2025 Outlook for Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy
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2025 Outlook for Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy

/ Report

In 2025, the corporate citizenship and philanthropy landscape is poised to undergo recalibration amid shifting political, social, and economic dynamics, with a greater focus on business value, measurable outcomes, and addressing bipartisan challenges. This report provides a data-driven analysis of the key trends, priorities, and challenges shaping corporate citizenship in the year ahead.

Key Insights

In 2025, the corporate citizenship and philanthropy landscape is poised to undergo recalibration amid shifting political, social, and economic dynamics, with a greater focus on business value, measurable outcomes, and addressing bipartisan challenges. This report provides a data-driven analysis of the key trends, priorities, and challenges shaping corporate citizenship in the year ahead.

Key Insights

  • Corporate citizenship leaders identify demonstrating business ROI as their top challenge in 2025, as expectations increase to enhance cost efficiency and align with business outcomes.
  • A notable minority of citizenship teams is shifting focus toward economic opportunity and education while reducing emphasis on racial and gender equality. This may reflect a response to recent DEI pushback and a pivot to less controversial and more business-aligned themes.
  • Most companies expect their geographic citizenship priorities to remain relatively stable, although 21% plan to reduce focus on China while a similar share intends to expand efforts in North America.
  • While the majority of companies plan to maintain their corporate citizenship communication strategies, 37% are revising their language and terminology to adopt more neutral and inclusive messaging, reflecting sensitivity to polarized social and political contexts.
  • In 2025, citizenship leaders see employee-driven initiatives, AI, and outcome-based philanthropy as the most impactful emerging approaches for driving societal impact.

Author

Andrew Jones, PhD

Andrew Jones, PhD Andrew Jones, PhD

Senior Researcher, ESG Center
The Conference Board

Read Bio

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