2023 CSR Trend Forecasts

What does the year ahead portend for the world of corporate social impact? To prepare for making my own predictions at Engage for Good, I reached out to a group of advisors that many in the field rely on for wise counsel.

Here are some of the top trends appearing in their purpose-shaded crystal balls:

Greater Emphasis On ROI: Across the decades, economic factors have deeply influenced CSR practices. My agency experienced how the great recession and the pandemic dramatically shifted mission priorities and activation strategies. In 2023, we expect economic pressure on consumer purchases and employee satisfaction will continue to be dominant forces impacting planning for CSR success. CSR can continue to be an essential ingredient for attracting new customers and retaining employees but will require direct ROI data to justify and secure budgets.

Mollye Rhea, President and Founder, For Momentum

Measurement: There has been much written lately on the need for social impact measurement and rightfully so as customers, donors, investors, employees and boards are demanding companies do more to combat societal ills. If more is being demanded in the social impact space of companies, measurement to prove your company is doing your part to drive social change becomes extremely important. Measurement must be comprehensive, transparent, authentic and truthful, and both the company and the nonprofits they work with have equal responsibility in creating and reporting on impact measurement.

Maureen Carlson, Chief Strategy Officer, On Purpose Crew

DEI & Employee Volunteerism Convergence: It is becoming more widely accepted that employee volunteering programs can be a powerful tool for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within a company? By providing opportunities for experiential learning and self-reflection, these programs can challenge existing beliefs and biases and lead to a shift in perspective and a greater understanding of diversity. By fostering a culture of purpose-driven work, companies can create a more inclusive workplace that benefits all stakeholders and align their CSR and ESG efforts with DEI to create a virtuous cycle of positive impact.

Chris Jarvis, Executive Director, RW Institute

Job Purposing: Frustrated by how few jobs are meaningful, employees are increasingly igniting meaning in whatever job they have, a practice I’ve dubbed “job purposing.” They’re redesigning products to be plastic-free, tilting hiring toward underrepresented groups and otherwise making meaningful contributions to others or societal causes through everyday work. If you’re in the corporate social impact space, take note that employee efforts to attain meaningful work are shifting from job hopping to job purposing. The latter plucky practice will likely complicate, but also supercharge, your social impact efforts.

Bea Boccalando, Veraworks

Creating Opportunity For Underrepresented Groups: Companies are partnering with nonprofits to deploy diverse approaches to create opportunities and access for underrepresented communities. Strategies include increasing shelf space for products created by minority-owned businesses; providing minority entrepreneurs with access to investment capital; minority employee, youth, and second chance mentorship; DEI grantmaking; and customer-facing fundraising campaigns.

Karen Wu, Partner, Perlman & Perlman

Increased Internal Corporate Cooperation: In a marketplace where people feel more empowered to decide where they want to work, Employee Value Propositions (EVPs) have risen as a top business priority. Employees are increasingly asking to participate in meaningful, non-transactional opportunities to make deep changes around societal issues aligned with both business and personal interests. This is forcing corporate responsibility, human resources, DEI, and marketing teams to collaborate in new ways. Looking ahead watch for leading brands to harness corporate culture to drive social change.

Nikki Korn, Principal + Chief Strategy Officer, Cause Consulting

Owned Impact: We’re hearing from a lot of corporate CSR leaders that they want to help achieve social impact objectives that can be linked directly to their investments. For example, rather than investing $1M to help undernourished children (general), they want to invest $1M to provide nutritional supplements for a million undernourished children in Africa (specific). By taking this approach of investing X to achieve Y, they create meaningful impact as well as stories of “Owned Impact”

Dan Cohen, President, Cause Partners

Data Is Key: Impact measurement is on the rise, with companies building out sophisticated benchmarks, KPIs and data management protocols. This is critical because without understanding your data, it’s nearly impossible to truly make a difference.

Emily Kane Miller, Founder & CEO, Ethos Giving

Article Credits: Forbes