Increased Corporate Reporting Good For Nonprofits

“More than four out of five (82 percent) of S&P 500 companies published corporate sustainability reports in 2016, representing a four-fold increase from 2011. The 82-percent figure marks a highpoint during the six years that the Governance & Accountability Institute, based in New York City, has tracked such reporting.

The trend upward could open more and more opportunities for nonprofits to foster relationships with corporate partners, according to Hank Boerner, chairman and co-founder of the institute.

The increased reporting started at the turn of the century when companies were in the midst of inflating figures – leading to the burst of the tech bubble, according to Boerner. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, aimed at corporate governance reform, but the law did not prevent the 2008 recession. During the recovery, corporate managers began taking it upon themselves to be better corporate citizens, he said, reporting on corporate governance, policies, and environmental management.

In 2011, the first year the institute began tracking S&P 500 companies for sustainability reporting, 20 percent reported data. That leapt to 53 percent in 2012 and 72 percent in 2013, coming to a more steady climb in 2014 (75 percent), 2015 (81 percent), and 2016 (82 percent).”

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