BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 5, 2006--Ask any Fortune 500 CEO to talk about how philanthropic and socially responsible his or her company is these days and you will likely open a floodgate of conversation ranging from carbon-offsetting and fair labor standards to employee volunteering programs. As reported in the June 26 issue of BusinessWeek, CEOs of companies including GE, Procter & Gamble, and British Petroleum are going to heightened lengths to develop a "congenial" reputation and improve the public image of their companies. Even Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr., whose company has often been noted for its unrelenting focus on shareholder value, has finally relented to negative press about the company's links to social and environmental problems and launched a number of distinctly community-related initiatives. This corporate pendulum swing may be seen as an inevitable reaction to the public's cynicism about recent scandals, but the shareholders of aspiring socially responsible companies may also push back unless CEOs can definitively answer the following question: Is all of this benefiting--or hurting--the bottom line?

Surprisingly few business executives are prepared to answer that question with more than anecdotal evidence. According to Christine Letts, the Rita E. Hauser Lecturer in the Practice of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Harvard University, rigorous evaluation of corporate social responsibility programs is a challenge.

"Historically, companies have thought of philanthropic activities as being very separate from business operations, in a place where measuring performance wasn't a priority," said Ms. Letts. "Now that companies are tying philanthropy more closely to business strategy, the discipline of measuring results is getting a lot more attention." Measuring philanthropic impact may be a priority, but that doesn't mean that companies have figured out how to do it well. At a recent closed-door CEO roundtable discussion hosted in New York City by the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), many business leaders agreed that measuring the results of their community outreach is the biggest challenge they face. With corporate giving up 14% in 2005 according to a 2005 CECP survey of 62 large companies, shareholders may start demanding more accountability.

Impact Builders Inc., a Boston-based nonprofit solutions company formerly known as Harbinger Partners, has developed measurement and evaluation systems to help its corporate partners better understand and report on the business benefits associated with its skills-based volunteering programs. In the same CECP survey noted previously, 87 percent of all companies said they had at least one formal volunteer program, with 44 percent offering paid time off to employees who volunteer. Impact Builders provides its corporate partners, including Fidelity Investments, State Street Corporation and Cisco Systems, with feedback that demonstrates the actual benefits that their employees derive from volunteering, along with data about community impact and social return on investment. For example, Impact Builders can report to Fidelity that as a result of the nine nonprofit engagements their volunteer teams have completed for organizations including Generations Inc., Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, and the Boston Learning Center, 80 percent of participating volunteers reported developing new skills, 60 percent reported meeting new colleagues, and the estimated value of the projects ranged from a 110 percent to 500 percent return on investment.

"People are usually shocked when they see the data we are able to share with them from our projects," said Theresa Ellis, CEO and founder of Impact Builders. "There is a tremendous opportunity to help companies see clearly how these activities are contributing to their overall business quite concretely," Ellis continued. "Our goal is to help more companies feel confident that they are directing their employees' volunteer time to programs that benefit their brand, employees, and community."

About Impact Builders

Impact Builders is a not-for-profit corporation based in Cambridge, MA that links the expertise of corporate volunteers from leading companies to high-potential nonprofit organizations in need of IT, Human Resources and Marketing assistance. By pairing community nonprofit organizations with teams of skilled volunteers, Impact Builders provides meaningful professional development opportunities for corporate volunteers, fosters strong relationships between the private and social sectors, and is accelerating the solution of social problems. Since its founding in 2000, the organization has worked with leading companies such as Fidelity Investments, Cisco Systems, State Street Corporation, and BEA Systems to strengthen nonprofit organizations in three areas: education and youth; housing and homelessness; and health and human services. The organization has worked with more than 80 nonprofit organizations to date, achieving a 7:1 social return on investment.

For more information, please contact Lesley Edwards, Vice President of Partnerships, Impact Builders (e-mail: ledwards@impactbuilders.org, phone: 617-868-1014).

Additional information available:

-- Organization Fact Sheet

-- Interview with Theresa M. Ellis, CEO of Impact Builders

-- Interviews with nonprofit clients and corporate partners on value of projects

Copyright Business Wire 2006

Impact Builders

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