Since 1995 The Center has surveyed corporate executives and managers who attend our executive education courses about their company’s community involvement practice. The responses provide an annual snapshot of issues and practices and allow The Center to track trends over time. These include the strategic direction of community involvement, its internal support, programming resources and policies, and critical social issues that draw corporate attention. The annual Index aids our understanding of what constitutes the solid practices that are the hallmark of a world-class corporate leader. Below are some of the findings from this year's Community Involvement Index:

• • In 2005, as in every survey since 1995, K-12 education was identified as the most critical societal issue of concern to companies. For the first time, concern with crime made the top 10 ranking, while unemployment failed to appear after making the list the previous two years.

• Senior level support was on the rise in 2004. The percentage of companies citing that support among CEOs and Senior VPs increased in 2004 and is higher than that of 2003 – 45% vs. 32% and 41% vs. 31%, respectively.

• This increase in senior level support is paired with an increase in both community involvement budgets and staff. In 2004, 40% of companies surveyed increased their community involvement budgets. This figure is up from 33% in 2003, and is more than double that of 2002. At the same time, 28% of companies have increased staff, up 8% from the previous year.

• Companies are assuming a more strategic approach to community involvement. Three-quarters of companies (74%) say their community involvement plans involve a written mission statement; 70% have a strategic plan in place guiding their community involvement initiatives. More than 75% of companies surveyed report they annually evaluate their overall community involvement strategy - which is a 10% increase over the previous year – and 70% of companies evaluate the business benefits of their community involvement programs, up from 62% in 2003.

• Nearly 90% of companies report having volunteer programs, up from 84% in 2003. Of those companies, 81% have volunteer teams and 76% offer awards and other recognition benefits for employee volunteers. These figures are slightly higher than those of 2003.

• The majority of companies have established community involvement programs in their international locations. This year 67% of companies report having established community involvement programs in their international locations, whereas last year less than half of the companies had done so.

Download the complete 2005 Community Involvement Index (members only).