The Civic 50: Doing Good at Scale

By Peter Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg.

Here at Bloomberg, we’re passionate about measurement. We believe that the only way to solve problems is to rigorously study and analyze them. When Neil Bush and his colleagues at Points of Light approached us about partnering on the Civic 50 initiative, we were intrigued.

Now in its third year, Civic 50 is an annual report that measures and reports on America’s most philanthropic, civic-minded companies. Yesterday evening, we joined Points of Light to announce this year’s recipients. In addition to honoring companies that go above and beyond the call of duty to serve their communities, the Civic 50 survey allows us to identify trends and best practices and measure impact.

This last point – measuring impact – is perhaps most important of all. Points of Light and Bloomberg agree that corporate philanthropy and sustainability aren’t just about doing the right thing; when executed thoughtfully, they are critical to business success as well.

That’s how we view our philanthropic efforts here at Bloomberg. Our employees contribute tens of thousands of hours each year to their communities. Thanks to the vision of our founder, Mike Bloomberg, the vast majority of our profits are invested in Bloomberg Philanthropies, which focuses on some of the most challenging and important causes on earth. We make these commitments because we have a responsibility to be good stewards of our communities and the planet. But we also know that our commitment to social good makes us a better company, improves the cities in which we do business, and encourages our team to be more engaged and productive.

The same holds true for our sustainability efforts. When we launched our sustainability campaign in 2008, we didn’t just set out to determine how much energy and carbon we could save; but also to determine how much money we could save by acting sustainably. When you couple social good and business results – which many investors call the “double bottom line” – you create a powerful catalyst for change.

The 50 companies we honored today prove that this approach works.

Click here to see a list of this year’s Civic 50 recipients.

Our survey indicates exceptionally high levels of employee engagement, a focus on skills-based volunteerism and a commitment to positive social change, on issues ranging from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) training to hunger alleviation.

Congratulations to all 50 honorees. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Points of Light and to doing everything we can to measure, promote and scale up corporate philanthropy and sustainability world-wide.

For more info on Civic 50, watch this quick video.