Dive Brief:
- The vast majority of business leaders — 88% — report that “purpose-led strategies enhance long-term value creation,” according to research released last week by the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals. ACCP compiled the research in an online toolkit, “Making the Case for Corporate Social Impact,” drawing from 19 studies and surveys.
- In 2023, companies that “aligned their business practices with corporate metrics” saw a 32% higher median revenue and a 45% higher median pre-tax profit compared to those without such metrics, according to ACCP’s aggregated research.
- Even if two products are almost identical, 59% of customers globally believe that there are brands worth paying more for “because of the good they do in the world,” according to an included 2024 Edelman survey. A 2025 survey from Northwind Climate and nonprofit Ceres, not included, found that 68% of respondents said they were willing “to pay a little more” for sustainable products.
Dive Insight:
ACCP is a trade association for corporate social responsibility and ESG professionals with over 260 member companies across more than 20 industries, according to the organization’s website. Members include American Express, Boeing, The Coca-Cola Company, eBay, Target, 3M, Pfizer and FedEx. The organization has released a toolkit every year since 2020, but this year’s environment has been different, ACCP President and CEO Andrea Wood said in an interview with ESG Dive.
President Donald Trump’s administration targeted DEI programs as soon as he took office in January 2025, and some companies subsequently rolled back DEI initiatives, sometimes drawing criticism. The toolkit is designed for CSR and ESG professionals to make the internal case for investing in or continue investing in social impact programs at their companies.
“If I had a nickel for every time I talked to a member in the past year and a half about making the business case, then I'd be rich,” Wood said.
However, she said the research shows that “there is an expectation from stakeholders from across the political spectrum, [that] communities, employees [and] customers want to see their companies doing good work in their communities.” Seventy-one percent of Republicans, 88% of Democrats, and 76% of independents think businesses should do more to communicate their ethics and corporate responsibility efforts, according to an included survey conducted just after the 2024 election by CSR consultancy Carol Cone on Purpose.
“Where companies have fallen short in the past, is not explaining the why [because] they sort of assumed that all of their stakeholders understand the why” of DEI initiatives or social programs that serve diverse communities, Wood said. “Taking more time to explain it, and then how it ties directly to business success, has been a trend that we've seen.”
ACCP’s toolkit also aggregated data that displayed the financial impact of strong CSR programs. Over a 10-year period, S&P 500 companies that created the highest value for stakeholders — customers, employees, suppliers and communities — also had the highest shareholder returns, according to an included Bain & Company study from 2024.
Corporate social impact programs can also strengthen employee recruitment and retention, with more than 70% of employees saying that community impact influences employment decisions, and 9 in 10 companies reporting that engagement programs help attract and retain top talent, according to a 2025 America’s Charities survey.
It seems that companies are starting to understand these benefits, as 57% of corporate citizenship leaders expect continued integration of social impact into core business strategy, according to a 2026 survey by The Conference Board.
“If you lean in on the community story, you might forget the other side of the story,” which is the business story, Wood said. “Those two things need to both be true in order for CSR to be a successful strategy.”
