Driving Community Impact: NYC’s Blueprint for Corporate Engagement and Service
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Executive Summary
Over three months, NYC Service conducted informational interviews with 42 corporations, including 20 existing partners and 22 new partners, to understand the current landscape of volunteerism and social impact work in New York City.
These conversations explored what is working well within existing partnerships, the challenges that limit deeper collaboration, and where new opportunities for alignment and innovation may exist. The insights collected will guide how NYC Service strengthens corporate engagement, informs long-term partnership strategies, and supports a cross-sector culture of service across the city.
Key Insights & Themes
Service Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
Service is not a one-size-fits-all framework, and different companies use different structures of service. Some companies lead service through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), while others tie volunteerism to broader CSR and foundation issue areas.
CSR Must Align with Broader Business Goals
Several organizations emphasized the need to directly connect volunteerism and CSR activities to business-wide objectives, whether tied to economic responsibility, community-facing commitments, brand strategy, or sector regulations.
Leadership Buy-In Plays a Crucial Role in Program Success
Programs gain significantly more traction when senior leaders champion volunteerism. When executives model participation and reinforce 11 Key Insights and Themes expectations, employees are more likely to use volunteer hours, log activities, and stay engaged.
Conducting Service in HQ Neighborhoods
Some companies specifically noted the importance of creating service opportunities in the neighborhoods where employees work and operate, particularly when HQs are located in or near underserved communities or NYCHA developments.
Low-Lift, Turnkey Programs Are Strongly Preferred
Donation drives and speed mentorship efforts are popular because they require minimal planning and make participation easy for large teams with limited CSR staff capacity.
Virtual & In-Person Options Are Both Essential
While virtual sessions remain highly valued for accessibility and inclusion of geographically distributed staff, companies also want more in-person, community-facing volunteer opportunities.
CSR Department Constraints
Contrary to common belief, many corporations do not have large CSR budgets, and the cost associated with providing service opportunities can sometimes be a significant barrier for corporate partners.
Companies Seek Collaboration with Existing Partners
Many companies want to collaborate with peer corporate partners they already know and work with, leveraging existing trust and alignment. This also aligns with another theme we heard: companies want more opportunities to connect with other CSR teams and build community within the space.
Financial Sector Priorities Are Shaped by Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Requirements
Banks are strongly incentivized to support mentoring, tutoring, housing, and programs benefiting low- to moderate-income communities to meet federal regulations. Integrating volunteer opportunities into CRA-aligned activities is particularly valuable for this sector.
Challenges & Feedback
Global Brand Constraints
International brands sometimes struggle to show up in U.S.-specific community contexts and must navigate tension between global priorities and local NYC needs.
Lack of Clarity on Offerings and Overall Service Landscape
Many partners aren’t sure what they can request from NYC Service and nonprofit partners; clearer partnership parameters would help. Establishing explicit parameters for: what NYC Service or an organization can provide; what companies are expected to contribute; and how programs are structured would be extremely helpful, especially for newer partners.
Data and Impact
Regional differences make a universal KPI model difficult, which makes participation in service awards challenging.Separately, companies want clearer insight into how data from the awards is used, beyond selecting awards, to inform programs, policy, or recognition. Additionally, partners want stronger youth impact metrics, especially for mentorship, so they can more easily tie these efforts to broader initiatives/efforts (e.g., CRA requirements for banks). Additionally, companies stated that they would appreciate having more visibility into the larger impact of these programs i.e. longitudinal outcomes (how mentorship influenced career paths). For initiatives like gift or supply collections, where the outcomes can feel more removed, corporate partners would love more visibility into impact.
Capacity Constraints
Many CSR/volunteer teams are extremely small (sometimes a team of one) with very limited budgets. In these cases, there is strong demand for lowlift, turnkey options that require minimal preparation.
Perception of Money
The perception that CSR teams have a lot of money and therefore “don’t need money” or are seen primarily for their financial contribution has made conducting service and building deeper partnerships challenging.
Companies Want More Curated Youth Groups for Career Exploration:
Partners emphasized the need for more intentional selection and preparation of student participants in career exploration sessions. This challenge also brings to light the need for corporate partners to have more context about the young people they are working with. Sometimes, the most disengaged youth are the youth who need the most support and/or access to these types of opportunities. In instances of disengagement, there is an opportunity for coordinating partners to provide tools on how corporate partners can effectively address these situations in real-time. Additionally, more training to ensure young people are prepped before these sessions can ensure that they have the tools they need to best take advantage of these opportunities and understand the immense impact they can have in building their future careers.
Recommendations
Clarify the Service Ecosystem
Creating a high-level "landscape scan" outlining key coalitions, how they collaborate, and where companies can plug in would be exremley valuable.
Provide Clearer Partnership Pathways and Toolkits
Many partners are still unsure what they can request from the city or what “engagement” looks like with the public sector. NYC Service already has a rich body of resources and is actively thinking about opportunities to amplify these resources so that more partners are aware of the different ways they can engage with NYC Service and our community and nonprofit partners. NYC Service is also in the process of creating a two-pager which will provide an overview of offerings (in-person, virtual, mentorship, youth engagement, group service, and probono). Hosting a webinar where this is all covered could also be extremely helpful. In addition to existing resources, some partners indicated it would be helpful for NYC Service to share toolkits and templates that corporate partners could use to promote service initiatives.
Increase Regular Industry-Specific and Cross-Sector Convenings
Partners expressed a strong desire for more regular convenings that create space for open dialogue, peer learning, and shared problem-solving, beyond topic-specific sessions. Additionally, there is also a need for cross-sector convenings where government, nonprofits, and corporations can engage in productive dialogue without an expectation for funding.
Explore a Corporate Partner Board
Establishing a citywide Corporate Partner Board to standardize involvement, offer structured advisory input, and deepen long-term engagement. A board could: provide consistent guidance on program design, serve as a thought partner for citywide campaigns, create leadership opportunities for employees seeking professional-growth pathways, and strengthen NYC Service’s ability to respond to major citywide needs. This would institutionalize a more strategic, year-round partnership model.
Expand and Elevate Recognition
Recognition remains one of the strongest motivators for corporate participation. Corporate partners shared that highlighting companies and employees, especially when senior leadership is visibly involved, significantly boosts engagement and internal adoption of volunteer programs.
Expand Impact Reporting
Partners want more robust, accessible, and shareable recaps including key numbers/metrics, a few strong photos, and short narrative or social-post-style summaries from their efforts. These help with internal communications, leadership buy-in, and demonstrating value.
Develop a Uniform Impact Scorecard
Partners identified a clear need for a standardized impact scorecard that could be used across major service themes such as education, green space, workforce readiness, community beautification, and sustainability.
Expand Skills-Based and Pro Bono Engagement
Companies, including those with limited budgets, are eager for more skills-aligned and probono offerings. NYC Service could create a structured pathway for companies to match with nonprofits and city agencies and provide key skill-based supports, including connecting with nonprofits and other organizations that already focus on making probono connections.
Support Startups and Under-Resourced Teams
There is a growing interest from early-stage companies to engage in service activities, but unfortunately, many of the companies do not have dedicated teams to build out these programs. An idea that emerged is to create a “CSR starter package” for companies without formal CSR teams, targeting mature startups (60+ employees) that are eager but lack structure, and offering low-lift ways for hybrid teams to engage (in-office, virtual, and “one-anddone” opportunities).
Improve Connection Pathways for Smaller NYC Nonprofits
Several corporate partners expressed interest in working with smaller nonprofits that are rooted in New York City communities. They noted that these nonprofits often welcome partnership, but the opportunities are not always clearly communicated, and many do not yet have offerings that are structured for corporate engagement.
Going Forward
This report reflects the rich ways in which the corporate community conducts service in New York City. It was empowering to hear directly from corporate partners about what is working and opportunities for NYC Service to further align with corporate service efforts and CSR teams, and how to best align corporate service with efforts in the nonprofit and public sectors.
We firmly believe that in order to have a sustainable, long-term impact at scale, all sectors need to collectively come together to solve the issues that are impacting New York City. We are excited to continue working closely with the corporate sector to incorporate recommendations we received through these conversations and are committed to creating opportunities to serve New Yorkers in greatest need.