Some of the earliest iterations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) were born purely out of a desire to do the right thing. For example, in the early 1900s Johnson & Johnson launched their disaster relief efforts because communities needed help, and the company felt a responsibility to do their part.
Today, the desire to do the right thing is still strong, but that’s not what’s driving most CSR programs.
Corporate leaders now see CSR as a core business initiative with the power (some might say, duty) to drive employee retention, solidify brand loyalty, and spur strategic partnerships. CSR strategy has to reflect a new paradigm in which CSR programs are as robust and strategic as any other business initiative.
As companies rely on and measure the impact of CSR efforts the way they would any other corporate program, one thing is clear: What sets an effective CSR strategy apart from the rest is authentic employee engagement.
If you’re crafting or retooling your CSR strategy, here’s how you can ensure you get it right.
What is CSR strategy in 2025?
CSR strategy is the comprehensive plan companies use to design, execute, and measure the impact of their corporate social responsibility initiatives. These initiatives include community investment programs, workplace giving, and employee volunteering. A CSR strategy covers every phase of corporate citizenship—from choosing a cause area and designing programs to building communication channels and tracking progress toward goals.
In 2025, CSR programs must tie social impact programs directly to business outcomes while still delivering for communities.
Employees are the lynchpin. They are the ones who make or break strategic CSR programs. Initiatives like corporate giving and employee volunteering won’t work unless employees get involved and stay involved.
Today, many companies are renewing their focus on human sustainability, aiming to create value for their people as human beings, not just as employees. CSR has the potential to fulfill that need, improve the employee experience, and strengthen employee loyalty along the way.
As companies navigate a complex world of activism and advocacy, authentic employee engagement should be at the core of a CSR strategy. Creating programs that center employees and lift up their voices is the key to both improving bottom-line ROI metrics and ensuring you show up for your community in the right way.
CSR as a pillar of the employee experience
Corporate social responsibility should be ingrained with the everyday employee experience. Because if CSR programs aren’t consistently visible—if they dip in and out of focus at a company level—employees will likely disengage. They’ll miss out on connecting to a deeper sense of purpose. And the company will lose out on the intrinsic benefits of CSR, such as stronger team culture.
It’s not enough just to offer a CSR program. Your CSR strategy has to make your CSR programs personal for every employee.
If you’re curious what happens when CSR strategy doesn’t connect to employees on a personal level, just look to the CECP Giving in Numbers Report. The survey shows that 94% companies offer matching programs, but only 20% employees participate. That’s a big missed opportunity.
The survey shows that 94% companies offer matching programs, but only 20% employees participate.
Patricia Toothman, while serving as the social impact manager at Splunk, made it her goal to build CSR into her company’s culture. She shared her team’s philosophy behind their CSR strategy. They wanted every employee to have a sense of ownership and pride in Splunk’s programs.
So, Patricia and her team worked to integrate social impact programs such as giving and volunteering with other HR and wellness programs. They also sought out every opportunity to make social impact a part of the larger brand story. By connecting these programs, Splunk gave employees multiple on-ramps to get involved and tied CSR to the core identity of being a Splunk employee.
A CSR strategy must go beyond the nuts and bolts of how CSR programs run to map out how the initiatives will connect to employees’ day-to-day experiences.
6 Best practices for a strong CSR strategy
A strong CSR strategy invites every employee into social impact work, strengthening your company identity both internally and externally.
1. Align your CSR strategy with your company’s superpower
Your CSR strategy should be rooted in the things that make your company unique, or your superpower. A superpower is what sets your company apart. For example, a superpower can be your people, your values, your products and services, or your worldview.
A CSR strategy should enhance the way your company shows up in the world, but it should not dramatically shift it. You’re not looking to redefine your business, you’re looking to deepen your commitment to building a better world.
How to apply a company superpower to a CSR strategy
Google.org is the philanthropic arm of Google. Their programs utilize the expertise of their employees and their products to make a difference. In particular, many of their initiatives focus on innovation, aligning perfectly with their company ethos and reputation.
One of their intentions is to take risks that many nonprofits and government agencies can’t afford to take. “We can test out new ideas, and we can build proofs of concept that then others can invest in more heavily,” says Jen Carter, global head of technology and volunteering at Google.org.
Get started: When shaping your CSR program objective, tie in your company superpower. Be explicit about what unique expertise, resources, or products you bring to the work and how your CSR strategy incorporates them. Ideally, you can articulate why these programs are the right fit specifically for your company.
2. Empower employees to lead the way
When employees get involved in CSR programs, they want to bring their personal values and expertise to the work. In your CSR strategy, set up channels to get feedback from employees about what they want out of a CSR program, and what matters to them most in this context.
As you make plans for specific programming, remember to center the employee experience. Look for ways to empower employees while giving them the support and structure they need. Open-choice giving allows employees to direct workplace giving funds to the causes and nonprofits they care about most. Skills-based volunteering lets employees put their unique skills and experiences to work for a nonprofit.
Tap into the grassroots communities within your company. Employee resource groups (ERGs) provide an important connection point between the individual employee experience and CSR programs. Give ERGs the power to organize events and campaigns themselves, and the support they need to make them happen.
How to create an internal employee network
An employee volunteer network is a way to formalize the natural leadership some employees exhibit with a volunteer program. It’s an internal people network meant to inspire more authentic engagement.
Megan Strand, director of strategic consulting at Realized Worth explains the value of an employee volunteer network: “You have an internal network that can really start to tap their peers, start to engage their coworkers instead of, you know, a tiny, tiny team trying to spread spread the word out through the masses.”
Get started: If your company doesn’t yet have established ERGs, that’s a great place to start. ERGs have the potential to improve the employee experience overall by giving employees a community within the company.
If you already have ERGs, make a plan to consult with and include them in planning and executing CSR programs. As Jaimie Vargas, head of global social impact at Electronic Arts says, “Everybody is on the social impact team.”
3. Set up communication channels to reach everyone
Without an effective communication plan, an otherwise sound CSR strategy falls apart. If employees don’t know about CSR programs or don’t understand them, they’re unlikely to get involved.
Your CSR strategy should include plans to develop messaging that resonates with employees across your company. Make an effort to reach employees who are not behind computers all day, whether they’re on the floor or out in the field. It’s essential that CSR feels accessible for everyone. That starts with meeting employees where they are.
Getting executives on board is important too. Without their buy-in, you’ll struggle to get the support and resources you need to keep CSR programs running. Tying CSR strategy to business outcomes will help you convince corporate leaders these programs are worth the investment.
How to get the word out about CSR programs
Rich Maiore, CEO and founder of Rocket Social Impact, helps companies fine tune their CSR messaging, particularly for employees. One thing he sees CSR teams struggling with is how to make communication stick out, especially when employees are overwhelmed with information.
“We did a quick survey with one client, of their employees,” he says. “They were receiving a hundred and forty internal emails a day. So they’re getting bombarded from their boss, from their department, from HR. And then here comes an email from the CSR team.” The reality is that sending one email isn’t going to be enough.
“We did a quick survey with one client, of their employees. They were receiving a hundred and forty internal emails a day.” – Rich Maiore, CEO of Rocket Social Impact
Get started: Think about how employees at your company already communicate. Aim to deliver CSR messaging through every channel. This could look like emails, messages on Slack or Teams, breakroom flyers, text messages, postcards in personal mailboxes, team meetings, or even direct communication from managers during regular check-ins.
4. Make community partnerships an explicit goal of your CSR strategy
Your company’s ability to make an impact in the community is contingent on the relationships you build with nonprofits. So, those partnerships can’t be an afterthought. The relationships should be an explicit goal of your CSR strategy.
Whatever form your community investment initiatives take, make sure your programs align with what the community needs. That starts with dialogue. You need to learn from community members and local nonprofits what kind of resources they need. And then trust what they say, and shape your programs to fit their needs.
How to apply trust-based practices to your CSR program
Adopting the ethos of trust-based philanthropy is one way to center relationships within your CSR strategy. Within this framework, corporate funders prioritize working in partnership with community nonprofits over dictating how funds are used. Because nonprofits know best what kind of support they need, trust-based philanthropy often achieves better long-term results for the community.
At T. Rowe Price, John Brothers and his team have been big proponents of trust-based philanthropy. “For us, what trust-based means is when we have the good fortune of being able to step into a local community, we recognize we are walking into somebody’s home. And we hold that ground sacred,” Brothers says.
Get started: As you identify nonprofits with missions that align with your company’s CSR strategy, focus on building a relationship with them. Start by opening up an authentic conversation in which they can share their perspective. And truly listen to and absorb what they say. The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project’s Toolkits can provide the structure you need.
“My advice to CSR and philanthropy professionals that are wanting to do this work well is start with your bedside manner and the how of your work,” Brothers says. Nonprofits don’t need corporate partners to come in and explain their work to them. They need someone to collaborate with.
5. Invest in the processes and tools that support CSR work
Like any other business initiative, a CSR strategy only works with the right processes and tools in place to support it. The goal is to create consistency and clarity for everyone involved, so that programs are both reliable and impactful.
The CSR software you choose can fundamentally shape the relationship employees have with CSR programs. For many employees, the CSR software is their main portal into CSR programs. If it’s clunky or confusing, that’ll likely color their view of the program as a whole. Make sure you choose a solution that centers the employees and creates an experience they’ll want to opt into.
Many corporate leaders are seeing the value of good software more clearly. According to the recent CSR Insights Report by ACCP, 44% of companies are either in the process of implementing a new tech solution or in discussions to adopt one soon.
How to choose the right technology for your CSR goals
When the HR team at StoneX was tapped to run an employee giving and volunteering program, they started with a solution that added a lot of administrative work and created a confusing flow for employees.
Switching to the right solution saved the HR team time and helped employees get more engaged. In turn, participation numbers soared.
Get started: To craft the right processes and choose the best tools, start by identifying the employee experience you want to create. Then work backwards to build workflows that make sense. As you go, consider every decision’s effect on the employee experience.
Sometimes the budget you get doesn’t match your CSR ambitions. If you need to, scale back your plans to match your budget. It’s better to do this proactively. This could look like launching a micro version of your ideal CSR program, and building it up over time.
6. Use impact measurement to evolve
Nuanced impact measurement is essential to communicate the value of CSR to company leaders, and tell a border impact story to employees and customers. According to ACCP’s Insight survey, 71% of CSR and ESG professionals are facing increased demands to measure the impact of their programs.
Make space for complexity. Some outputs are easy to track, such as volunteer hours, but that doesn’t necessarily tell the full story of a program’s impact. The hours employees put into volunteering can boost cross-team collaboration, improve wellbeing, and serve as a chance for professional development. Simply tracking the hours won’t capture all of that.
How to create the right impact measurement plan
Carmen Perez, founder and CIO of Better Next, helps companies calibrate their impact measurement to align with their goals. As important as the data is to track success, Perez also sees it as a tool to chart new courses. “When you take the time to look into social impact data, you can really find new pathways to take,” she says.
“When you take the time to look into social impact data, you can really find new pathways to take.” – Carmen Perez, founder of Better Next
Get started: Ask what outcomes matter most to your team and your company. Then map out an impact measurement plan that tracks progress toward those specific goals.
Be sure to balance long-term impact with more short-term outputs. Consider what metrics will tell you you’re on track to your longer-term goals. You can think of it in terms of leading and lagging indicators. For instance, employee retention might be your broader mission, but you can’t measure that right away. Participation rates would be a good indicator in the near term.
A solid CSR strategy strengthens your whole company and your career
As investment in CSR programs continue to rise, business leaders are putting more pressure on CSR teams to prove that their programs are making a real impact. The CSR professionals who succeed will be the ones who can build a sound CSR strategy that ties their work directly to business objectives.
If you’re looking for a software partner that can help you bring your CSR strategy to life, Submittable is here to help. Reach out to our team to learn more about creating CSR programs that engage every employee on a personal level.
Laura Steele is a social impact writer and editor at Submittable focused on the world of grantmaking and corporate giving. Her work often explores the connection between technology, equity, and social good. She also writes fiction and nonfiction. You can read some of her stories and essays at laurapricesteele.com.