularly some stats around the number of non-profit partners in portfolios as well as the number of full-time employees overseeing fewer total grant recipients. We saw trends that indicate to me that perhaps trust-based practices are taking an increasing share of those grants that are going out trust-based practices, meaning a philosophy of grantmaking rooted in power-sharing and relationship building as opposed to just kind of signing the check and looking the other way. And really having that investment in your own internal staff to be able to build those relationships is crucial to take up trust-based approach.

So I also found that encouraging.

SAM CAPLAN: Yeah, I did as well, Natalya. One insight that I took from all of that was that in most cases, the public sector, the non-profit sector, seems to lag behind the corporate sector sometimes by several years. We see this in technology all the time where there'll be a strong emphasis in some particular technology or methodology or a process that happens on the corporate side, and then years later, it seems to trickle down to the non-profit side. But I actually think this is a bit of the reverse, where we're seeing over the last couple of years like trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking and streamlining grant making, all of these values have emerged on the private side or the non-profit side of the sector, and now I think we're beginning to see corporate sort of picking up that clarion call that we're seeing from private grantmakers as well.

So it's interesting to note that for the first time, maybe ever the corporate sector is actually learning something from the non-profit sector.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: Certainly not the first time that they ever should have, but that's such an interesting point, Sam. Sam, one other insight that I know you had observed was how investors are becoming an even bigger factor in CSR.

SAM CAPLAN: Yeah, most definitely. So in the Giving In Numbers Report, they showed that 78% of companies considered the investor perspective when reporting on social results and the company's sustainability report. And there was another data point, too, that the percentage of corporate citizenship teams providing ESG information to investors rose from 57% in 2015 to 80% in 2019. So I think it's super interesting that investors are driving a lot of the evolution in corporate social responsibility.

And I think it's also fantastic that corporations themselves are beginning to recognize that we're not only doing this out of a sense of altruism or because we feel that it's the right thing to do, but like there's some actual acknowledgment that it's the right thing to do for your business and your bottom line as well.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: Absolutely. I think it echoes back to the point that Laura made earlier. It really is every stakeholder demanding for more of a purpose-based approach from corporations, employees, customers as well as investors. So encouraging trends, I think.

And then, when it comes to kind of communicating about CSR efforts and really impact, one other thing that we observed in the report is that impact measurements really seem to be table stakes. We saw that a full 92% of companies measured social outcomes on at least one of their grants. And 28% measured all grants. 39% measure their strategic program. And three-year data also showed that impact measurement is taking more and more of a foothold.

LAURA STEELE: Yes, and Natalya, you brought this to my attention, but I think it's easy for people to get caught in the weeds a little bit with impact measurement. But I think it's a great idea to leverage the information in the data that you're already collecting to look at how you can measure your impact. You can look at employee surveys maybe that you're already running. You can look at brand assessments to see how the public feels about your brand and about the work that you're doing.

So it's really about leveraging your existing resources to measure impact.

I think it also links back to some of the DEI work that we talked about. Measurement really allows you to find the blind spots as well, whether that's an inefficiency with how your program operates or that's a misstep in terms of equity. You're not going to know about that unless you're taking the time to look back at your work and say, how are we doing? What is the impact that we're having?

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: That's absolutely right. And Laura, I'll go ahead and brag for you--

has written the coffee table book as we like to refer to it on impact measurement, so she knows what she's talking about. Anyone wanting to dive more into that can check on the Submittable resources online. One more point I wanted to make about measurement was that when it came to measuring employee metrics as well as brand metrics, the most important evidence that corporations called out in terms of seeing their impact among employees was increased employee engagement score. And then for the brand, it was an improved reputation and trust score.

So incredibly important results that they're seeing as a manner of the impact of their community investments.

SAM CAPLAN: Yeah. And one thing I would add to this is that I'm super curious to see if the corporate sector is going to follow the trend that we've seen in private philanthropy around more general operating grants and really fewer restrictions on how grant dollars can be spent. Typically in years past, for both CSR and in private philanthropy, when grants were handed out, they were done under this very prescriptive manner. Essentially the non-profits were told more or less exactly how they were going to spend the money and what they were going to spend that money on, and the very specific impact that was expected to be made with those grant dollars.

But we've seen, especially since COVID and all of the events that took place in 2020, that on the private philanthropy side, grantmakers have been doing more of these general operating grants or general support grants where they're not being prescriptive. They're handing grant over, and they're saying to the non-profits, we trust that you know the best way to spend these dollars to make the greatest impact and to make your organization sustainable in the long term. And I think as a result like fewer measures and metrics, and data elements are being expected back from those non-profits.

And so this would be a big shift for corporate philanthropy because, as you guys know, on the corporate side, everything gets measured going all the way back to the dawn of time. With quality assurance, we've all heard the saying that you can't improve what you don't measure. And so the corporate side has been so heavily focused on collecting tons of data to measure very specifically the impact that their dollars are making. I think it's going to be really interesting to see over the next few years if the corporate side follows the non-profit side and actually begins to request less data on some of this impact.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: Yeah, and I think that's a great point, Sam. And I think another lesson they can kind of take is gathering less pieces of quantitative data doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to learn less about that ultimate outcomes and impact that you contributed to by providing those unrestricted funds, for example.

It's kind of rather a shift to embracing the fact that impact is complex. It takes a long time. It's about people. It's not about numbers. And so I think more of an openness to that approach to impact measurement would be a really wonderful thing

SAM CAPLAN: Here, here.

All right, so why don't we end by talking about what I think is kind of the elephant in the room regarding the Giving In Numbers Report. And that is some of the data that was presented on both volunteerism and matching gifts. So clearly, as you would expect in a year with a global pandemic, volunteerism was way, way down last year. So what they discovered was that typically you get like 30% of employees volunteering at least one hour per year. But last year it was only 20%. So obviously, with a global pandemic raging, it's just not possible to send employees off to a non-profit to volunteer.

They did report that virtual volunteering was way up. And I think it actually became a last year. It'll be interesting to see if virtual volunteerism sticks around or if we're at a point where people are starting to feel more comfortable going back to these physical volunteer events. So that was one point that I thought was super interesting.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: Yeah, that was a bright spot in as you I think correctly identify the areas that are poised for opportunity in CSR is maybe a kind of framing we can give that. But, yeah, we also saw that gift matching continued a years-long downward trend there. And what's most interesting about those trends to me is that they're ubiquitously available. These are practices that most large businesses have in place.

But if your employees are not participating, they're clearly not yielding you any results.

SAM CAPLAN: Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, the report shows that 94% of companies offer at least one matching gifts program, but only 22% of employees are participating. I think it's similar for volunteerism.

Typically, you would expect to see around 30% of employees volunteering an hour a year.

We know the number was down last year because of COVID, but I think it all begs the question, as an industry, how do we feel about these programs around volunteerism and matching gifts that are, as you said, Natalya, just ubiquitous? Everyone has them, but the participation rate at 22% for gift matching, 30% for volunteering an hour. Are we happy with that as an industry? And if we're not happy, what do we think those opportunities might be to make some changes.

NATALYA DEROBERTIS-THEYE: So I will say for volunteerism, some opportunities could be are you offering opportunities that your employees are actually interested in. And one way that the Submittable volunteers and product approaches this is it really empowers the employees themselves to create those opportunities, to leverage their own relationships that they have in the community, and invite their coworkers to go and join them. And I think that the other side of that is that it makes it a social opportunity. It's a really easy-to-use platform where you can, as an employee, see who else is going to be participating and volunteer as a team.

Or, on the other hand, make an effort to volunteer with different people who you don't usually get a chance to interact with through the course of your job duties. So it's really kind of creatively exploring ways that you can make the volunteer experience more engaging through the technology.

LAURA STEELE: When I think, too, about companies looking to refresh programs like this, I think about stepping back a little bit and looking at them from the employees perspective and what are some of the barriers whether it's time, whether it's sort of psychological barriers, whether it's a nervousness to engage in a program they haven't been a part of before. But taking the time to kind of look at things from that perspective will help maybe reframe them in a way that is more engaging and that allows some excitement and some inspiration around these programs that have been around so long. I

think maybe some people have kind of taken them for granted.

SAM CAPLAN: And I agree with both of you. I think that it is time to reinvent volunteerism, and it's time to reinvent matching gifts to make these much more engaging for employees. I also think that it begs the question, is the industry ready for something else as well like volunteerism, matching gifts? These programs, as ubiquitous as they are, they've been around for a really long time.

And while I think there is tons of opportunity to make them better. And I that as we do make them better and more engaging, then we're going to see those numbers go way up.

And I think that the whole industry has also been asking itself what's the next thing that's going to happen in employee engagement? And that's what I'm super curious to see. And I'm not sure maybe we'll get some input from a listeners of today's podcast and let us know what you think is on the horizon for CSR and corporate purpose. We would love to know.

KERIANN LYNCH STRICKLAND: Thank you for joining us today and all year.

Feedback, ideas, or recommendations for next season? Reach out to our team at Impact Audio at submittable.com. We'll see you again in 2022.

Impact Audio is edited and produced by Jordan Marvin and our crew at Submittable. Submittable is a cloud-based social impact platform designed to help your team make better decisions and have a bigger impact.

We'd love to partner with you to maximize social good and create lasting change through smarter technology. Find out more at submittable.com. And until next time, take good care.