Blackbaud's 14th Annual YourCause CSR Industry Review Reveals Resilient Employee Giving and Rising Volunteering Participation in 2025
Rhea-AI Summary
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) released its 14th Annual YourCause CSR Industry Review, showing resilient employee social impact engagement in 2025 despite economic pressures.
Key trends include rising global volunteering participation, stable employee giving, and significant growth in corporate grantmaking and Dollars for Doers incentives.
- Volunteering: Participation increased year-over-year, with broader global engagement and shorter, more flexible opportunities.
- Giving: Employee giving participation held steady, with the gap between average and median donation amounts remaining consistent.
- Grantmaking: Corporate grantmaking scaled, with a 44% rise in average grant size and a 23% higher median sum of grants per client.
- New hires: Engagement rates, average donation values and company match participation increased among newly hired employees.
- Dollars for Doers: Average donation value tied to this volunteering-linked giving increased 21% year-over-year.
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News Market Reaction – BLKB
In the Jun 9 session, BLKB gained 0.72%, reflecting a mild positive market reaction.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.
Key Figures
Historical Context
| Date | Event | Sentiment | 24h Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 21 | Conference headliner update | Positive | -4.6% | Announced Leslie Odom Jr. as bbcon 2026 headliner for social impact conference. |
| May 19 | Impact/ESG report | Positive | -1.8% | Released 2025 Impact Report with AI, ESG progress and large platform fundraising volume. |
| May 15 | AI product launches | Positive | -1.1% | Unveiled new AI-powered innovations across fundraising, finance, and education solutions. |
| May 4 | Strategic investment | Positive | +0.1% | Announced strategic investment in Student First to enhance connected campus offering. |
| Apr 29 | Q1 2026 earnings | Positive | +4.1% | Reported higher revenue, margins and EPS, reaffirming 2026 guidance and buyback plans. |
24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.
Recent positive operational and ESG/AI announcements often coincided with negative short-term price reactions, while earnings-related news drew the strongest positive move.
Over recent months, BLKB highlighted multiple strategic and operational milestones. On Apr 29, Q1 2026 results showed improved margins and EPS, with a +4.08% price reaction. Subsequent news on AI product innovations (May 15), an impact report with ESG and responsible AI metrics (May 19), and a strategic higher‑ed investment (May 4) underscored a focus on AI and connected campus solutions. However, several of these positive updates saw short-term share declines, indicating a pattern of cautious market response to non-earnings catalysts.
Key Terms
csr technical
esg technical
employee resource groups technical
dollars for doers financial
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
New data highlights sustained employee commitment to social impact, including growth in global volunteering engagement and continued momentum in corporate grantmaking
Each year, the YourCause CSR Industry Review—which draws on aggregated, anonymized data from a subset of the YourCause Global Good Network—delivers an in‑depth analysis of employee giving, volunteering, and corporate philanthropy trends across hundreds of companies and millions of employees worldwide.
Key findings from the 2026 YourCause CSR Industry Review include:
- Volunteering participation increased year-over-year, with more employees engaging globally, while a dip in average volunteer hours per participant suggests growing demand for shorter, more flexible opportunities.
- Employee giving participation remained stable, with the gap between average and median donation amounts holding consistent, as opposed to last year's widening donor gap.
- Corporate grantmaking continued to scale at a significant level, with a
44% increase in the average grant size, and a23% higher median sum of grants per client. - Small‑to‑mid‑sized companies continued to lead in engagement, reinforcing the role of culture, proximity and program design in driving participation.
- Global participation accelerated, with volunteering engagement rising across every region, including notable growth outside
North America . - Engagement rates, average donation values, and company match participation are increasing among newly hired employees, reflecting a growing focus on early program activation and CSR involvement in employee onboarding.
- The average donation value tied to Dollars for Doers also increased
21% from last year, highlighting how companies are strengthening the link between volunteering and giving through enhanced incentives and rewards.
"As companies navigate evolving expectations around work, flexibility and purpose, one thing is clear in this year's data: employee engagement isn't fading—it's thriving," said Andrew Troup, impact officer at YourCause from Blackbaud. "Employees continue to show up in powerful ways for the causes they care about—giving generously, volunteering their time, and doing both at meaningful scale. The organizations unlocking the strongest results are the ones removing friction, making participation relevant, and fully embedding impact into the culture of everyday work."
The report also highlights how program design choices—such as integrated giving and volunteering programs, targeted pledge campaigns, employee resource groups and visible moments of activation—are directly linked to higher engagement and deeper impact. Companies leveraging these approaches consistently outperformed peers with more limited or fragmented programs.
Now with over a decade of experience in social impact research, the YourCause CSR Industry Review continues to serve as a benchmarking resource for CSR, ESG and people leaders seeking to understand how employee expectations and participation are evolving—and how technology and strategy can help organizations respond with confidence.
The full 2026 YourCause CSR Industry Review is available for download at yourcause.com.
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world's leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact. Serving nonprofits, educational institutions, companies committed to corporate social responsibility, and individual change makers, Blackbaud propels impact at scale with the sector's most intelligent solutions for fundraising and engagement, education solutions, financial management and CSR and grantmaking. With the deepest expertise powered by the world's largest philanthropic data set, the most connected workflows, and the most powerful impact network, Blackbaud's solutions are building a future where resources are unleashed at the speed of need. Blackbaud has been recognized by Fast Company, Newsweek, Quartz, Forbes and more for AI innovation, responsible leadership and workplace excellence. Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Media Inquiries
media@blackbaud.com
Forward-looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding expected benefits of products and product features. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: general economic risks; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; continued success in sales growth; management of integration of acquired companies and other risks associated with acquisitions; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks associated with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud's investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.
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SOURCE Blackbaud