As 2023 comes to a close, it is valuable to conduct an end of year review of your company’s philanthropy and community involvement efforts over the past 12 months. This allows you to quantify and evaluate the progress and social impact made, recognize what initiatives were most successful, and start planning where there is room for improvement to evolve your efforts in the coming year.

Here are five suggested indicators to analyze in order to get a better understanding of your company’s community activities and impact in 2023.

1.  Volunteer Hours

Add up the total number volunteer hours contributed by you and/or your employees over the course of the year through company-organized events and activities.

• Multiply the number of hours by the 2023 value of a volunteer hour from the Independent Sector – $31.80.
• Benchmark this against what you aimed for at the beginning of the year.
• Break this data down further by calculating volunteer hours per employee to see how involvement levels may have grown.

Tip: Highlight stand-out individuals or teams who made an exceptional contribution.

2.  Funds Donated

Tally up the total monetary amount your company donated to charitable causes over the past year. This should include all corporate donations and fundraising initiatives facilitated through your business for community organizations.

 

• Did you meet your fundraising goals and targets?
• Which causes or issues did your company support most prominently with its resources?
• How did the nonprofit(s) receiving donations use your financial resources?

3.  Nonprofit Partnerships

Make a list of all nonprofit organizations, foundations, and community groups your company formally partnered with for philanthropy programming.

• What was the length and depth of each partnership?
• What factors influenced your choice of partners to support? (e.g., mission alignment, employee passion, geographic focus or other factors)
• How many total volunteer hours and funds were donated to each?
• Did your support strengthen their programs and/or mission? If so, how?

Tip:  Identify which partnerships were win-win – did your company also benefit? If so, how?

4.  Employee Engagement

Look back at philanthropic and community involvement programming your company coordinated for employees throughout the year.

• What percentage of your employee population actively participated in one or more initiatives?
• Which events saw the highest attendance and what were they supporting?

Tip: Conduct an employee survey to evaluate satisfaction with company philanthropy efforts and solicit input for what they would like to see improved or introduced. 

5.  Media Coverage & External Recognition

Compile press releases, news articles or other media coverage that spotlighted your company’s community contributions and philanthropy over the past year.

 

• How much total coverage did initiatives receive?
• Was it generally positive in tone?
• Did certain programs, partnerships or events draw especially strong media interest?
• Did you receive any external awards, certifications or formal recognition related to your community engagement?

Once your baseline data across key indicators has been pulled together, examine it in a holistic fashion to determine what your company did well and identify any potential gaps to improve upon in 2024.

Some key reflection questions to ask include:

• What philanthropy or community involvement initiatives did employees respond to most enthusiastically this past year? Why were these so successful? How can we expand their scope or impact moving forward?
• Which nonprofit partners felt like the strongest cultural and mission fit for our company? Should we deepen engagement with them or grow partnerships in new directions?
• What social impact targets or causes did we have difficulty gaining traction in or fell short of goals? Do these need to evolve based on what priorities our employees and other stakeholders believe to be most urgent and important?
• What forms of community involvement or philanthropy resonated strongest across different employee demographics in our company? Are there specific audiences we need to engage more effectively next year?
• How can we improve our promotion and storytelling of philanthropy efforts to strengthen external awareness and continue elevating our brand reputation as a purpose-driven company?
• Did our annual philanthropic budget feel adequate? Based on impact achieved do we need to consider allocating more funds next year? Which programs provide the greatest community return on our investment long-term?

Conducting this end of year assessment of philanthropy and community initiatives provides extremely valuable insights as you plan 2024 activities and set goals for continually increasing positive impact. Reflect on bright spots and wins that can be replicated as well as constructive feedback from employees and partners that allow you serve community needs even better in the future.