As organizations continue to prepare for 2026, employee engagement continues to be a top priority for organizations. With shifting employee expectations, hybrid work methods, and a growing emphasis on company culture, companies must evolve their engagement strategies to stay competitive. According to the latest research, companies that invest in employee engagement programs see up to 21% higher profitability and 59% less turnover. 

With relation to employee participation in social and community impact, our 2025 CSR Industry Review reveals that engagement in employee volunteering and giving programs is holding steady, even as donor patterns shift and expectations rise. Notably, companies offering integrated giving and volunteering programs see engagement rates nearly three times higher than those offering only one. 

Employees increasingly expect opportunities for social impact at work, with 72% more likely to apply to companies they perceive as socially responsible. As you plan for 2026, now is the time to invest in strategies that build connection, purpose, and growth.  

Employee Volunteering Strategies

Skills-Based Volunteering

Encourage employees to apply their professional expertise, such as IT, finance, or marketing, to help nonprofits solve real challenges. This approach not only benefits the community but also fosters employee development and purpose. With purpose-built volunteering software like CSRconnect, employees can build their own skills profile that CSR administrators can then use to find the volunteering opportunities that align best.

Volunteer Time Off

Offer paid volunteer time off to empower employees to serve organizations they are passionate about. Consider individual VTO policies or company-wide service days. This could also recognize employees who volunteer outside of work hours with extra vacation time.

Check out how Liberty Bank achieved 100% volunteer engagement rate by offering employees 30 hours of paid time off to volunteer for causes that they are passionate about.

Team-Based Volunteering Events

Facilitate opportunities for departments to volunteer together, strengthening collaboration and team spirit. Host quarterly volunteer days, highlight team efforts in internal communications, and recognize contributions with awards or shoutouts.

Hear from Nutrabolt on the success of their dedicated Service Day and how their employees supported 63 global communities and contributed 1,500 volunteer hours in just one day.

Virtual Volunteering

Provide virtual volunteering opportunities to accommodate remote, in-person, or hybrid work environments. This flexibility ensures everyone can participate, regardless of location or work arrangement. Virtual volunteering also expands your company’s reach to support causes globally.

Flexible or Micro-volunteering Events

Incorporate micro-volunteering opportunities—short-term, low-commitment activities ranging from 15 minutes to an hour. These can serve as gateways to longer-term engagement and are especially effective for companies looking to engage frontline employees.

Employee Giving Strategies

Make Giving Easy and Inclusive

Build workplace giving programs where employees have a wide range of choices and can support causes that matter to them. Provide a variety of options, such as one-time or recurring donations, to maximize participation. Using digital platforms like CSRconnect to facilitate giving can ensure programs are accessible to all employees.

Payroll Giving

Enable employees to donate directly from their paychecks, making charitable giving convenient and consistent. Payroll giving remains the most engaging donation method for our clients, with the highest participation rates among all donation types. Companies that support employee generosity by enabling payroll deduction can benefit hugely from this increase in engagement and impact.

Matching Gift Programs

Amplify employee giving with matching gift programs that are simple to use, have low minimum donation requirements, and follow best practices. This incentivizes employees to support the causes that matter most to them and can be a great way of increasing program relevance and participation.

Portland General Electric’s 10:1 donation matching program for wildfire relief highlights the power of matching gifts to amplify employee generosity during times of crisis.

Involve Employees in Grantmaking

Invite employees to participate in the company’s grantmaking process by reviewing applications or directly nominating charities for grants. Their input can help identify community needs and foster a sense of ownership, transparency, and inclusivity in your philanthropic efforts.

Employee Resource Groups Strategies

Create Affinity and Resource Groups

Support the creation of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and affinity groups to build a sense of inclusion and grassroots engagement. These groups can also help amplify giving and volunteering initiatives.

Make sure you cover the fundamentals when setting up ERGs to secure organizational buy-in and employee champions, go through goal setting, and identify strategies around awareness and member recruitment.

Engage ERG Leaders in CSR Strategy

Provide funding and leadership support for ERGs, and involve their leaders in shaping CSR strategy. Work with ERGs to identify and support causes that resonate with your workforce. This ensures that engagement opportunities align with employee interests and company values.

For instance, following the success of their Young Professionals Network involvement in their recent Fight Against Hunger campaign, Applied Materials has integrated ERG champions into its campaign leadership structure.

Celebrate the Impact of ERGs

Recognize and celebrate the value of employee resource groups in facilitating collaboration and impact. As an example, during the pandemic, Capgemini discovered that the ERGs were tracking more volunteering hours than any year before, were being promoted throughout the company two times more than normal, and were retaining members at an 8% higher rate.

Recognition & Rewards Strategies

Volunteering and Giving Incentives

Leverage incentives such as volunteer grants, where nonprofits that employees volunteer with can receive grant funding, or cause cards, where employees are given a gift card that can be redeemed in the form of charitable donations. This can work especially well for familiarizing new hires to the company’s CSR programs.

Recognize Service Beyond the Workplace

Recognize and celebrate employees who volunteer outside of work hours, such as supporting extracurricular activities at schools or serving on nonprofit boards. Consider offering extra vacation time or simply spotlighting these efforts.

Celebrate Employees Internally

Empower employees to recognize each other’s contributions in real time using digital platforms for shoutouts and badges. Tie recognition to company values and celebrate milestones publicly in forums like team meetings or town halls.

Learning & Development Strategies

Educate and Communicate

Regularly educate employees about community issues and the impact of nonprofit organizations. Host lunch-and-learns, share stories, and provide resources to help employees understand how their contributions make a difference.

Uncover how Northern Trust takes this to the next level by training a global committee of 160 CSR ambassadors to support their international giving and volunteering initiatives.

Support Young and Frontline Employees

Recognize the unique perspectives and needs of younger employees and frontline workers. Create engagement programs that are accessible and relevant to all employee groups, ensuring everyone can participate meaningfully.

As an Account Executive, I work with banks, credit unions, and financial institutions to help them navigate the evolving landscape of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and explore how YourCause’s employee giving, volunteering, and grantmaking technologies can help power their impact.

After more than two decades helping organizations evaluate fundraising, accounting automation, and data management solutions, I joined Blackbaud to focus on the financial services sector, where trust, compliance, and community impact are deeply intertwined.

The Challenge: Meeting Regulatory and Community Expectations

Financial institutions face a unique set of pressures when it comes to CSR. They’re not only expected to give back, but they’re also required to. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) mandates that banks invest in the communities they serve, particularly low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. But fulfilling these obligations in a meaningful, measurable way isn’t always straightforward.

Here’s what I’ve been hearing from leaders in the space:

• CRA Compliance is Complex

Institutions must demonstrate their community investment through detailed reporting and documentation. This includes grants, sponsorships, employee volunteering, and charitable giving, all of which must be tracked and aligned with CRA goals. Manual processes and disconnected systems make this difficult and time-consuming.

• Security and Risk are Top Priorities

Financial institutions operate in a highly regulated environment. Any technology they adopt must meet strict standards for data security, privacy, and compliance. This includes how donations are processed, how funds are disbursed, and how employee data is managed.

• Employee Engagement is Evolving

Banks are increasingly looking to engage employees in giving and volunteering—not just to boost morale, but also to strengthen their brand and deepen community ties. However, many employees are in customer-facing roles or branch locations, making traditional engagement methods less effective challenging.

• Internal Alignment is a Hurdle

CSR efforts often span marketing, HR, compliance, and community relations teams. Aligning these groups around a shared strategy, and a shared platform, can be operationally challenging.

The Opportunity: Technology that build trust and drives impact

Despite these challenges, financial institutions are uniquely positioned to lead in CSR. With the right technology, they can:

• Streamline CRA Reporting

Tools like GrantsConnect help track philanthropic and sponsorship spend, flag risk and reputation concerns, and generate the documentation needed for CRA audits.

• Ensure Secure Giving and Volunteering

YourCause offers secure, compliant solutions for employee engagement. Our vetted nonprofit database gives you over 1.65M charities eligible for giving, and transparent fee information and donation tracking details ensure your donors feel confident in their donations.

• Unify Teams Around a Shared Mission

By integrating CSR efforts across departments, institutions can tell a cohesive story about how they’re showing up for their communities, and why it matters. Engage employees in meaningful ways, even those in the field who aren’t at a desk with mobile-responsive technology.

• Report on Impact

Tell a compelling story about how the organization shows up for its community with centralized reporting tools including dashboards, generative-AI, and predictive impact analytics.

• Manage Donation Flow and Risk

Track impact and reduce risk, especially around executive giving and grant disbursement with trusted donation disbursement capabilities.

After more than two decades helping organizations evaluate fundraising and data management solutions, I joined Blackbaud’s Corporate Impact team to focus on how our employee engagement and community investment technology can power give-back programs in the healthcare sector – where the stakes are high, the missions are meaningful, and the challenges are complex.

The Challenge: Engagement and Impact in a High-Stress Industry

Healthcare organizations are under immense pressure. From staffing shortages and burnout to public trust issues and budget constraints, the environment is demanding. Yet, these organizations remain deeply committed to their communities, and increasingly, they’re looking for ways to engage employees in giving and volunteering, while managing community investment programs more strategically.

Here’s what I’ve been hearing:

• Employee Engagement Is Critical—but Complex

Healthcare organizations want to reduce burnout and improve retention, and they know that purpose-driven work can help. But engagement is often measured through HR data and analytics, not through participation in giving or volunteering. Some healthcare systems do include giving and volunteering in employment agreements, offering incentives like extra PTO, but implementing these programs can be technically and operationally challenging.

• Community Benefit Programs Are Essential—but Fragmented

Federally funded health systems must complete community needs assessments every three years, focusing on social determinants of health. These assessments inform community benefit programs, which often include grants and skills-based volunteering. But these efforts are frequently siloed and managed by the community benefit office, the foundation, or both, with limited visibility and coordination.

• Technology Can Help—but Adoption Is Slow

Many healthcare organizations aren’t yet on a CSR platform, or they’re using tools that don’t fully meet their needs. Budget constraints make matching gifts difficult, and while fundraising tools like JustGiving are often in place, it can be difficult to get leadership buy-in on more comprehensive CSR software.

The Opportunity: A Unified Approach to Giving Back

YourCause offers healthcare organizations a way to bring it all together. From flexible giving and volunteering tools to grants management and powerful reporting tools, our solutions help health systems:

• Engage employees in meaningful ways, even those in the field who aren’t at a desk with mobile-responsive technology.
• Coordinate across departments, uniting HR, marketing, community benefit, and foundation teams, with a flexible platform that empowers your teams to drive engagement and awareness on your unique programs.
• Track impact and reduce risk, especially around executive giving and grant disbursement, with trusted donation disbursement capabilities.
• Tell a compelling story about how the organization shows up for its community, with centralized reporting tools including dashboards, generative-AI, and predictive impact analytics.

Technology plays an indispensable role in facilitating CSR efforts and meeting the diverse needs of companies aiming to enhance employee giving, volunteering, and corporate grantmaking. Each solution has its strengths, making it essential to consider your organization’s unique goals when evaluating which solution is best suited to support your programs and success.

The following list includes the top CSR software vendors in the market, including YourCause from Blackbaud, Bonterra, Benevity, Submittable, and Deed, as well as a handful of emerging vendors, including Groundswell, Percent Pledge, and Goodstack. The information was gathered from G2 reviews, vendor websites, and conversations with current clients.

YourCause from Blackbaud

YourCause from Blackbaud has been around for over 15 years and offers comprehensive solutions tailored for CSR professionals focused on employee giving, volunteering, grantmaking, and reporting. Designed with self-service and mobile-friendly admin tools, YourCause simplifies administrative tasks and allows CSR leaders to concentrate on what matters most—making an impact.

Pros:

• Integrated Platforms: Integrated solutions for employee giving, volunteering, and grantmaking give you a one-stop-shop to manage CSR programs. Reporting tools, including free dashboards with Impact Edge and the market’s first and only generative-AI solution built for CSR pros with Blackbaud Copilot, provide clear evidence of program success, enhancing strategic decision-making.

• Global: Global reach, with access to over 7.5 million nonprofits globally, including 1.65 million that are eligible for employee giving. Additionally, YourCause supports 26 languages (the most in market!), making it versatile for diverse workforces.

• Innovation: The platform’s commitment to continuous innovation is supported by Blackbaud’s significant R&D investment, ensuring the introduction of advanced features like Blackbaud Copilot and ongoing product development.

Cons:

• Cost: While YourCause excels in delivering high-quality support and innovative tools, it’s worth noting that its pricing may be a barrier for companies very minimal budgets. However, the investment can be justified by the platform’s comprehensive features and dedicated support, providing long-term value.

• Mobile App: No mobile-app like Benevity and Deed, but YourCause does offer fully mobile responsive solutions. Research shows only 2% of employees use mobile apps for CSR.

• Custom Development: YourCause also doesn’t cater to custom development work that is super specific to the needs of just one client, where Bonterra often agrees to custom work. Instead, YourCause develops technology based on best practices and client insights to create scalable and configurable solutions to fit the needs of all companies.

Overall, YourCause from Blackbaud stands out for its extensive nonprofit reach and customer support, robust reporting tools, and continuous innovation, making it an excellent choice for companies seeking to elevate their CSR initiatives and drive meaningful impact across employee engagement and grantmaking programs with a long-term technology partner.

Benevity

Benevity is regarded for its solutions aimed at enhancing employee engagement and fostering social impact. They have been a player in the CSR tech landscape for over 15 years and have the largest client base in the market.

Pros:

• Robust Features: Robust employee engagement features, including micro-actions and ‘friendraising’ provide numerous ways for employees to give back beyond basic volunteering and giving.

• Reporting: Solid reporting tools, including their new Reporting Studio and optional Impact Reports add-on. To note, their Impact Reporting is an additional cost.

• Global: Extensive global reach, with 24 language settings and 2 million nonprofits available.

Cons:

• Admin Experience: While it offers robust features, admins have reported that it is challenging to manage the platform, which often requires customer success intervention to make simple changes. There is also increasingly limited customer support, with growing frustrations from customers about how limited they are in making changes to settings in their Benevity solutions.

• Platform Integration: Lack of cohesion between grantmaking and employee engagement solutions, specifically with their more robust Versaic grant offering.

• Cost: Benevity is also a high-cost solution, justified by its extensive offering. Emerging competitors like Goodstack and PercentPledge are a better fit for cost-sensitivities.

Overall, Benevity is best suited for large enterprises looking for comprehensive engagement tools that promote employee involvement and support social responsibility initiatives.

Bonterra

Bonterra came to market in 2022 as a merger between several solutions across the CSR and nonprofit technology landscape. Bonterra’s solutions are tailored to address various aspects of social impact, including volunteer management, donation tracking, and community engagement for the corporate responsibility space. Their CSR products are the results of merging together several solutions, including CyberGrants.

Pros:

• Experience: Their CSR product is mainly comprised of CyberGrants technology, which has been around for 40+ years and supports many Fortune 100 companies.

• Grants Management: Their grantmaking technology is very robust and aligned to support complex programs.

• Single Admin View: Their administrative login is consolidated into one space, meaning you can manage your employee engagement and community investment programs from one admin panel.

Cons:

• Tech-Debt: CyberGrants does carry a lot of tech-debt, and users often complain about the outdated interface, especially for employee engagement

• Cost: Built predominantly for large enterprises, Bonterra’s pricing can be cost-prohibitive for many companies. Additionally, while Bonterra provides robust grant management features, the learning curve may be steep for some users, requiring additional support and training to fully utilize the platform.

• Global: Much more limited global functionality compared to YourCause and Benevity.

Despite these drawbacks, Bonterra remains a contender for companies looking to accelerate their social impact through technology. For large organizations willing to invest time in mastering its capabilities, Bonterra offers significant potential to drive influential and collaborative initiatives, specifically for grantmaking programs.

Deed

Deed specializes in making workplace philanthropy accessible and engaging for employees. The platform excels in fostering participation through its intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Deed’s dynamic features are designed to simplify giving and volunteering activities, ensuring employees can engage in philanthropic efforts.

Deed is a newer vendor in the space, having just really gotten off the ground for their CSR solution in 2019.

Pros:

• Engagement Features: One of Deed’s standout qualities is its ability to create interactive and appealing user experiences, and their user interface is often complimented as ‘cool’ and ‘modern’.

• Platform Management: Deed is a simpler solution compared to the previous ones we covered, making it ideal for programs that aren’t complex.

Cons:

• Reporting: The platform may lack the depth required for detailed impact assessments, which can be a drawback for organizations needing comprehensive data to evaluate their CSR programs.

• Scale: Scalability of the solution might pose challenges for larger enterprises looking to expand their CSR initiatives, as their global capabilities haven’t quite reached market maturity.

In comparison, YourCause from Blackbaud provides extensive reporting tools and robust integration capabilities, making it more suitable for organizations requiring detailed data and scalability. Deed has solidified itself as a solid option in the market over the past several years, especially for companies who need a cheaper alternative to YourCause, Benevity, or Bonterra due to programmatic budget cuts. 

Submittable

Traditionally focused on grantmaking technology across foundation types, Submittable has recently pivoted more into the CSR landscape with their acquisition of WizeHive and Bright Funds. They have sent signals to the market that they would like to be considered as a CSR solution for corporations, with a newer employee giving and volunteering offer.

Pros:

• Submittable has a lot of experience managing grant programs, and has some technology offers that are cheaper and out of the box for smaller grant programs

• Their acquisitions also gained them WeHero, a well-respected volunteering curation service.

Cons:

• Lack of integration: Their acquisitions have gotten them a foot in the door into the CSR vendor market, but they lack cohesion and integration between their products, limiting the customer’s ability to report and manage their solutions with ease.

• Tech-Debt: The acquisitions require sorting through a lot of back-end processes, slowing down their ability to innovate and bring additional value to the market.

Submittable has the potential to service mid to large enterprises effectively in the coming years and can be a solid option for less complex CSR program needs today

Groundswell

Groundswell is known for its approach to employee-led philanthropy. The platform empowers employees to contribute individually or as part of team initiatives, fostering a sense of community within their solution. Groundswell was founded in 2021 on the premise of getting donations disbursed quickly and is bold in their approach to being a new alternative to established vendors in the space.

Pros:

• Donation Disbursement: Ability to fund donations quickly depending on your program setup and what charities are being donated to. This helps with employee confidence and delivers dollars to nonprofits faster so they can expedite their impact.

• User-Interface: The platform’s newness means it has a slick user interface, creating a modern way for your employees to interact with your programs

Cons:

• Feature-Depth: Users report a lack of feature-depth and challenges with reporting. This can be a limitation for companies requiring detailed data to measure the effectiveness of their CSR initiatives.

• Customer Support: Groundswell also has limited staffing due to still being in startup mode, posing challenges for how they will scale as a long-term partner as their customer base grows.

Ultimately, Groundswell’s emphasis on empowering employees and fostering community-driven initiatives makes it a compelling choice for businesses, though it may face limitations for companies that prioritize social impact measurement.

PercentPledge and Goodstack

Both of these are also new vendors in the space, focusing largely on employee giving and volunteering.

Both offer some unique functionality. Goodstack has a payment rails API offering, empowering customers to do things like round up to donate at checkout. PercentPledge offers curated volunteering services.

Pros:

• Cost: Both offer a lower-cost option for customers who are seeking an out-of-the-box, simple solution for their CSR programs.

• UI: Due to their newness, they both have a modern user interface

Cons:

• Feature-depth: On the flipside, their lack of experience in-market also means they do not have as in-depth features and have more limited functionality

• Support and Scale: They also lack robust customer support and success engines, limiting their ability to help customers scale long-term.

At YourCause, we believe that CSR professionals deserve tools as inspiring as the impact they create. That’s why we’ve been hard at work expanding the capabilities of Impact Edge, our unified reporting solution built for CSRconnect and GrantsConnect customers. This fall, we’re rolling out a suite of new features that make it easier than ever to explore, measure, and amplify your social impact.

From smarter dashboards to AI-powered enhancements, these innovations reflect our commitment to helping organizations turn purpose into measurable progress.

For each charity, users can view predicted cost per outcome powered by True Impact, program-level metrics, transparency seals, and detailed community investment data including donations, awards, and volunteer hours. This centralized experience reduces time spent on external research and positions Impact Edge as the go-to platform for strategic funding and partnership decisions. Whether you’re evaluating grant applicants or identifying new partners, the Charity Discovery Tool helps you make faster, more informed decisions.

We’re transforming corporate purpose into global impact by connecting employees, nonprofits, and data through intelligent technology and responsible AI. These latest innovations in Impact Edge are just the beginning. Keep your eyes out for our full Fall Product Update Briefings coming to you November 18th-20th!

Learn more about how Impact Edge can augment your impact here.

Social impact refers to the tangible and intangible effects a company’s actions have on communities, employees, and the environment. For CSR teams, measuring and reporting this impact is becoming a strategic necessity. Stakeholders expect transparency, and companies need data to improve, scale, and justify their programs.

According to the 2025 CSR Insights Survey, 56% of companies reported increased demand to measure impact. Similarly, a majority of corporate social impact professionals (51%) were facing greater need to demonstrate a business case for CSR. These figures reflect a growing importance for accountability and meaningful social impact measurement.

Main Takeaways

• Social impact measurement is essential for building a business case for CSR, which can build trust with investors and communities, while also serving as a tool for recruiting and retaining employees.

• Metrics tied to giving, volunteering, and employee engagement offer powerful insights into program effectiveness and can shape strategic decisions.

• A successful measurement strategy requires consistent data practices as well as cross-functional collaboration with internal departments and community partners.

• Common challenges include data silos, attribution issues, and difficulty capturing qualitative outcomes.

Why Measuring CSR’s Social Impact Is Important

• Builds trust with employees, customers, investors, and communities. For example, a company sharing progress updates on its sustainability goals or community donations reassures stakeholders their intentions are sincere.
• Supports strategic alignment between CSR, ESG, HR, and business goals. Tracking employee participation or satisfaction from volunteering events can show how social efforts support human resources and employee retention.
• Enables continuous improvement by identifying what’s working and what’s not. Regular reviews, like adjusting a volunteer program after low turnout, help ensure initiatives are effective and relevant.
• Strengthens stakeholder engagement through transparent reporting. Sharing impact dashboards or reports, or even hosting feedback sessions, can encourage employees and community partners to be actively engaged and involved in the program’s success.
• Demonstrates ROI to leadership and secures long-term investment. Providing evidence, such as increased brand value or reduced costs from green initiatives, justifies future CSR funding.

Metrics for Measuring Organizational Social Impact

1. Employee Giving Participation and Match Rates

Track the percentage of employees who donate, the average donation amount, and how often they take advantage of company match programs. These metrics reflect both generosity and program accessibility.

2. Volunteer Engagement and Hours Logged

Measure total volunteer hours, participation rates, and frequency of engagement. Break down by department, region, or how much is virtual vs. in-person, to identify trends and opportunities for targeted outreach.

3. First-Time and Team-Based Volunteerism

Monitor how many employees are volunteering for the first time and how many participate in team-based activities. These insights help assess onboarding effectiveness and the social cohesion benefits of volunteering for your business.

4. Grantmaking Reach and Impact

Track the number of grants awarded, total funds distributed, and alignment with strategic focus areas. Include feedback from nonprofit partners to assess the depth and sustainability of impact.

5. Top Causes Supported

Analyze which charity causes, such as education, health, environment, or social justice, receive the highest levels of employee support through both giving and volunteering. Understanding these trends is a great way of uncovering what your workforce cares about most.

If you’re looking to benchmark your programs on these metrics, check out our CSR Industry Review, which offers average and median values for various social impact programs, including data across different company sizes, industries, and geographies.

Considering the Social Outcomes of Programs

It is also worth noting the next stage of measurement which is social outcomes. As organizations mature in their CSR journeys, they can move beyond output metrics towards the true influence of their initiatives and how these efforts generate lasting change. This requires developing more nuanced methods of assessment, such as combining quantitative data (like volunteer hours or funds donated) with qualitative insights gathered through interviews, case studies, or beneficiary feedback.

For example, social outcomes may include the number of lives improved through access to education, the increase in stable housing for vulnerable families, reductions in food insecurity, or measurable improvements in health and well-being within targeted communities.

Embracing this comprehensive approach not only validates the impact of CSR programs but also inspires deeper engagement from stakeholders who can see the tangible difference their support makes over time. Our partnership with True Impact aims to introduce this into CSR technology, through Predictive Impact Forecasting, enabling companies to project the social outcomes of their giving and volunteering programs based on sector-leading cost-per-outcome benchmarks.

Steps to Successfully Measure Corporate Social Impact

1. Map Your Impact Ecosystem

Identify all the stakeholders, programs, and systems involved in your CSR efforts. This includes employees, nonprofit partners, internal departments, and technology platforms. A clear map ensures your measurement strategy captures the full scope of your influence.

2. Prioritize What Matters Most

Focus on the programs and outcomes that align most closely with your company’s purpose and CSR goals. For example, if your strategy centers on employee engagement, prioritize metrics like volunteer ang giving participation rather than total amounts.

3. Build Feedback Loops with Stakeholders

Incorporate regular feedback from employees, nonprofit partners, and community beneficiaries. This qualitative input adds context to your quantitative data and helps you understand the “why” behind the numbers.

4. Integrate Tools Across Departments

Avoid siloed systems by integrating CSR platforms with HR or ESG tools. This allows for more seamless data collection and reporting, and ensures that CSR insights inform broader business decisions. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are a great example of a way to collaborate on CSR, HR, and DEI strategy to increase engagement and impact.

5. Tell the Story Behind the Stats

Numbers alone don’t inspire action. Use your data to craft compelling narratives that highlight real-world impact, whether it’s a volunteer who developed leadership skills or a grant that helped a nonprofit scale its services.

Social Impact Measurement Frameworks

While a variety of global standards exist for measuring social impact, including frameworks focused on sustainability, financial value, and alignment with international development goals, the choice of which to adopt is not one-size-fits-all.

Each company faces unique challenges, priorities, and resources, making it essential to select measurement tools and approaches that best fit their specific context and objectives. Here are a few examples of common social impact frameworks:

• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards: Comprehensive standards for sustainability reporting.
• Social Return on Investment (SROI): Measures the financial value of social and environmental outcomes relative to costs.
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Framework for aligning CSR initiatives with global development priorities.
• Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS+): Widely used by social enterprises for measuring impact performance.

Common Difficulties With Measuring Social Impact

1. Misalignment Between Strategy and Metrics

Many CSR teams track what’s easy to measure rather than what’s meaningful. This leads to reports full of activity metrics (e.g. number of events) but lacking insight into outcomes (e.g. community benefit or employee growth).

2. Inconsistent Data Collection Practices

Without standardized processes, data can be incomplete, duplicated, or outdated. This is especially common in global organizations where regional teams use different tools or definitions.

3. Limited Access to Qualitative Insights

While dashboards can show participation rates, they often miss the human stories that bring impact to life. Without qualitative data, it’s harder to demonstrate the emotional and cultural value of CSR programs.

4. Difficulty Tracking Long-Term Outcomes

Some impacts, like improved community resilience or employee retention, take time to materialize. CSR teams often lack the longitudinal tracking needed to connect short-term activities to long-term change.

5. Overwhelmed by Too Much Data

With so many potential metrics, it’s easy to fall into analysis paralysis. Teams may struggle to identify which data points are most relevant, leading to bloated reports that obscure key insights.

Explore YourCause’s Social Impact Reporting Solution

Measuring social impact doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Our AI-powered social impact reporting software, Blackbaud Impact Edge™, streamlines the entire process, from data collection to analysis and reporting. With intuitive dashboards and real-time insights, Impact Edge empowers companies to make smarter, more impactful CSR decisions. Whether you’re just starting or scaling your CSR strategy, YourCause can help you turn good intentions into measurable outcomes.

Corporate volunteer programs are more than just feel-good initiatives—they’re strategic tools that enhance employee engagement, strengthen community ties, and reinforce a company’s values. According to a study, employees who volunteer are more likely to feel they have professional growth opportunities (70% vs. 39%) and develop new skills at work (72% vs. 42%) compared to non-volunteers. Numerous similar benefits prove that it is clearly worthwhile for companies to invest money in their employee volunteering programs.

However, to ensure these programs are impactful and sustainable, companies must develop a cohesive budget aligned with clear goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). A well-planned budget not only ensures efficient resource allocation but also helps when demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) to stakeholders. With retention savings, talent development, and productivity gains available for companies, creating a strategic budget for volunteerism is essential.

Main Takeaways

• A structured budget ensures corporate volunteer programs are sustainable and aligned with business goals.

• Setting clear goals and KPIs helps measure program success and justify investment.

• Key cost categories include personnel, training, logistics, and marketing.

• Analyzing total costs helps companies allocate resources wisely and avoid overspending.

• Measuring ROI is crucial for long-term program support and improvement.

Establishing Goals and KPIs for Your Employee Volunteer Program

Before allocating a single dollar, companies should define what success looks like for their volunteer programs. Are you aiming to increase employee engagement, support specific causes, or enhance brand reputation? Establishing clear goals and KPIs provides a framework for decision-making and budget planning. Common examples include volunteer participation rates, total or average volunteer hours by employees, or metrics for community impact such as number of beneficiaries served.

By setting expectations early, companies can better align their budget with strategic priorities. For example, if the goal is to increase participation by 20%, the budget might need to include additional marketing and communications resources (like newsletters, posters) or incentives (like volunteer grants or free t-shirts) to drive greater awareness and event registration for employees. It is important to define KPIs as this also helps to track progress and make data-driven adjustments over time.

Costs to Include in Your Corporate Volunteer Program Budget

1. Staffing Costs

This includes salaries or stipends for full-time or part-time program managers, coordinators, or administrative support. If the program is managed by an external partner or NGO, this may also include service fees or retainer costs. Consider any third-party consultants you may need to hire for advice or impact assessments as well.

Having dedicated personnel ensures the program is well-organized, aligned with company goals, and responsive to both employee and community needs. It also helps maintain continuity, track impact, and manage relationships with nonprofit partners.

Typical share of budget: 25–40%

Why it can vary: Smaller companies may rely on part-time staff or volunteers, keeping costs low. Larger organizations or those with global programs often need dedicated teams, increasing this line item significantly. If the program is embedded in a broader ESG or DEI strategy, cross-functional staffing may also be required.

2. Volunteer Training and Onboarding

Costs here cover the development and delivery of training materials, workshops, and onboarding sessions. This may include printed guides, e-learning modules, or in-person facilitation.

Training ensures that volunteers are prepared, understand the company’s social impact goals, and are equipped with the skills and cultural sensitivity needed to engage effectively with community partners.

Typical share of budget: 0–5%

Why it can vary: If your program involves high-skill volunteering (e.g. pro bono consulting), training costs will be higher. For one-off or low-touch events, this may be minimal. Companies with global teams may also need to localize training content, adding translation and adaptation costs.

3. Event Logistics and Transportation

Whether hosting a volunteer day or supporting ongoing initiatives, companies should budget venue rentals, equipment, and supplies. This includes items like safety gear, tools, or branded T-shirts for volunteers.

If volunteer activities are off-site, you also have to consider travel expenses, meals, and lodging. Providing transportation or reimbursing mileage can remove barriers to participation and boost engagement.

Typical share of budget: 10–20%

Why it can vary: In-person volunteering tends to be more resource intensive, while virtual volunteering may reduce costs but still requires coordination and tech support. Often, nonprofits are willing to accommodate some of these costs for volunteers, which may reduce the total expenditure for companies.

4. Marketing and Communication

This includes promotional materials, internal campaigns, newsletters, and digital assets to raise awareness and drive employee participation. On top of that, consider any costs for branding and storytelling in sharing and celebrating the impact of volunteering internally and externally.

A well-communicated program is critical for employee engagement and collecting feedback through mechanisms like post-event surveys should be thought of as well. Highlighting and publicizing both employee sentiment and the company’s commitment to social responsibility can also enhance your company’s brand for retention and recruitment purposes.

Typical share of budget: 10–15%

Why it can vary: Highly visible programs or those tied to employer branding may mean you choose to invest more here. If your company has an internal comms team, some of these costs may be absorbed elsewhere.

5. Matching Gift or Donation Programs

Many companies enhance the impact of employee volunteering by offering matching gift programs, where the company matches donations made by employees to eligible nonprofits. Some also offer dollars-for-doers schemes, where employees earn a donation credit for every hour volunteered. These philanthropic contributions should be factored into the overall budget.

Typical share of budget: 5–15%

Why it can vary: The cost depends heavily on employee participation and the generosity of the company match. Companies may allocate a larger share of the budget here if it is for a key charity partner, or to incentivize greater engagement. Additionally, global companies may need to account for currency conversion, donation compliance, and regional eligibility rules, which can increase administrative overhead.

6. Technology and Tools

Digital infrastructure such as volunteer management platforms or impact measurement software can be immensely valuable in managing volunteer programs.

Technology streamlines operations, improves the employee volunteer experience, and enables data collection for reporting and impact measurement. It’s especially important for scaling program across multiple locations or departments.

Typical share of budget: 10–30%

Why it can vary: While larger or more complex programs may require greater investment in robust, integrated systems, allocating resources for a centralized CSR software solution can actually help reduce the budget allocation in other areas. For example, platforms such as YourCause CSRconnect can help save staff time in managing various volunteer opportunities, reduce the costs for marketing and internal communication, while automating the tracking of KPIs like hours volunteered or overall participation rates.

Analyzing the Final Total

Once all costs are tallied, companies should assess whether the budget aligns with their goals and available resources. Businesses often allocate about 0.5% to 2% of pre-tax profits to CSR initiatives, including volunteer programs, though this varies by industry and company size. Companies looking to stand out with a stronger social impact profile may choose to invest well beyond that range.

Companies can also find opportunities to streamline costs, perhaps partnering with nonprofits that can share resources for event supplies. As mentioned above, introducing technology to streamline volunteer management and the impact measurement process is another great way to cut down on staffing and marketing costs. In the same way, finding volunteer events near the location of your employees, or leveraging virtual volunteering, can reduce the logistics and transportation costs involved.

Tips for Measuring the ROI of Your Employee Volunteer Program

• Track participation rates and volunteer hours. Keeping an eye on how many employees get involved and how much time they dedicate helps you see how engaged your workforce is and where your volunteer energy is focused.

• Measure employee satisfaction and retention. Assessing these factors can reveal if your volunteer initiatives are boosting team morale or strengthening loyalty, offering insights into the internal business value of CSR.

• Assess community impact through nonprofit feedback. Gathering perspectives from nonprofit partners shows whether your programs are making a tangible difference in the community, like completed projects or lives impacted.

• Compare program costs to business outcomes. Reviewing spending alongside results such as improved brand reputation or employee engagement gives a clearer sense of the program’s value to the company.

• Use CSR software to automate reporting. Leveraging technology makes it easier to track activities, measure progress, and share impact stories, all while reducing administrative effort.

By considering these areas together, you can get a more complete and vivid picture of your volunteer program’s influence both on your company and on the community.

Annual Employee Volunteer Program Budget Sample

Learn More About How CSR Software Can Help You Easily Manage Employee Volunteer Programs

YourCause’s CSR management software makes it easy to meet your KPIs and prove your ROI by providing a platform to manage volunteer programs and track your data—all in one place. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling your efforts, our tools help you streamline operations and maximize impact.

If you’re leading a corporate grantmaking or CSR program, you know that how important it is to identify the best grant applications to allocate your limited resources towards. Once you have designed a successful grants program with your priorities, any giving restrictions, and user-friendly applications, devising a thoughtful review process is essential.

A structured, transparent, and criteria-driven review process helps ensure your funding decisions are made more efficiently, are more likely to create better outcomes, and are aligned closely with your company’s values, business goals, and community impact strategy.

Main Takeaways

• A structured grant review process improves fairness, transparency, and funding outcomes.

• Combining internal and external reviewers helps balance organizational priorities with expert objectivity.

• Scoring systems and comparative reviews ensure consistent, equitable evaluations.

• Common challenges like reviewer bias and high application volume can be mitigated with digital tools and training.

• Final decisions should consider both proposal scores and strategic alignment with organizational goals.

Grant Review Process Overview

Understanding the grant review process is essential for both applicants and funders. A well-structured review process ensures that funding decisions are fair, transparent, and aligned with the goals of the granting organization.

Why Is Grant Reviewing Necessary?

Your team likely receives many more applications than you can fund. A clear, consistent review process helps you allocate resources to the proposals that best reflect your company’s mission, CSR priorities, and community commitments. It also builds trust with applicants and internal stakeholders by showing that decisions are made fairly and strategically.

Types of Grant Reviews You Can Use

• Internal Review: Conducted by your CSR or foundation staff to check for eligibility and alignment with funding guidelines.
• External Review: Bringing subject-matter experts in to assess proposals for quality, relevance, and potential impact.
• Peer Review: Often used in employee-led grant programs, where colleagues evaluate proposals based on shared values.
• Committee-Based Review: A cross-functional team (e.g., CSR, DEI, legal) collaborates to score and discuss proposals.

Steps in the Grant Review Process

1. Application Intake and Initial Screening

   Set up a streamlined intake process—ideally through a digital platform. Your team should screen each application for eligibility, completeness, and alignment with your funding priorities. Filter out proposals that don’t meet the basic criteria early on.

   Discover how Mary Kay used YourCause GrantsConnect to drive efficiency in their review process and award 60 impactful grants of $20,000 to domestic violence shelters in celebration of Mary Kay’s 60th anniversary,

2. Application Alignment Review and Scoring

   Assign reviewers to evaluate each proposal’s alignment with your CSR mission, clarity of goals, feasibility of implementation, and potential for meaningful impact. Make sure they also assess budget accuracy and the applicant organization’s capacity to deliver.

   Using a standardized scoring system to evaluate proposals against your criteria is a great way to formalize and increase consistency in the review process. Consider factors such as geographic diversity or employee engagement potential as well. Once scored, proposals can then be ranked accordingly

3. Collect Opinions from Peer Insights

   Bring in internal panels or external experts to conduct deeper evaluations. Get them to use similar scoring rubrics and facilitate consensus discussions to ensure balanced, fair assessments, especially when proposals span diverse issue areas.

4. Final Decision-Making

   Convene your CSR leadership or advisory board to review top-ranked proposals. This is your opportunity to align funding decisions with broader business goals, available budget, and any emerging priorities. It is also worth thinking about whether any of your grants will be conditional, or unrestricted, and any progress expectations or impact metrics you want to identify.

5. Communicating Results to Grant Applicants

   Communicate decisions clearly and respectfully. Whether a proposal is accepted, declined, or conditionally approved, consider offering feedback to strengthen future submissions and build trust with applicants.

6. Fostering a Trust-based Relationship with Grantees

   After awarding a grant, it’s important to foster a trust-based relationship by maintaining open communication with grantees. Regular check-ins and collaborative discussion on further ways to advance the mission and drive impact can be very beneficial.

Top 5 Factors to Consider When Reviewing Grant Proposals

1. Strategic Mission Fit
   Assess whether proposals align with your mission, vision, and values. Consider how projects support long-term objectives and strategic interests. Proposals that clearly demonstrate alignment with your program’s goals are the ones that would typically advance in a grant review process.

   According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, corporate foundations and impact funds that align their grantmaking processes with broader business strategy and stakeholder engagement models show significantly greater potential for long-term social impact as well.

2. Execution and Long-Term Viability
   Calculate feasibility, which involves scrutinizing the practicality and realism of a project’s plan, including its methods, timeline, and potential barriers. Reviewers should figure out if the application has achievable milestones, a robust risk mitigation strategy, and a logical work plan. Initiatives that can stand the test of time and generate lasting benefits are more likely to move forward.

3. Potential Impact and Novelty
   Evaluate proposals for their anticipated effects on the target population or field, as well as for unique or innovative approaches. Reviewers can look for clear evidence of the project’s potential to create substantial, measurable change. Impactful, forward-thinking proposals are worth prioritizing.

4. Organizational Strength and Experience
   Determine the capacity of the applicant organization as a critical factor in the likelihood of project success. Reviewers assess the team’s expertise, past accomplishments, and infrastructure to ensure they can deliver on their promises.

5. Financial Stewardship and Resource Allocation
   Examine whether requested resources are justified, well allocated, and aligned with project activities. When cost-effectiveness and transparency is there, and the budgets reflect thoughtful planning, it is a sign of the application’s credibility and is often seen as a key predictor of effective grant implementation.

Common Grant Review Challenges for Organizations

Tackling Application Overload

• When faced with a high volume of applications, organizations can utilize digital platforms and automated filters to quickly identify the most eligible proposals. This streamlines the process and helps reviewers focus their efforts on submissions with the greatest potential, reducing fatigue and bottlenecks.

Minimizing Reviewer Bias

• Unconscious bias can influence decisions and impact fairness. To counteract this, implement anonymized or blind reviews and provide bias or DEI training for reviewers. These steps foster a more impartial evaluation process and support equitable decision-making.

Balancing Rigidity and Flexibility

• Relying solely on rigid scoring rubrics may overlook unconventional but high-impact ideas. Encourage reviewers to use structured scoring as a foundation, but empower them to apply strategic judgment for proposals that show exceptional promise, even if they don’t fit perfectly within pre-determined criteria.

Ensuring Timely Communication

• Delays in communicating decisions or feedback can frustrate applicants and stall project timelines. To avoid this, establish clear timelines for every phase of the review process and utilize automated notifications or regular status updates to keep all stakeholders informed and engaged.

Explore YourCause’s Solutions for Grantmaking and Reviewing

YourCause offers powerful tools to streamline and enhance the grantmaking process. From application management to reviewer collaboration and reporting, our corporate grantmaking software helps organizations make informed, equitable funding decisions with ease.

As corporate social impact continues to evolve under the weight of political shifts, economic uncertainty, and rising stakeholder expectations, our 6th Annual CSR Insights Report, in partnership with ACCP, offers a timely snapshot of a field in flux. This survey data comes from CSR teams across 135 companies, representing approximately $1 billion in community investment.

Below, we’ll note some of the key insights highlighted in the report. But beyond the headlines, there’s a deeper narrative unfolding. This blog also unpacks the complex movements shaping the future of CSR. From the quiet transformation of grantmaking strategies to the subtle rebranding of DEI language, we explore developments in the corporate impact space and what it means for CSR professionals navigating 2025 and beyond.

High Level Insights from the Report

• Increased Need to Make the Business Case: CSR teams are under growing pressure to demonstrate how their work drives business value, not just social impact.

• Companies Are Shifting Priority Issue Areas: Firms are moving investments toward less politically sensitive areas like STEM and workforce development, while reducing focus on racial equity and gender equality.

• AI Is Reshaping Corporate Social Impact Work: 73% of CSR teams now use AI to boost productivity, storytelling, and data analysis, marking a major leap in tech adoption.

• Shifts in Budget Allocation Reflect Strategic Priorities: Budgets for employee engagement and foundations are increasing, signaling a focus on internal impact and formal grantmaking.

• Political Pressures Are Reshaping DEI Integration in CSR: Legal scrutiny and political climate are prompting companies to scale back public DEI efforts and change how they communicate about them.

• Expanding Responsibilities, Growing Recognition: Despite heavier workloads, CSR professionals are gaining visibility, influence, and career growth within their organizations.

Beyond the Headlines: The Forces Shaping CSR in 2025

1. CSR Is Driving Strategic Talent Development

While the shift away from racial equity and gender equality as top causes is notable, the powerful trend in the other direction is the increasing alignment of CSR with talent strategy. The rise in community investments in areas like K–12 education, and workforce development, which were the top two priority cause areas at 43% each, reinforces companies’ desire to support the talent pipeline. Similarly, STEM was a priority cause for 35% of companies, a 3% increase from last year. Businesses are clearly using CSR to future-proof their workforce.

2. The Language of Impact Is Changing Fast

The report shows a sharp decline in the use of terms like “DEI” (54% have decreased usage) and “ESG” (34% using the term less) in public communications. In the same vein, 71% of respondents said they are changing the language used to communicate about DEI efforts. This isn’t just semantics, but a deliberate pivot.

CSR teams are rebranding their efforts to navigate political scrutiny while preserving core values. The linguistic shift reflects broader programmatic trends for some businesses as well, with 14% of respondents having paused or ended DEI initiatives altogether and 18% having shifted the types of DEI-related programs they support. Companies are reframing and rethinking their social impact and DEI narratives to maintain stakeholder trust while adjusting to the environment.

3. Grantmaking Is Becoming More Thoughtful

While grant budgets have not increased this year, 25% of companies said they are moving away from small grants in favor of larger, more strategic ones. There’s also a clear move towards multi-year funding (14%), general operating support (14%), and capacity-building (13%), which are hallmarks of trust-based philanthropy. This signals a maturing approach to nonprofit partnerships, where depth and sustainability matter more than breadth and volume.

At the same time, companies are increasing their focus on supporting local communities, which would align with more of a place-based approach, as well as employee selected grants, which reinforces the value of the employee voice in community impact decisions.

4. AI Is No Longer Experimental, But Essential

Artificial intelligence has officially moved from the margins to the mainstream in CSR. According to the report, 73% of CSR teams now use AI tools, with the most common applications being storytelling (72%), productivity (64%), and data analysis (37%). These tools are helping teams communicate impact more effectively, streamline reporting, and scale their efforts.

CSR teams are expected to do more with less. AI is becoming a strategic enabler, allowing lean teams to meet rising expectations without proportional increases in headcount or budget. It’s also helping CSR professionals make the business case for their work by providing clearer data and more compelling narratives.

5. CSR Teams Are Gaining Responsibility

For the first time in three years, a majority of CSR professionals (53%) report having the resources, staff, budget, and expertise to meet the demands of their roles. This marks a meaningful shift from 2024, when only 38% felt adequately equipped. While gaps remain, especially in headcount and executive alignment, the data suggests that strategic investments and operational focus are beginning to close the resource gap.

At the same time, 72% of CSR teams say their scope of work has expanded, and 62% report increased visibility within their organizations. This dual trend of rising responsibility and growing recognition signals a turning point: CSR is no longer a support function but now a strategic pillar for business performance, employee engagement, and brand trust.

To get all the insights and data, download the full report here.

Mark your calendars! Blackbaud’s conference, bbcon 2025, is coming to Philadelphia from October 6th to the 8th. This year’s event promises to be the ultimate gathering for corporate impact professionals who are looking to fuel social good, exchange insights, and take their strategies to the next level. This is also the largest gathering that brings together the corporate and nonprofit sectors, making a dynamic stage for learning, networking, and collaborative impact.

By popular demand, the Corporate Impact track will be more product-focused than ever, offering practical, hands-on sessions that dive into YourCause solutions. From recent innovations to upcoming releases, you’ll gain actionable strategies to maximize your impact. But that’s not all! Thought leadership sessions will explore key trends and provide insights to help you navigate today’s CSR landscape. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just getting started with YourCause solutions, bbcon 2025 has something for you.

Reasons for Corporate Impact professionals to attend bbcon:

1. This year’s keynote speaker is none other than best-selling author and organizational psychologist Adam Grant. Known for his transformative ideas on work and organizational culture, Adam will deliver a keynote session you won’t want to miss. Get ready to leave inspired and equipped with fresh perspectives you can bring back to your workplace.

2. One of the best aspects of bbcon 2025 is the opportunity to expand your professional network. Connect with CSR and employee engagement experts from various industries and geographies. Whether it’s over coffee, in a breakout session, or during a networking event, bbcon fosters an environment where meaningful connections are made.

3. Want to get the most out of your YourCause solutions? Then bbcon is the place for you. With dedicated Exhibit Hall hours, you’ll have access to product experts who can answer your questions, share best practices, and guide you through the latest innovations.

4. And of course, we will have a dedicated track of breakout sessions curated for corporate impact professionals! Spanning product-focused and thought-leadership sessions, you’re sure to walk away with new ideas and inspiration to infuse into your CSR programs.

Product-Focused Sessions

In response to attendee feedback, this year’s track will focus 70% of its content on product innovation and hands-on learning. These sessions are packed with practical tips, real-world client examples, and interactive workshops to help you maximize the impact of YourCause solutions.

• CSRconnect: Empowering Employee Volunteering

  Explore how CSRconnect simplifies volunteering for administrators and employees alike. Learn from product experts and customers like Independence Blue Cross who’ve used the platform to drive meaningful engagement.

• CSRconnect: Innovations in Employee Giving

  Discover new features designed to streamline the giving process and hear how organizations like Arch and Ryan are achieving results with CSRconnect.

• CSRconnect: Features Guaranteed to Boost Your Engagement

  Take a deep dive into powerful tools like Engagement Elements, Splash Modals, and Surveys that enhance employee connection and program success, plus learn how nVent and Alight are getting the most out of their CSRconnect solutions.

• GrantsConnect: Investing in Community through Partnership

  Unlock the potential of GrantsConnect with features like workflow automation and AI-powered tools. See how clients are using the platform to streamline grantmaking and drive community impact.

• Reporting with YourCause: Empowering Your Corporate Impact Story with AI and Reporting

  Learn how to make your data actionable using Impact Edge, our new reporting tool powered by generative AI. Get a first-hand look at how organizations like Lubrizol and Danaher are reporting on their impact with YourCause.

• Local Touch, Global Reach: A Deep Dive into YourCause Global Capabilities

  Dive into YourCause’s Global by Design approach and hear how organizations like Wells Fargo and Northern Trust are making a worldwide impact through locally relevant programs.

Thought-Leadership Sessions

The remaining 30% of the track focuses on thought leadership, featuring panels and presentations from industry experts. These sessions will challenge you to think critically and creatively about the future of CSR.

• ENGAGE: Using Data to Navigate the Current Engagement & Corporate Social Impact Landscape

  Explore data and research from YourCause, ACCP, and CECP to understand key trends in CSR and employee engagement.

• PARTNER: Driving Impact through Innovative and Collaborative Partnerships

  Learn how innovative partnerships are expanding capabilities in volunteering, giving, and grantmaking programs.

• IMPACT: Responding with Empathy – Building Holistic Disaster Response Strategies

  Gain insights into creating disaster response strategies that go beyond immediate relief to include preparedness, mitigation, and recovery.

• INNOVATE: Changing the Game – Transforming CSR from Action to Impact

  Discover how CSR leaders are using cutting-edge tools and strategies to turn ideas into measurable, meaningful impact.

Ready to take your CSR programs to the next level? Register now for bbcon 2025 and join us in Philadelphia this October for an unforgettable experience. Don’t miss this chance to connect, learn, and lead the future of corporate impact!