For the second year, Symantec has been named to Points of Light's Civic 50 list as being one of the most community-minded companies in America.
Last week, I had the honor of accepting the Civic 50 award on behalf of Symantec at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Detroit, Michigan, convened by Points of Light. The Civic 50 is an initiative of Points of Light, an international nonprofit dedicated to engaging more people and resources in solving serious social problems through voluntary service.
The list analyzes the community engagement programs of US companies with a revenue of $1 billion or more. Criteria for inclusion is developed in consultation with business and community engagement experts and aims to uncover how the Civic 50 leaders are moving beyond "checkbook philanthropy" to developing innovative and integrated approaches to corporate philanthropy. The criteria is based around four dimensions – investment in community and employee engagement, integration of community engagement throughout business processes, institutionalization via policies and procedures, and impact on their business and the community.
Criteria for the Civic 50 is broken into four key categories that analyze how companies are moving beyond "checkbook philanthropy".
Each year, a full report is released that analyzes trends in corporate philanthropy and best practices across each of the four dimensions. This year's report shows that companies are increasingly finding value in connecting their philanthropy programs with corporate goals, that they are adopting the policies, systems and incentives to support community engagement, they are recognizing the benefits of skills-based volunteering that leverages corporate talent to create impact, and that measurement rooted in defined performance metrics is key to ensuring impactful community engagement programs.
Receiving the Civic 50 award is an honor as we've worked hard to structure a community engagement program that directly aligns to our business and corporate responsibility objectives, while leveraging what we do best to maximize our business and community impact:
- Through our software donation programphilanthropy is integrated into our core business, delivering market leading cybersecurity products and services that make our world a safer place. This program is our largest mechanism to support community organizations and at the same time we are putting our products in the hands of users who can experience first-hand the benefit and quality of our offerings.
- 74% of the Civic 50 list used community engagement to support their diversity and inclusion goals[1], a direct benefit we see here at Symantec. Cecily Joseph, our VP of Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer recently discussed in an article for The Conference Board, how at Symantec philanthropic investments are a powerful tool for translating the company's diversity strategy into tangible results.
- Through philanthropic partnerships with nonprofits such as Science Buddies, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and AAUW Tech Trek, as well as the development of our flagship SC3 program, we are closing in on our 2020 STEM goal to excite, engage and educate 1 million students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
- Through our Matching Grants, Dollars for Doers and Take 5 programs, as well as our Green Teams and employee resource groups (ERGs), we have developed multiple policies and channels that enable our employees to invest their time and skills to giving back to their communities and emphasize that philanthropy is a way of life at Symantec.
- Our long-term and short-term goals, backed by data management systems such as Symantec’s Giving Station, ensure we have the systems in place to monitor and measure the impact of our program and ensure we are moving closer to our 2020 goal to complete an average of four volunteer hours per employee.
All of this is not easy, but it's well worth the work.
The Civic 50 recognition is a direct result of the leadership and actions of our internal network of CR champions, community relations committees, Green Teams, and ERGs – these groups take our high-level corporate responsibility strategy and translate it into relevant local partnerships and programs.
We’re proud to be included on this prestigious list, highlighted among market leaders who are challenging the corporate world to rethink how value creation for business and society go hand in hand.
Lora Phillips is Symantec’s Director, Corporate Responsibility