Skip to content

10 Years of Providing Annual In-Depth Analysis of Corporate Societal Engagement

By André Solórzano, Manager, Data Insights, CECP

January 28, 2016–2015 marked the 10th anniversary of Giving in Numbers, the leading corporate societal engagement report that CECP releases. CECP is proud to say that 63 companies (half of them are in the top 100 of the Fortune 500), with approximately 3.2 trillion dollars in combined revenue during 2014, have consistently provided CECP with societal engagement information over the last 10 years!  Not only that, CECP’s mission has advanced during this time as well, from approximately 90 to now over 220 of the largest companies in our network. An in-depth look at these companies and society around them is linked here.

 The highlights from these companies’ societal engagement performance include:

  • Companies increased giving by 26% over the last 10 years. Their median total giving went from $46 million in 2005 to $58 million in 2014.
  • Median ratio of total giving to revenue reached its highest in 2014: It went from 0.16% in 2005 to 0.22% in 2014.
  • Even though the amount of non-cash giving by companies in 2014 only increased 2 percentage points from 2005 (from 24% to 26%), it represents an approximate increase in the median non-cash giving of $4 million.
  • Companies that increased total giving the most (10%+) also saw the strongest revenue growth at 40%; all other companies only grew at a rate of 17%.
  • Health and Social Services, Higher Education, and Environment were the program areas with higher increases of median total giving between 2005 and 2014.

The last decade has not only witnessed many technological, societal, and economical changes but also changes in the way the corporate world gives back to society. Let’s travel back in time to learn about the global developments that have shaped our world.

  • Increases occurred in the global population–from 6.5 billion in 2005 to 7.3 billion in 2014– as well as life expectancy–from 69 years in 2005 to 71 years in 2014.
  • Global employment rate of people aged 15 to 24 decreased by 3.5 percentage points between 2005 and 2014, from 44.6% to 41.1%.
  • In 2015, almost two thirds (63%) of the world’s largest 250 companies listed in the Fortune Global 500 (G250) had their corporate responsibility information independently assured, as opposed to only 30% in 2005. Their corporate responsibility reporting rate also went up from 64% in 2005 to 92% in 2014.
  • The World Bank has estimated a global increase in the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments–16.5% in 2005 to 22.2% in 2014.
  • According to the United Nations Population Division and Internet Live Stats, internet users went from 1.02 billion in 2005 to 2.93 billion in 2014.

So much has changed!  Click here  to read the full report from which the above findings are drawn. Companies have an increasingly growing role to play in solving societal challenges, and CECP is proud to report on their trends of societal engagement. Tweet about your accomplishments and share your work over the course of the last decade: @CECPTweets

Want to be in our next 10 year set? Join the survey!  Contribute to transparency by sharing your company’s program data from 2015 and don’t miss the opportunity to shape the way the corporate world makes a difference in the next decade! Email Jinny Jeong jjeong@cecp.co to find out how to participate in our survey.

Sources: Deloitte, Facebook, Internet Live Stats, KPMG, United Nations, U.S. Census Bureau, The World Bank

CECP is a coalition of CEOs united in the belief that societal improvement is an essential measure of business performance. Founded in 1999, CECP has grown to a movement of more than 150 CEOs of the world’s largest companies across all industries. Revenues of engaged companies sum to $7 trillion annually. A nonprofit organization, CECP offers participating companies one-on-one consultation, networking events, exclusive data, media support, and case studies on corporate engagement.