Corporate Social Responsibility at American Express

Bringing good citizenship to life around the world

At American Express, we believe that serving our communities is not only integral to running a business successfully, it is part of our individual responsibilities as citizens of the world. The mission of our program is to bring to life the American Express value of good corporate citizenship by supporting communities in ways that enhance the company's reputation with employees, customers, business partners and other stakeholders. We do this by supporting visionary nonprofit organizations that are: 

  • Preserving and sustaining historic places for the future; 
  • Developing new leaders for tomorrow; and 
  • Encouraging community service where our employees and customers live and work. 

Learn more by visiting about.americanexpress.com/csr.  

Videos from this campaign

Content from this campaign

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Channeling New Power
Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms have written a new book entitled New Power: How Power Works in our Hyperconnected World and How to Make it Work for You, which builds off a Harvard Business Review article, Understanding New Power, written by these authors in 2014. Jeremy Heimans is a co-founder and CEO of Purpose, a social business that builds movements, and Henry Timms is executive director of the 92nd Street Y and one of the co-founders of Giving Tuesday in 2012.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

National Park Foundation Boosts Volunteer Outreach & Programs Across National Parks Community
In celebration of National Volunteer Week, the National Park Foundation and American Express are announcing seven grants supporting volunteer capacity-building efforts at national parks across the country. Designed to support the growth of park volunteer programs, projects funded by the grants include expansion of volunteer housing space, development of recruitment handbooks, and outreach to neighboring communities.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Leadership in Times of Transition: Live From the American Express Leadership Academy Global Alumni Summit
In case you missed it, this afternoon, Angela Fernandez, Esq. (executive director, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights) and Dan Parks (managing editor, The Chronicle of Philanthropy) held a riveting conversation on leading during times of transition at the American Express Leadership Academy Global Alumni Summit.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Carlos Lejneiks Wins The 2018 American Express Leadership Academy Alumni Award

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Live From the American Express Leadership Academy Global Alumni Summit
Greetings from the fourth annual American Express Leadership Academy Global Alumni Summit in NYC! Over the next few days, we’ll be celebrating eleven years of a transformative program that has developed more than 3,000 nonprofit and social purpose leaders. Seventy-two distinguished program alumni from around the world are here today and tomorrow to grow their networks, enhance their leadership skills, and discuss key challenges facing nonprofit organizations.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Fourth Annual American Express Leadership Academy Global Alumni Summit Connects Social Purpose Leaders from Around the World
American Express (NYSE: AXP) will host its fourth annual Leadership Academy Global Alumni Summit in New York on April 16 and 17, celebrating eleven years of a transformative program that has developed more than 3,600 nonprofit and social purpose leaders. Seventy-two distinguished program alumni from around the world will have the opportunity to discuss best practices and participate in workshops with eleven premier leadership development organizations, including The Aspen Institute, Ashoka Changemakers, Center for Creative Leadership, Common Purpose, and Independent Sector.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Are You Uniquely Better?
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining Stephanie Meeks, the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in a “fire side” chat at the Participate Social Capital 2018 Conference in Alexandria, Virginia. After our talk, which focused on the long-standing partnership between American Express and the National Trust, we listened to the Cause Keynote, which was delivered by Gary Haugen, the CEO and Founder of International Justice Mission, an organization focused on the eradication of modern day slavery.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

How to Make CSR Everyone’s Responsibility
Do you believe that corporate social responsibility is important to your company, but that it’s someone else’s problem?

A recent Harvard Business Review article entitled “How to Make Sustainability Every Employee’s Responsibility” posits that question (albeit substituting “sustainability” for “corporate social responsibility”) and suggests that while many companies talk about sustainability and integration, it’s much harder to get people to act individually to achieve these corporate goals.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Celebrating Shared Value (CSV)
Since the first day that I started working in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the late 1980’s – under the wise tutelage of Reynold Levy, then president of the AT&T Foundation – I both learned and asserted that the purpose of any good corporate philanthropy or CSR program was to find the intersection between societal needs and the business interests of the company and to create real impact for both -- paying attention to a company’s various stakeholders and conducting your business in a responsible manner with an eye on the long-term value for business and society.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Will Corporations Inherit the Earth?
In a recent New York Times op-ed piece entitled, “Corporations Will Inherit the Earth,” Frank Bruni muses about the role of corporations in society at a time that the federal government is -- to use his phrase -- “a bumbling klutz.” Bruni asserts, “It can’t manage health care. It can’t master infrastructure. It can’t fund itself for more than tiny increments of time. It can barely stay open.” In contrast, he says, America’s corporations are operating “with an innovation and can-do ambition solely absent in Washington.”

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