2024 Benevity Forum London - Europe’s top social impact event

Trends and what we learned

Across Europe and the UK, businesses are increasingly embracing social impact. That was the resounding message on November 8th  when more than 200 corporate social responsibility
(CSR) leaders and champions came together for Benevity Forum London. 

At the Forum, leaders from purpose driven companies exchanged best practices and collaborated on ideas to take their corporate volunteering, giving and sustainability programmes to the next level. They also heard from inspiring voices like the UK’s own Dame Inga Beale and leaders from Amadeus, Cisco, Impact Genome and the Sage Foundation.

This is the TL;DR from the day, packaged up to share with your teams or get an insight into what you missed. 

Takeaway #1: UK CSR reaches record impact in 2023

Benevity’s Chief Impact Officer, Sona Khosla, set the stage for the day with Benevity’s annual State of Corporate Purpose, a global report that highlights the top CSR, DEI and ESG trends shaping corporate social impact strategies today. Shared in this session was new, exclusive data from the UK’s CSR landscape that underscores the growing commitment to impact:  

• Overall employee participation in volunteering and giving programmes in the UK rose to 14% —
  a 25% increase from the previous year, outpacing the global rise of 23%. 

• The UK’s employee volunteering participation rate rose 300% YoY — the highest percentage increase across all regions.
  
  
• UK employees directed £31 million through the Benevity platform to support nearly 13,000 nonprofits. 
  

“There’s no doubt about it, volunteering is having a moment. Overall, participation numbers are impressive, especially in a year marked by high inflation, recession worries and political divisiveness.”

Sona Khosla, Chief Impact Officer, Benevity 

For deeper insight into the data on the UK’s CSR landscape, read the press release.

Takeaway #2: ERGs as strategic assets

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are becoming essential to business operations, consulted by HR, communications, and marketing teams to address diverse community needs. With 98% of UK companies recognizing ERGs as vital during crises, 61% are boosting ERG budgets to enhance diversity, inclusion, and overall business resilience.

During her keynote Dame Inga Beale spoke passionately about the importance of empowering employees to design their own programmes to build the kind of engagement and inclusivity that leads to transformational growth.

“From a business perspective, I knew we needed to appeal to different people…this is how ERGs were born. It wasn't me saying we needed to do this —  it was our people.” 

Dame Inga Beale

Takeaway #3: Volunteering gains traction

 As companies adapt to hybrid work, volunteering has emerged as a key driver of culture and engagement. To deepen impact, 63% of UK firms (and 55% of global firms) are expanding their volunteer programmes, focusing on skills-based initiatives and nonprofit board service opportunities.

During her session, Helen Devanny, VP Sage Foundation, emphasised the link between executive buy-in and programme success. For Sage, executive participation in their volunteering and giving programme is “an expectation, not an option”.

Takeaway #4: We’re moving towards outcomes-based philanthropy

Businesses are being asked to demonstrate the ROI of their CSR programmes. In response, 59% of UK companies (and 62% of global companies) are planning to increase investments in impact measurement and reporting.

Ajay Gopal, Community Impact Manager, Cisco explained how the company surpassed 80% programme engagement globally with a three-part strategy that included “following the data”. By democratising data, social impact goals were shared (and owned) by everyone — not just the CSR team.

“What gets measured gets tracked, what gets tracked gets achieved. Every leader and person at Cisco had access to follow progress. This drove a culture of engagement within the company and we were able to establish the hypothesis that the scale of engagement contributed to the scale of impact within our communities.”

Ajay Gopal, Community Impact Manager, Cisco

Additional trends and where to learn more

Harnessing the power of AI and navigating politically divisive issues were other trends covered in both data and conversation at Benevity Forum London. At the end of a day filled with energy and optimism, the record-high CSR engagement reported by Benevity, supported by insights shared at Benevity Forum, revealed a promising trajectory for corporate social impact in the UK and Europe. To dig deeper on global trends in CSR, have a review of Benevity’s State of Corporate Purpose from this year and if you want to see how Benevity can help you activate your CSR strategy book a demo today.