What’s Trending: Giving in Numbers: 2018 Edition Is Out!
By Andre Solorzano, Senior Manager, Data Insights, CECP
We are pleased to announce that this year’s Giving in Numbers report is now available! In keeping with tradition, this year’s report incorporates many of the classic analyses that have characterized this industry-leading report, including total giving by industry, employee volunteer data, and operations. New this year is an expanded section on international giving and a deep dive into measurement of outcomes. As always, we look at trends across the field and offer dozens of case studies to bring the report to life and, hopefully, inspire readers to advance their efforts. What do you think are some of the biggest corporate societal trends?
The best news is that total giving continued to rise, with median total giving increasing by 15% between 2015 and 2017. Companies acknowledged the positive effect they have in the communities they serve, especially in times of political uncertainty and natural disasters. In a year beset by natural disasters like hurricanes Maria and Harvey, earthquakes and wildfires; the private sector stepped up to support entire communities. It was not a surprise to see that Disaster Relief was the program area that increased the most in 2017: it doubled in terms of aggregated cash contributions and tripled in terms of median cash giving versus three years ago.
Employees’ sense of purpose continued playing a huge role in the way large corporations contribute and give back to society. Volunteer participation rates continued increasing versus three years ago (34% in 2017 versus 32% in 2015). Companies recognized the importance of understanding and monitoring these volunteering activities in terms of creating business value. The percentage of companies measuring the business value of their employee engagement initiatives grew from 28% in 2015 to 33% in 2017. It is worth mentioning that these corporate societal engagement efforts have limited time, human, and monetary resources that need to be maximized. Although 9 of 10 companies measured the societal outcomes and/or impacts of their programs, only 18% of companies measured outcomes/impacts on all grants.
Read more on the CECP Insights Blog here.
