CSR Trends in 2025: Grounded in PEACE

As we look at the future laid before us, there are an unending number of challenges and opportunities ahead. If the past teaches us anything, it is that we can always count on both the expected and unexpected to take place. The same is true as we think about trends in the corporate social impact and employee engagement space.

We will likely see the continuation of key trends that have already been in motion, such as a continued desire for connection through more in-person engagement opportunities as well as a growing set of innovations that will influence the way we volunteer, give, grant, and even measure our impact. On the other hand, there are bound to be unforeseen circumstances along the way that may test us. Therefore, this year, I believe it is important to ground a discussion about trends in the motivations and context behind them and understand what it will take to successfully empower our employees and communities.

My wish for all of us doing work in the corporate social impact sector in 2025 is a year filled with PEACE: Perseverance, Evolution, Adaptation, Captivation, Empathy.

Perseverance

Generally defined as doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success, perseverance in many ways is at the foundation of our work. For those of us in the corporate social impact space, we know we need to be invested for the long-term to build trust, address complex issues, overcome resistance, and see truly meaningful impact for our communities, employees, and our businesses.

For many of us managing engagement and philanthropy programs, we have had to learn to persevere when faced with various challenges, from changing budgets, a lack of capacity, and shifting focus areas to leadership changes and new obstacles that require a refreshed business case. Yet despite the difficulties, we have also seen success that takes the form of positively impacted communities, the betterment of very real lives, as well as a deeper sense of purpose and connection for our employees on top of beneficial bottom-line results for our companies.

For corporate impact professionals, perseverance will translate into a reset of both short and long-term goals. It will also consist of the recommitment to do the hard work, investing in longer term systems change, recalibrating where necessary, but staying the course where it matters. This will include evaluating program structures, taking a more comprehensive look at how we build more trust-based, mutually beneficial, and accountable partnerships, and in some cases changing the ways we communicate about our work and impact. Most importantly, as Nikki Korn notes in her piece Perseverance is Essential to Lead in Social Impact Today – it is about “staying grounded, focused, and present.

Evolution

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact space has evolved beyond its original roots based on ethical responsibility and altruistic giving and engagement, to what today is considered a strategic business imperative. For companies, there is a recognition that CSR programs play a very important role in the business that includes impacts on talent acquisition, employee satisfaction, employee retention, brand awareness, reach, and impression, customer acquisition and loyalty, and so much more.

Yet, as we look ahead, there is a new phase of evolution on the horizon. With the increased adoption of innovative technological solutions, many practitioners are starting to examine how these tools, especially those powered by artificial intelligence (AI), can play a role in streamlining operations, facilitating communications, and gaining critical and efficient visibility into employee engagement and community impact. It is critically important to lean into the ways technology and innovation can help us reimagine how we get this vital work done.

Adaptation

In 2025, we will see a focus on adaptation. This includes the adaptation of approaches, terminology, partnerships, and so much more. However, it will also consist of the adaptation of programs to meet the evolving needs, expectations, concerns, and context relevant to our employees and local communities. With rapid technological advancements, changing demographics, and an increasing demand for flexibility and work-life balance as well as a diverse set of needs from a multi-generational workforce, companies must innovate and reshape their CSR strategies. By being flexible and adaptable, businesses can ensure that their social impact initiatives remain relevant, effective, and deeply engaging both for their employees as well as their impacted communities.

As a result, we will see many CSR programs adapting the types of engagement that they provide. Looking for new ways to get employees engaged in volunteering, giving, and broader philanthropic work will include the exploration of more co-creation, from conception and design to implementation. Incorporating key trends we have seen, from an increase of in-person engagements that incorporate a team building component to more flexible definitions of what “counts” as volunteering, as well as an increase in the use of philanthropic incentives to drive participation. However, the most critical element will be adopting a culture of experimentation. A willingness to learn from those on the ground and collaborate on what types of engagement will truly be the most effective and impactful.

Going hand in hand with those programmatic adaptations, I suspect we will see adaptations in how we work as practitioners in 2025 as well. With increased pressures and expectations on CSR practitioners and roles, we will not only need to rely more on efficiencies we can gain through innovation and programmatic adjustments but also rely more on each other. That means leaning more deeply in our peer networks, growing our spheres of connection and influence, and in some cases, embracing our comfort zone to achieve our full potential and sustainable success.

Captivation

With that willingness to adapt comes a new opportunity to captivate, and the name of the game in 2025 will not just be engaging employees but it will be captivating them. Captivation often defined as the state of being intensely interested in something or someone, at times further described as fascinated, enchanted, attracted, absorbed, or under a spell is the perfect way to describe how we want to fully engage employees in giving back. We want them to be intensely interested in our programs, we want them to be fascinated by the needs in our local communities, with a relentless desire to listen, learn, and understand before taking action. We want them to leave their volunteering and giving experiences feeling enchanted, attracted to working with various charitable partners, and absorbed into the true needs and work on the ground.

This speaks to another key trend, which is incorporating the voice of your employees and local communities in your programmatic planning and strategy. It is important to not simply build a strategy and program in a silo but instead to take the time to hear directly from those you are both trying to engage and those you are hoping to impact. Incorporate their feedback and build a mechanism to not only collect but also absorb and action changes based on that feedback. Transition from programs that are set or static to programs that are dynamic and ever evolving, changing, adapting, and ultimately captivating.

Empathy

Finally, we want employees to be captivated and to engage in the community with empathy. Research has shown that empathy is positively associated with prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors. In turn CSR programs in 2025 will continue to put humanity at the center of the work by building and adapting programs that lead with empathy at the core. That means investing in people and communities by breaking down barriers through inclusive engagement, evolving programs and embracing innovation through human-centered strategies, and considering all perspectives through program related research, design, build, and execution. It also means cultivating the important interconnection that exists between engagement and well-being through a more holistic approach to employee and community connection and purpose.