Community Involvement Study Contributes to Key Business Goals, New Study Finds

New study issued by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship illuminates the relationship between community involvement and employee engagement
Nov 16, 2015 11:00 AM ET

BOSTON, November 16, 2015 /3BL Media/ – The Carroll School of Management Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College is pleased to release its 2015 Community Involvement Study, a unique research report that explores how companies are investing in communities and how these efforts connect to their businesses. Conducted for the eleventh time since 1995, the study finds that the majority of companies today report that community involvement contributes to key business goals including improved reputation and the attraction and retention of employees.

“Effective corporate citizenship programs achieve two goals—they deliver business as well as social value,” said Katherine V. Smith, executive director at the Center for Corporate Citizenship. “Our study finds that today’s corporate citizenship professionals are keeping those objectives in mind when planning their community involvement efforts, and the majority are reporting that their initiatives are contributing to crucial business goals. By engaging their employees—not only through program participation, but also as champions and leaders—companies are making significant progress in their communities and in their operations.”

The 2015 Community Involvement Study key findings include:

  • Employee volunteer participation is connected to increased engagement. Among the companies that measure the connection between volunteering and employee engagement, 89 percent found a positive correlation between participation and higher engagement scores.
  • Companies plan to increase the proportion of giving abroad in the near future. More than 10 percent of the companies that give only to nonprofits in their headquarters country plan to include nonprofits outside their home country within two fiscal years.

To learn more about this study, as well as other offerings and events, visit ccc.bc.edu.

The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, Carroll School of Management is a membership-based knowledge center. Founded in 1985, the Center has a history of leadership in corporate citizenship research and education. The Center engages more than 420 member companies and more than 10,000 individuals annually to share knowledge and expertise about the practice of corporate citizenship through the Center's executive education programs, online community, regional programs, and its annual conference. For more information, visit the Center's website at ccc.bc.edu.

For more information contact:
Kerin Sikorski
Carroll School of Management
Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College
Email:
sikorski@bc.edu Phone: 617-552-4545