In a village just outside Nairobi, a multinational company funded the construction of a new water pump. A ribbon was cut. Smiles were photographed. A press release declared: “Clean water for all.”
But within months, the pump broke. No one had been trained to repair it. No local ownership, no follow-up. The company moved on. The community didn’t.
This is the story of too many corporate social good efforts. A good deed, performed once, and then forgotten. A billboard where there should’ve been a blueprint. An applause line where there should’ve been a legacy.
We live in an age where companies are expected to stand for something beyond profit. Climate justice. Equity. Mental health. Community resilience. These aren’t just trends. They are tectonic shifts in public expectation.
But according to a new 2025 benchmarking report, Understanding the Emerging Field of Evaluation in Corporate Social Good, most companies are still struggling to answer one basic question:
Is any of it working?
The numbers are telling. 72% of companies report growing pressure to demonstrate social impact. And yet, the median evaluation budget? Just $100,000. Often no plan, no trained staff, no structure. Just well-meaning teams doing their best—with no compass, no dashboard, no map.
Let me be clear: doing good without knowing what’s working is not just inefficient—it’s irresponsible.
You can’t fix what you won’t face.
You can’t grow what you won’t measure.
And you can’t lead if you don’t listen to the data.
The Three I’s of Modern Impact
If we want to close the yawning gap between intention and outcome, between the glossy brochure and the lived reality, we need a new operating system for corporate responsibility—one built around three fundamentals:
- Intention — The moral will to do good.
- Information — The data and tools to know what’s working.
- Integrity — The courage to act on what you find.
Right now, we’re short on the second and starving for the third.
This report lays it out plainly. While C-suites talk the talk, only 10% of companies invest in building evaluation capacity. Fewer than a third bring nonprofit partners into the process of interpreting results. And most treat evaluation as a PR function, not a feedback loop. It’s not learning—it’s laundering.
That has to change.
Because when metrics are vague and budgets are thin, we get performative philanthropy: theater instead of transformation. We measure smiles, not systems. We celebrate moments, not movements.
What Companies Can Do—Today
This isn’t just a critique. It’s a call to action. Every company that claims to stand for something has a responsibility to build a better way. Here’s where to start:
1. Fund Evaluation Like It Matters
If your impact budget doesn’t include evaluation, you don’t have a strategy—you have storytelling.
2. Hire or Train the Right People
Would you trust your financial reporting to an untrained intern? Then why leave impact measurement to chance?
3. Use What You Learn
Insights aren’t trophies. They’re tools. They should change how you fund, partner, and show up in the world.
From Vanity to Vision
Too often, corporate impact is measured in impressions, not improvements. Headlines, not healing. We must reject the comfort of performative good in favor of a radical accountability—one that listens, learns, and leads with truth.
Because the world doesn’t need more promises.
It needs proof.
And proof begins with a simple, courageous question:
“What changed?”
Read the full report: Understanding the Emerging Field of Evaluation in Corporate Social Good