The Civic 50

Public and private companies with U.S. operations and revenues of $1 billion or more are eligible to participate and the survey. Points of Light reserves the right to not include companies on The Civic 50 list which are not considered to be in good standing during the research year. Basis for not being in good standing includes, but is not limited to: the company experiencing official, significant legal sanction; an adverse company event so significant that it deems The Civic 50 practices presented in its application as a misrepresentation of the company’s overall community involvement efforts; or any development that puts into question the company’s community involvement to the degree that most people would not find it reasonable to find the company on a list of the most community-minded companies in the nation. 

The survey instrument consists of quantitative and multiple-choice questions that inform The Civic 50 scoring process, and summary narrative questions to use to promote best practices. To calculate a corporation’s score, points are accrued in the following dimensions: Investment (1,000 points), Integration (1,000 points), Institutionalization (1,000 points) and Impact (1,000 points). Any monetary or numerical data requested by this survey to assess the magnitude of corporate investment, involvement, or impact will be normalized by company revenues or number of employees to control for size. Additionally, rating formulas are designed to minimize any inherent advantages or disadvantages across industries. 

The Civic 50 at Points of Light is honored to frame the important role of community engagement in the culture and effectiveness of businesses through our survey and recognition program. Companies who participate in The Civic 50 regularly share with us how the survey questions serve as learning opportunities to shape strategy and identify areas of strength and growth.   

As companies continue to confront issues of systemic racism and its impacts on employees, the business and communities, we are called to make a new commitment to what The Civic 50 should represent. The power of providing a framework, benchmarking and recognition can support the sector’s evolution to more equitable and racially diverse organizations by offering systems of learning and accountability that can sustain positive changes in corporate culture and action. 

Traditionally, Points of Light and The Civic 50 have been “cause neutral;” focused on bringing all sorts of people and businesses in to greater community engagement.  What we have come to learn is that racism is not an issue or a cause, it is a systemic fault that is a driver of other issues from health and education to poverty, from housing to environmental justice.  Until the system is reformed all other issues will remain.  

With the goal of helping companies address systemic racism and understand the connection between their community engagement and their racial equity commitments, The Civic 50 will include questions that indicate progress on actions to implement and sustain change inside the organization and in a company’s relationship to its community.  The questions align with the existing pillars of The Civic 50 (investment, integration, institutionalization and impact) and will be a scored part of each section from 2021 – 2023. We will report on sector wide progress over that time to serve as research, learning and benchmarks of the journey to change.  We have worked to introduce these new measures in context, with familiar language and with limited new data collection. As always, results are confidential and outcomes only shared in aggregate unless specifically requested and reviewed. 

The questions were designed in review of current trends, existing standards and indexes, and research on advancing racial diversity and equity practices. Additionally, the question set was reviewed by a corporate DE&I working group and input was incorporated from specific proposals from leading experts and institutions including PolicyLink’s “A CEO Blueprint for Racial Equity” developed in partnership with JUST Capital and FSG. 

Points of Light also provides Volunteer Awards to honoree companies leveraging their employees time and talent to drive change in their company and communities. 

True Impact provides a scorecard report to each company that summarizes how your company scores and ranks in each dimension, as compared to all other qualified participants in The Civic 50. Information includes: 

• Score: The number of points your company earned overall and in each dimension 
• Top 50: Whether your company achieved Top 50 status 
• Rank: Your company’s numerical ranking as compared to all participants in The Civic 50 
• Tier: Your company’s relative ranking, based on the following tiers: Top 10%, Top 25%, Top 50%, Lower 25%, or Bottom 25% 
• Medal: Your company’s medal count, by dimension: Gold for Top 10%, Silver for Top 25%, and Bronze for Top 50%