President & CEO, ACCP
Most companies today have a corporate social impact program. Many also have a workplace giving platform, a volunteer policy, and teams dedicated to grants and community partnerships.
But as corporate citizenship professionals face increased pressure to align CSR activities with business goals, one challenge is becoming clearer: there remains a major gap between programs and participation. And closing that gap may be one of the biggest opportunities facing the field today.
What ACCP’s Research Is Showing
ACCP’s 2026 Predictions Survey — which included responses from several hundred corporate social impact professionals — found that:
- Employee engagement and volunteerism rank among the top anticipated growth areas for CSR teams
- Companies are looking for programs that feel more meaningful, not ceremonial
- Business leaders are increasingly scrutinizing CSR investments through a business-performance lens
That tracks with what we continue to hear from ACCP members across industries. Employees want deeper connection to the company’s purpose — and companies are increasingly recognizing that engagement is not separate from business strategy.
Volunteerism Is Evolving Beyond Community Service
Volunteering remains the area within community impact where companies have made the most significant investment. Many organizations have done a strong job creating opportunities for employees to support causes aligned with their personal values. But there is still an underdeveloped strategic opportunity:
Using Volunteerism as a Workforce Development Tool
When volunteer experiences help employees build leadership, communication, or problem-solving skills — not just support a cause — the value proposition changes. Programs become more durable because they simultaneously serve the community, the employee, and the business. This is what the shared value framework looks like in practice.
Companies Are Also Facing a Talent Stewardship Challenge
Taking this a step further, companies are entering a period in which workforce pressures are becoming inseparable from corporate social impact strategy. As large segments of the workforce retire and career pathways continue to shift, businesses are increasingly being forced to think beyond immediate hiring needs and consider the long-term sustainability of the talent pipelines that support their industries.
That creates a larger leadership challenge — and opportunity — for corporate social impact teams.
Programs tied to workforce development, skills building, access to education, and employee engagement are no longer simply philanthropic initiatives. They are becoming part of how companies strengthen future talent pipelines, support retention, and build organizational resilience in an increasingly uncertain labor market.
In that environment, employee engagement becomes more than a culture initiative. It becomes part of how companies invest in the long-term health and stability of their workforce.
The Workplace Giving Gap
Workplace giving presents a different kind of challenge. Recent research shows that while 94% of companies offer donation matching programs, only about 20% of employees participate. That gap points to more than an awareness issue — it may also reflect missed opportunities around culture, communication, and employee connection.
Companies that treat workplace giving as a once-a-year “Giving Season” campaign often leave significant engagement potential on the table. The organizations seeing stronger participation are typically the ones embedding social impact into the employee experience year-round rather than positioning it as a seasonal initiative.
At the same time, one of the most compelling — and still largely underdeveloped — areas of employee engagement is employee voice itself.
Across ACCP’s membership, the companies reporting the deepest engagement are often those where employees help shape the company’s social impact strategy, not simply participate in programs designed for them. That can take many forms, including employee resource groups with dedicated budgets, participatory grantmaking models, employee input into community investment priorities, or cross-functional engagement councils.
The common thread is ownership. When employees have a stake in the strategy itself, programs perform differently.
The business case for this is increasingly difficult to ignore. A 2025 Gallup study found that employees with a strong sense of purpose at work are 5.6 times more likely to be engaged in their jobs. Meanwhile, 68% of employees with “low work purpose” report actively looking for a new job, compared to 41% of employees with a strong sense of purpose.
For companies navigating retention pressures and workforce uncertainty, these numbers point to opportunities worth exploring.
As we’ve seen from the companies getting it right, employee engagement is not adjacent to corporate social impact — it is foundational to it. The question facing the field now is whether the programs companies have built are truly designed to deliver on that potential.
