Guiding the Way for Corporate Citizenship

The Civic 50, an initiative of Points of Light, recognizes the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation each year as determined by an annual survey administered by True Impact. For more than 10 years, the program has served as benchmarking tool and platform for sharing best practices in the corporate citizenship sector. The survey is based on Points of Light’s Corporate Civic Engagement Framework that creates a roadmap for companies committed to using their time, talent and resources to drive social impact in their business and communities. The Civic 50 honorees are selected based on the four dimensions of their community engagement and social impact programs: investment of resources, integration across business functions, institutionalization through policies and systems and impact measurement.

Apply for The Civic 50


Open Dec. 1—March 14,2024

The Civic 50 is the preeminent corporate social impact recognition program that creates a roadmap for companies committed to using their time, talent and resources to drive social impact in their business and communities. It provides value to companies by helping:

CSR teams

Create a roadmap for evaluating, improving and scaling their social impact and community engagement programs

Senior Executives

Easily communicate their company’s commitment to addressing social issues that are important to key stakeholders and investors

Marketing and PR Teams

Showcase their company’s positive community and social impact

Employees

Connect with and celebrate their company’s community engagement and social impact work

The Civic 50 Survey

POINTS OF LIGHT’S CORPORATE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The Civic 50 honorees are public and private companies with U.S. operations and revenues of $1 billion or more. Selection is based on four dimensions of U.S. community engagement and social impact programs: 

  • Investment: How the company strategically invests its resources in community engagement and social impact, including employee time and skills, cash, in-kind giving and public leadership.
  • Integration: How the company integrates its community engagement and social impact programs throughout its business functions and interests (i.e., “does well by doing good”).
  • Institutionalization: How the company institutionalizes its community engagement and social impact programs through organizational policies, systems, and incentives.
  • Impact: How the company measures the social and business impact outcomes of its community engagement and social impact programs.

SURVEY RECOGNITION, RESOURCES & REPORTING

The Civic 50 honorees are public and private companies with U.S. operations and revenues of $1 billion or more. We rank only their U.S. community engagement programs in the following manner.

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 lists The Civic 50 honorees in alphabetical order, and recognizes the top company in each sector based on the Global Industry Classification Standard — telecommunications, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, materials, information technology, utilities and real estate. Only the top 50 companies and the sector leaders will be shared publicly with attribution. Companies that participate but do not have qualifying for the top 50 or as a sector leader are kept confidential. All other information submitted on The Civic 50 application may be aggregated and shared for benchmarking and continuous improvement purposes, but will be anonymous (not attributed to any specific company).

  • Communications
  • Consumer Discretionary
  • Consumer Staples
  • Energy
  • Financials
  • Healthcare
  • Industrials
  • Materials
  • Technology
  • Utilities
  • Real Estate

 

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% 
The 2023 Honorees

THE CIVIC 50 HONOREES OF 2023

The 2023 honorees of The Civic 50 include companies from a variety of industries, with one thing in common — all are devoted to creating a culture of service and caring for our communities as they meet their business goals.

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE CIVIC 50 INSIGHTS & BENCHMARKING REPORT

The data in our 2023 Civic 50 report suggests that recent pandemic-era disruptions have redefined best-in-class U.S. community engagement, as represented by The Civic 50 honorees, as more financially generous, internally oriented, strategically integrated and focused on social justice.

Download the full report to learn more.

THE CIVIC 50 STATE & LOCAL EXPANSION

In cities and states around the country, companies are working to engage with their communities and invest the time, talent, product and financial resources of their work. In addition to our national recognition program, we are excited to offer The Civic 50 recognition at the local level. Working with community leaders and media channels, The Civic 50 regional awards are open to companies of all sizes. Whether you have 10 employees or 10,000, there’s a way to get recognized for your great community engagement, learn from others and celebrate the most community-minded companies in your area.

History of The Civic 50

The Civic 50 was founded as a partnership between the National Conference on Citizenship, Points of Light and Bloomberg LP in 2012, and developed with a high-profile working group of lead researchers and industry thought leaders. Dozens of corporate advisors also provided strategic guidance on the program’s objectives, including defining indicators, developing methodology, and identifying partners and participants. In the first two years, The Civic 50 evaluated and recognized only S&P 500 companies. It was expanded in 2014 to include participation by all companies with revenue of $1 billion or more.