Increasingly, people support and punish corporations through their choice of work, purchases and investments. Yet there is little information on corporate community engagement to help employees, consumers and neighbors decide which companies to support. The Civic 50, an initiative of Points of Light, in partnership with Bloomberg LP, honors the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation each year as determined by an annual survey. By sharing the best practices of community engagement and benchmarking companies against each other, The Civic 50 presents a roadmap for how companies are using their time, skills and other resources to improve the quality of life in their communities.

This report presents the highlights from the 2014 Civic 50. Its objectives are, first, to recognize the most community-minded companies in the nation and, second, to highlight a path forward for business managers and corporate social responsibility leaders who want to embrace the principles of The Civic 50 so that their companies can also be one of the most community-minded companies in the nation.

The Civic 50 winners were selected based on four dimensions of their U.S. community engagement program:

• Investment: How extensively and strategically the company applies its resources to community engagement, including employee time and skills, cash, in-kind giving and leadership.
• Integration: How a company’s community engagement program supports business interests and integrates into business functions, or how it “does well by doing good.”
• Institutionalization: How the company supports community engagement through its institutional policies, systems, and incentives.
• Impact: How a company measures the social and business impact of its community engagement program.

The Civic 50, an initiative of Points of Light, in partnership with Bloomberg LP, honors the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation each year as determined by an annual survey. Benchmarking and sharing the best practices of community engagement offers companies that participate in The Civic 50 a roadmap for using their time, skills, and other resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business. The Civic 50 helps translate good intentions into sound business practices for years to come.