The Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility
From “Nice-to-Have” towards a Strategic Tool for Business and Society
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October 20, 2026
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The environment in which corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) operates is changing in several directions at once, and the choices that companies and governments make in the next few years will determine how it is judged.
Two facts frame that moment. The first is that CSR has become a management discipline with substantial resources attached to it. Sustainability reporting among the 250 largest companies in the world rose from 35% in 1999 to 96% in 2024; 69% of those companies now have their reports independently assured; and 56% have a designated sustainability leader, up from 45% in 2022.1 The sums involved are large: corporate giving in the United States alone reached USD43.67 billion in 2025.2
The second is that the policy settings around CSR are in motion, and not in one direction. In 2026 the European Union narrowed the scope of its sustainability reporting directive, while Singapore extended its enhanced tax deductions for corporate donations and volunteering to 2029.3 Both directions raise the same question. Where governments relax reporting requirements, companies can no longer point to compliance to justify their CSR programmes and must point to results instead. Where governments design new incentives, they must decide what those incentives will reward: activity or results. The reporting infrastructure is in place, the resources are significant, and the policy choices are being made. That is why the question of whether CSR has become a strategic tool, and what companies and governments should do to make it one, is being raised now.
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Footnotes:
1: KPMG International (2024). The Move to Mandatory Reporting: KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting 2024, executive summary and global findings. G250 = the 250 largest companies in the world by revenue (Fortune 500, 2023); N100 = the 100 largest companies in each of 58 countries, territories and jurisdictions (5,800 companies). Methodological note. The KPMG and CECP datasets measure sustainability and ESG reporting and governance, and community investment, respectively; neither is labelled “CSR”. They are used here as indicators of the institutionalisation of corporate responsibility where the concepts materially overlap.
2: Giving USA Foundation (2026). Giving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2025, researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy; press release, June 2026 (givingusa.org): giving by corporations USD43.67 billion in 2025, up 3.1% in current dollars and +0.5% adjusted for inflation (treated as flat); corporate giving grew 60% over the last five years against 29% for total giving; corporations about 7% of total giving. All Giving USA figures in this paper are taken from this edition.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, Inc., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.
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October 20, 2026
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