Research & Reports | Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP)

Giving in Numbers® 2026 Edition Data Reveals a Stark Divide in Corporate Giving

New CECP Giving in Numbers® data reveals a widening divide in corporate giving. While median community investments rose 7.5%, 52% of companies reduced giving in 2025 and overall giving remained flat—showing topline growth masked a broader trend of pullbacks.

Research & Reports

Giving in Numbers® 2026 Edition Data Reveals a Stark Divide in Corporate Giving

Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP)

Research & Reports

Building An Enduring Company: Covia Releases 2025 Corporate Responsibility Report

Covia

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Living Our Purpose: MetLife Publishes Latest Sustainability Report

MetLife

Research & Reports

These Brands Are Starting Movements (And Your Brand Can Too)

Delivering on brand relevance also requires welcoming more and different voices to the table, using our collective wisdom to solve problems together and rallying consumers and employees to take action with us as brands. When net trust in global corporations is less than zero, it is understandable that brands may feel overwhelmed and afraid to go it alone. That is why thoughtful partnerships can empower brands to tackle meaningful issues without feeling like they are straining credibility or speaking out of turn.

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Consumers Want Brands to Put a Stake in the Ground on Issues That Matter

More than ever before, consumers want brands to put a stake in the ground. It is not simply about reacting to today’s news cycle, but rather knowing where you stand and standing strong when issues arise.

As traditional corporate philanthropy efforts have ceased to capture the love and loyalty of consumers, it is time to rethink old models of CSR and consider how your brand’s purpose can translate to more meaningful and culturally relevant efforts that excite and engage consumers.

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Define Your North Star: Brand Purpose Beyond Products

The new opportunity for brands is not only marketing incremental product benefits, but embodying a higher purpose that serves your consumers’ aspirations for a good life by directly addressing the barriers to it.

As capitalism shifts to unite profits and purpose, most brands know how to design a great product or a reliable service. Yet many struggle when their company’s deeper mission has become muddy or even irrelevant. Brand purpose lives at the intersection of a company’s authentic reason for being and the unmet human needs that it can uniquely fulfill in the marketplace and the world. Revealing this harmonic is the key to defining your north star.

Research & Reports

Start with Empathy: Design a Brand with People at the Center

To stay relevant in a world of limited resources and mounting concerns, brands cannot simply show up and sell more stuff. Like never before, consumers expect brands to make their lives better. Doing so means understanding consumers’ struggles, needs and aspirations and addressing the issues that matter to them in meaningful ways.

A fundamental design principle in divided times is to start with empathy and listen to what people are feeling and what they desire for their lives. Empathy is fundamentally about respect. When was the last time you truly listened? When people feel ignored, or when their basic human needs are not being met, it is time for brands to start listening.

Research & Reports

VIDEO | Aflac Releases Its 2017 Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility

Last week, Aflac Chief Brand and Communications Officer Catherine Blades, and Reputation Institution Chief Research Officer Stephen Hahn Griffiths, discussed the findings of Aflac’s 2017 Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility with 31 television and radio stations across the country. This annual, scientific survey collects the thoughts and expectations of 1,000 consumers and investors regarding business ethics and responsibility.

Research & Reports

A Canadian Opportunity: Companies Predict Community Investment Budgets Will Increase in 2018

Canada's leading corporations widely recognize the business opportunity in putting their brands and resources behind worthy causes, and many plan to increase their community investments, according to a new study issued by Imagine Canada and LBG (London Benchmarking Group) Canada.

Research & Reports

Wendy's | Investing in Quality and Making Progress on Animal Antibiotics

We’ve just published a year-end recap of our corporate responsibility efforts at Wendy’s. Having now done this twice, it’s fair to say this is a practice we will follow on at least an annual basis. It was a busy year with encouraging progress on several fronts, and we spent a lot of time working on sustainable food issues related to the livestock in our supply chain.

Research & Reports

The Wendy's Company Reports on 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Progress

Today, The Wendy's Company released its annual update on the strides made to further Wendy's® Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives related to its Food, Family and Community strategy.

Corporate Responsibility

How Reporting Helps Businesses Uphold Human Rights

When companies use the GRI Standards for their sustainability reporting, they assess their positive and negative impacts on economic, environmental and social issues, including human rights, and are transparent about the results. Transparency makes human rights information available, empowering NGOs and other stakeholders to hold companies accountable and provide access to remedy.

Corporate Responsibility

More Consumers are Punishing Companies for Their Behavior Rather Than Rewarding Them

For the first time since 2009, more consumers say they have punished companies for their behavior (28%) rather than rewarded them (26%), and the number of those who are punishing brands is up by 9% since 2013.

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Policy and Regulation

Cascale shares insights regarding policy and regulation impacting the consumer goods industry, and highlights how it's supporting members prepare for...

Policy and Advocacy

Policy and Advocacy content from IWBI - International Well Building Institute

Antea Group Brand

Antea Group Brand Content

STEM Education

We inspire the next generation of inventors and advance workforce development for STEM-related careers. Our initiatives are designed to promote and...

Smile Train: World Cleft Awareness Day 2026

Observed annually on July 20, World Cleft Awareness Day (WCAD) raises global awareness about cleft lip and/or palate, helps reduce stigma, and...

Growth Through Sustainability

Trane Technologies is a global climate innovator with a clear purpose to boldly challenge what’s possible for a sustainable world. See how embedding...

KeyBank's Community Investment

In states where Key has a presence, there are approximately 1.7 million low- to moderate-income (LMI) households. Many LMI individuals don’t have bank...

Planet

At Bacardi, we prioritize reducing our impact on the environment – an approach that dates to the very beginning of the company in 1862 when Bacardi...

Guiding Stars blog: Health & Wellness

About the Guiding Stars Health & Wellness Blog The Guiding Stars Health & Wellness blog is your place for the latest in health and nutrition news...

IWBI | WELL Building Standard

Our built environment can shape our habits and choices, regulate our sleep-wake cycle, drive us toward healthy and unhealthy choices, and passively...