At Common Impact, we believe that a company's strongest philanthropic asset is the talents, know-how and passions of its people. Through our nearly 20 years of experience, we have had a front-row seat to the swiftly changing corporate social responsibility landscape. We’ve watched companies move from viewing community engagement as a compliance function to what is now a mandate for businesses to be true, integrated community actors. In response to this changing landscape, we are launching Insights & Impact, a new annual report that seeks to translate big ideas into action through skilled volunteerism.  

Our inaugural report focuses on an issue that is increasingly devastating our communities: natural and man-made disasters.
2017 brought the highest costs on record for U.S. weather and climate disasters, exceeding $306 billion. Man-made disasters such as mass shootings, the expanding lead water crises, the detention of immigrant communities on the southern U.S. border and the deepening polarization of our political climate further demonstrate the acute need for communities to respond immediately and collaboratively. 

The impact of these crises increasingly demands the private sector’s attention. Still, companies are struggling to understand the best role they can play as they respond to the acute needs brought on by environmental and man-made catastrophe. This past year we spoke with dozens of disaster experts to understand how skills-based volunteerism can best support communities in preparing for and recovering from the escalating risks of these crises.