Community Updates

SB Corporate Members amongst the Most Community-Minded Companies on 2016 Civic 50 List

America’s largest corporations are increasingly turning good intentions into sound business practices. That’s the promising bottom-line from an analysis of the 2016 Civic 50, the annual Points of Light initiative that recognizes and honors the 50 most community-minded companies in America. In the continuing shift to go beyond checkbook philanthropy, this year’s Civic 50 honorees affirm the trend that companies are supporting community engagement through policies, core business functions, and incentives that indicate sustainable long-term commitment to addressing community challenges.

Published 8 years ago | About a 5 minute read

“We are at the beginning of a boom in corporate social responsibility,” said Neil Bush, chairman of the board of Points of Light, the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service. “Corporations are putting policies in place that prioritize connection with communities. They’re seeing a positive effect through meaningful engagement with community members, increases in employee satisfaction and morale, and positive feedback from consumers.”

“This year’s Civic 50 honorees demonstrate how much they value the relationships they have with the communities in which they do business, and truly understand how important purpose is to both their employees and consumers,” said Tracy Hoover, CEO of Points of Light. “They are as results oriented in their corporate citizenship as they are in their bottom line: 78% are measuring the social impact of their community involvement and 90% solicit community feedback through focus groups or community meetings.”

Key highlights from the 2016 Civic 50 include:

A combined 10,300,000 volunteer hours and $1,800,000,000 contributed to communities around the country from the 2016 Civic 50 companies
One out of every four volunteer hours in 2016 were skills-based
90% of all Civic 50 companies actively solicited feedback through focus groups or community meetings
56% included community engagement in employees’ performance reviews
74% used community engagement to support their diversity and inclusion goals

The 2016 honorees will be recognized at an awards luncheon in Detroit, Michigan, during the Points of Light Conference on Volunteering and Service. The Civic 50 honorees for 2016, in alphabetical order, are******:

AbbVie
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Aetna Inc.
Alcoa
Altria *Consumer Staples Sector Leader
Apollo Education Group
AT&T *Communications Sector Leader
Baxter International Inc.
Caesars Entertainment
Capital One
Citi
Comcast NBCUniversal
Comerica Incorporated
CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA Insurer
Deloitte
Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Eli Lilly and Company
Entergy
FedEx Corporation
Ford Motor Company
Freeport-McMoRan *Materials Sector Leader
General Mills
Hasbro, Inc. *Consumer Discretionary Sector Leader
Health Care Service Corporation
Hewlett Packard *Technology Sector Leader
IHS
Intel Corporation
KeyBank
KPMG LLP *Industrials Sector Leader
MGM Resorts International
Motorola Solutions, Inc.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company *Utilities Sector Leader
PIMCO
Prudential Financial Inc.
PwC
Raytheon Company
S&P Global
SAP
State Street Corporation
Steelcase
Symantec Corporation
The Hershey Company
Time Warner Inc.
Toyota Financial Services *Financials Sector Leader
TSYS
UnitedHealth Group *Health Care Sector Leader
UPS
Valero Energy Corporation *Energy Sector Leader
Verizon
Wells Fargo

Now in its fourth year, The Civic 50 survey evaluates participating companies based on four dimensions: investment, integration, institutionalization, and impact.

Trends from the 2016 Civic 50 include:

The 2016 Civic 50 companies are translating good intentions into sound business practices. They achieve this by shaping strategies and policies to prioritize meaningful engagement with communities. In fact, the most growth in this year’s Civic 50 cohort was in the dimensions that emphasize connecting community engagement with core business functions (Integration), creating a culture of community engagement (Institutionalization), and measuring impact (Impact), while the Investment dimension remains strong.
Civic 50 companies are increasingly connecting purpose with profit. The top five business functions that Civic 50 community engagement programs support are: diversity and inclusion, marketing/PR, skills development, stakeholder relations and employee engagement. 74% of Civic 50 companies have a formal strategy that uses community engagement to support diversity and inclusion goals, an increase from 62% in 2014. 50% use community engagement to support skill development for employees, an increase from 46% in 2014.
Companies are building a culture of community engagement. Civic 50 companies are doing the hard work of building more community-minded companies by adopting policies, systems and incentives to support community engagement. For example, 56% of Civic 50 companies included community engagement as a formal written component of employees’ performance reviews to emphasize community engagement as a key value. This is an increase from 50% in 2014. Additionally, 90% of Civic 50 companies have a formal, structured effort to actively solicit community feedback such as a survey, focus group or community meeting.
Companies are using time and talent to accelerate social impact through skills-based volunteering. Recognizing the value of contributing time and talent to community organizations, Civic 50 companies are increasingly maximizing the impact of community engagement through skills-based volunteering. Nearly 25% of employee volunteer hours at Civic 50 companies is skills-based, an increase from 20% in 2014.
Measuring impact is the key to ensuring impactful and sustainable community engagement programs. Companies continue to evaluate community engagement programs by measuring what matters: business and social impact. 78% of Civic 50 companies formally measure the social impact of at least one aspect of their community engagement. 40% measured the outcome of their volunteer programs, an increase from 36% in 2014. 50% measure the business impact of their community engagement work on diversity and inclusion goals, and 42% measure the impact on employee engagement.

Points of Light has published a report with full analysis of the 2016 Civic 50 data, best practices and thought-leader essays. The report, titled The 2016 Civic 50: Turning Good Intentions into Sound Business Practices, and a corresponding infographic, are available at www.Civic50.org

Any company with annual revenue of $1 billion or more is invited to participate in The Civic 50. A panel of academic advisors partnered to strengthen Civic 50 survey content, questions and evaluation. The survey was administered by True Impact and analyzed by VeraWorks.

The Civic 50 is an alphabetical listing but this year’s survey also ranked the top scoring companies across 10 sectors: communications, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, materials, technology and utilities. Sector leaders are marked above.

**SB Corporate Member