In today's complex business environment, many corporate citizenship leaders are working strategically with their employee resource groups (ERGs). Also known as business network groups or affinity groups, these employee-led communities can foster a sense of inclusion and belonging, while sponsoring events and learning opportunities for people all throughout an organization.
Community Involvement: New research on corporate response to unprecedented disruption
It has been more than one year since the COVID-19 pandemic began—and what a year it has been. Reflecting on the events of 2020, I am struck that it was the business community that often initiated response to the pandemic and demonstrations for racial justice. Companies mobilized their unique resources and capabilities—from rapid relief in delivering personal protective equipment, ramping up leave and hazard pay policies, and providing for adequate physical distancing for pandemic response; to revising policies and community investments to be more inclusive and equitable, offering bias awareness trainings, and making investments that support the achievement of equity for people of color.
Through all this disruption, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship was conducting our biannual Community Involvement Survey. In reviewing the results, we saw that corporate citizenship professionals were adapting to maximize impact as the world shifted under their feet. We simply could not keep this information to ourselves. So, we are sharing Community Involvement 2021: Crisis Response Preliminary Results with our members in advance of the full study due this summer. We hope you will make use of these findings to assess the work done already, benchmark your own efforts, and chart the course forward in your community involvement initiatives.
In this year marked by disruption, we have an opportunity to transform. Corporate citizenship professionals especially have an essential part to play in elevating discussions of our social safety net in general and equity and inclusion in particular. Together, we CAN create the world in which we want to conduct business AND the world in which we want to live.
What’s inside the report:
- How companies responded during disruptions
- Employee volunteering, workplace giving, and employee assistance program data
- Trends in grantmaking
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