Reporting on community investment

This paper provides a better understanding of current practices of the reporting about community investment, performance and impact in terms of approach, type of information, reporting by sectors and geographical locations as well as how this relates to the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. A total of 72 sustainability reports were selected for this analysis, 58 of which followed the most recent GRI Reporting Framework. Our findings suggest that companies find it very difficult to articulate their community engagement objectives. There is a great deal of emphasis on philanthropy and employee volunteering, the impact of which is rarely evaluated. Whilst companies report on inputs and performance, very few are able to report in a meaningful way on the outputs and impacts of their community investment.