The Executive CSR Report

January 16, 2025

The landscape

At just about every turn, businesses are hitting headwinds. Economic growth has stalled in the face of stubbornly high prices, elevated borrowing rates and geopolitical uncertainty. In this more anxious climate, backlash has brewed against companies’ ESG (environmental, social and governance), CSR (corporate social responsibility) and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) commitments, with critics arguing that they divert resources from driving core business and shareholder value. 

We set out to understand executive commitment to CSR investments in the mid-2020s, against this backdrop of internal pressures, external pushback and other business challenges. We surveyed 500 senior leaders from VP to C-suite level in the U.S. and U.K. about their stance on and plans for social impact in the current climate and its potential return on investment.

The findings reveal that, despite news headlines, the majority of senior leaders are planning to invest more in CSR in the coming year, not less. And they’re focusing on smarter strategy and ROI to ensure those investments translate to business value.

Key insights

CSR budgets are on the rise

Despite popular perception, most leaders are not in fact stepping back from CSR. According to the data, for the majority of organizations, CSR investments are actually set to increase. 

Nearly a third of senior leaders who have oversight of their organization’s CSR budget say they are currently allocating more than 10% of their total corporate budget to CSR, with 47% allocating between 6-10%.

Employee Resource Groups see the greatest increase in investment

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are the top investment area where respondents expect their organization to increase support over the next 12 months, followed by employee volunteerism and developing ethical business practices around AI. 

CSR is a way to achieve business goals

Public scrutiny is stalling CSR investments

Not all companies, however, are unaffected by the external pressures. Twenty-four percent of senior leaders with insight into their organization's CSR budget say they plan to maintain or decrease investment in CSR initiatives over the next 12 months. Among those leaders, almost half (48%) cited public scrutiny of ESG commitments as a top reason why.

Executives who don’t have an understanding of the business value of CSR are also exercising more caution in their investments. The two other top drivers for maintaining or decreasing investment were a lack of direct ROI for the business (45%) and a lack of buy-in from other executives (41%). 

Improving measurement is critical

Amid competing organizational priorities, the biggest challenges companies face in planning CSR initiatives center around proving their value relative to other company needs.

Benevity’s State of Corporate Purpose 2024 report found 62% of impact leaders are increasing investment in impact data, measurement and reporting. 

A third of leaders (32%) say measuring the social impact of their CSR initiatives is equally important to their company as measuring the business impact.

The data shows that the vast majority of companies and their executives are continuing to make meaningful commitments to CSR, despite the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) of the 2020s. 
 
ROI is the key differentiator between companies that are investing more in CSR and those that aren’t. Now is the right time for executives to lead their companies’ efforts to  prove, reinforce and popularize the business and social impact of their CSR investments.  

Methodology

Between June 30 and July 8, 2024, Benevity surveyed 300 senior leaders in the U.S. and 200 senior leaders in the U.K. about their perspectives and plans for CSR in the workplace. At the time of the survey, all respondents were 18 years or older and full-time employees at organizations with more than $1B/£1B in annual revenue. All respondents held positions at the vice president level or higher and maintained some level of involvement in their organizations’ CSR initiatives. Due to rounding, some responses may not add up to exactly 100%.

Terminology

For the purposes of this report, corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to a company’s investments and commitments to social impact, including integrating social, ethical and environmental concerns into their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders to contribute to sustainable business development and success while delivering economic and social benefits. CSR may also be referred to as “social impact.”