Points of Light, Bloomberg L.P. Survey Shows How Community Engagement Drives Business
Washington, D.C. (December 8, 2014) – Community engagement is an integral part of business strategy for some of America’s largest corporations, according to this year’s Civic 50 ranking released today by Points of Light, with support from Bloomberg L.P. This year’s survey shows that companies are dedicating their time, talent and resources to strengthen their communities and are in turn, seeing a positive business impact, and enhanced employee engagement, skill-development, and diversity and inclusion.
“The companies that make up The Civic 50 provide a roadmap for how to translate good intentions into sound business practices and policies,” said Neil Bush, chairman of the board of Points of Light, the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service. “Community engagement is core to a company’s DNA. When companies excel at this seamless integration, they see growth to key business metrics and lasting change in their communities.”
“At Bloomberg, we strongly believe that companies do not have to choose between philanthropy, engagement, sustainability and business results. We know that doing good is good for business,” said Peter
Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg L.P. “We congratulate the 2014 honorees and hope the lessons they’ve shared will help others grow their businesses, transform their communities, and improve the lives of those they serve.”
The Civic 50 for 2014, in alphabetical order, are:
AbbVie
Adobe Systems Incorporated Aetna Inc.
Alcoa
Altria Group, Inc. Apollo Education Group AT&T
Bank of America
Baxter International Inc.
Caesars Entertainment *Consumer Discretionary Sector Leader
Capital One
CenterPoint Energy *Utilities Sector Leader
Citi
Comcast Corporation *Communications Sector Leader
ConAgra Foods *Consumer Staples Sector Leader
CSAA Insurance Group – a AAA Insurer DIRECTV
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Eli Lilly and Company FedEx Corporation
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold
Gap Inc.
GE
General Mills
Hasbro, Inc.
Health Care Service Corporation
Hewlett-Packard *Technology Sector Leader
Intel Corporation
Intuit
KeyBank *Financials Sector Leader
Motorola Solutions, Inc.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Prudential Financial, Inc.
PwC
Raytheon Company
SAP
Sigma-Aldrich *Materials Sector Leader
Southwest Airlines
Sprint Corporation
State Street Corporation
Symantec Corporation
The Hershey Company
Toyota Financial Services
TSYS
UnitedHealth Group *Health Care Sector Leader
UPS *Industrials Sector Leader
Valero Energy Corporation *Energy Sector Leader
Verizon
Viacom
Western Union
Now in its third year, The Civic 50 survey evaluates participating companies based on the investment, integration, institutionalization, and impact of their community engagement programs and policies.
This year’s survey trends include the following:
- Community engagement boosts employee engagement. Civic 50 companies find that employees who participate in community engagement initiatives score higher on morale, engagement, pride and productivity than employees who don’t. Recognizing this, 82 percent of companies offer employees paid time off to volunteer and 84 percent of companies offer grant-matching opportunities. Half of all companies also include community engagement as a formal component of employees’ performance reviews.
- Companies and communities find value in skills-based volunteering. Skills-based volunteering continues to grow at Civic 50 companies and on average, one out of every five employee volunteer hours at Civic 50 companies is skills-based. Skills-based volunteering provides communities with valuable, specialized support that can provide five times greater value than traditional volunteering, according to True Impact and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Companies raise their voice to advance social change. Eighty-two percent of Civic 50 companies have taken a national leadership position on a social issue like ending hunger, texting and driving and increasing STEM education. Many companies invest in issues related to their own operations and are often in a unique position to contribute lasting solutions.
The complete report on this year’s survey, The Civic 50: A Roadmap for Corporate Community Engagement in America, infographics, a video message from Neil Bush and quotes from Civic 50 companies are available at www.Civic50.org.
In previous years, The Civic 50 evaluated and honored only S&P 500 companies. In 2014, all companies with annual revenue of $1 billion or more were invited to participate. A panel of academic advisors partnered to strengthen The Civic 50 survey content, questions and evaluation. The survey was administered by True Impact.
The Civic 50 is an alphabetical listing but this year’s survey also ranked the top three companies that applied in 10 sectors: communications, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, materials, technology and utilities. Sector leaders are marked above.
ABOUT POINTS OF LIGHT
Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service, mobilizes millions of people to take action that is changing the world. Through affiliates in 250 cities and partnerships with thousands of nonprofits and corporations, Points of Light engages four million volunteers in 30 million hours of service each year. We bring the power of people where it’s needed most. For more information, visit www.pointsoflight.org.
ABOUT BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg L.P. connects influential decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. Our strength – quickly and accurately delivering data, news and analytics through our unique, innovative technology – is at the core of everything we do. With over 150,000 employees in 192 locations, we deliver business and financial information, news and insights through the Bloomberg Professional service to over 320,000 subscribers around the world. For more information visit www.bloomberg.com/company.
