This resource is a toolkit aimed at supporting corporate social impact investors in developing their investment strategy. The toolkit includes seven implementation tools developed from the report, “Seven Critical Design Choices for Corporate Impact Investors.” The tools provide step-by-step actions to structure, integrate, and standardize impact investing practices within corporations.
This practical guide is designed to help leaders and organizations orient their existing social impact strategies within a larger context, and identify opportunities to progress.
The guide includes four models of corporate social impact in practice today, ranging from CSR to business-integrated strategies. Each model includes definitions, actionable recommendations, and real-world case examples. The goal is to help leaders determine the best way to deepen impact within your organization, which may mean advancing from one model to the next or further developing your current model.
The models covered in this guide include:
On March 20th, NationSwell hosted a virtual Leader Roundtable designed to explore how leaders and organizations are redefining the cutting edge of impact program design, focusing on emerging examples of “best in class.”
Some takeaways from the event appear below:
Insights
Embed innovation across your entire organization, not just your programs. Truly innovative organizations don’t treat innovation as a separate function. They integrate it into the DNA of their operations – whether that’s aligning their endowment with their mission, reimagining office spaces to model sustainability, or increasing payout rates to meet the moment. Every asset and decision point becomes a tool for change.
Redesign capital systems to center community aspirations. Instead of asking communities to navigate traditional financial structures, forward-thinking initiatives are flipping the script, inviting capital holders to revise their own rules and reduce barriers. This includes creating accessible capital pools, layering equity and credit tools, and prioritizing long-term ownership for individuals historically shut out of wealth-building opportunities.
Stay focused and back it up with data. Programs that maintain focus on a specific goal (like economic mobility) can drive powerful results when paired with robust measurement. Embedding evaluation from day one allows organizations to surface insights over time and use them to adapt offerings, close disparities, and prove long-term outcomes.
Treat storytelling as core infrastructure for social change. Narrative change is more than a communications strategy, it’s a structural lever. For instance, investing in platforms that amplify the lived experiences of working-class communities, especially those underrepresented in traditional media, can reshape public dialogue and policy priorities. Grounding storytelling in on-the-ground organizing ensures alignment with real-time needs and movements.
Use the full balance sheet – and imagination – of philanthropy. Flexible, mission-aligned capital is essential in moments of disruption. Whether through program-related investments, purchasing real estate on behalf of community partners, or deploying guarantees and patient capital, philanthropic organizations are finding creative ways to stretch beyond traditional grantmaking and meet partners with the tools they truly need.
Invite your grantees to define what capacity-building looks like. Capacity-building is most effective when it indexes to what funders say they need most, and trusting their guidance. Some funders are developing operating LLCs to manage certain functions on behalf of partners, while others are providing flexible resources to partners to build their capacity in-house. Sometimes, the best technical assistance is simply a larger, unrestricted grant.
Center relationships as the foundation of innovation. Innovation travels faster when rooted in trust. Funders that build authentic relationships with their partners (viewing them as co-strategists, not just grantees) are better equipped to adapt to changing contexts. Whether that means co-designing participatory grantmaking models, convening peers across regions, or responding to global challenges with shared learning, deep relationships unlock collective intelligence.
Place-based approaches have become a cornerstone for fostering long-lasting, meaningful change, by connecting organizations, cities, and communities across the United States. Through focusing on local needs and opportunities, place-based strategies have proven essential for building community resilience and driving positive, tailored outcomes.
During the final event in the Building Thriving Futures series hosted in partnership with FUSE, leaders dove into actionable strategies to strengthen partnerships across sectors and address critical challenges in supporting small businesses, advancing housing equity, and expanding workforce opportunities.
Some of the key takeaways from the event appear below:
Insights:
Impact leaders need to support and work closely with local decision makers. City and state leaders are the largest social services providers for communities. As the federal government pulls away funding and infrastructure, it won’t change the community needs and people will look to their local and city governments to do more. The current destruction is huge — some populations like in Kansas have/had a large proportion of federal workforce — and philanthropists and private sector leaders need to help local public sector leaders expand their capacity to navigate the change.
Learn from existing models that bring disparate people together for local change. For example, JobsFirst and FresnoDRIVE are initiatives funded by public, philanthropic, and private dollars aimed at boosting workforce, education, and inclusivity, and are high-aspiration, long-term plans.
Diversification of funds is key — understanding who in your community is reliant on federal funding and helping them diversify to de-risk and change keeps occurring. Consider how you can help track the dollars being cut in your region, predict the ripple effects that will impact your grantees and community, and stem the loss.
Balance listening and surviving, with planning for the future. Many organizations are navigating changing infrastructure, adopting a defensive posture, and doing the important work of helping grantees and community partners survive this turbulence e.g. by providing more unrestricted funding to plug gaps. However, also make time to think about those things that will help you “swing for the fences” and plan for a new future e.g. investing in the capacity and social capital of local talent who can rise into transformational leaders.
Consider how we can fall in love with the problem and use it as a spark for innovation? Turbulence allows us to consider what we should double down on, what can we pivot away from because it is not an immediate priority, and what can we think differently about? In this time where national actions are impacting hyper local communities, it could be a useful exercise to borrow from entrepreneurs and figure out how you find the hardest, stickiest pain point and build energy around addressing it.
Drive investments to data and make sure you have secure data infrastructure locally, as it may not always be there federally. There may be opportunities for new investments and new partnerships that hinge on this data.
Philanthropies have the power to bring place-based peers together to support each other. Information and strategy help us adapt more rapidly. By bringing together members, partners, or organizations you work with, across states and cities, who are working to combat the same barriers and issues, you scale insights and learning and help prevent a constant reinventing the wheel and repeating the same growing pains.
Invest in telling the story of place-based impact. With so many programs and initiatives at risk due to their reliance on federal funding, telling the story of their impact is more essential than ever. The role of communications and communications teams is often an afterthought, but the importance of language and framing has never been more crucial. Storytelling matters — even if it means we need to pivot or look at it a different way, we keep the story going.
Are you a leader navigating DEI backlash and looking for clarity you can act on? This resource distills the political, cultural, and economic forces shaping corporate DEI, and unpacks how companies are responding to mounting threats. In this report, you’ll find actionable archetypes and strategic considerations to inform your organization’s path forward.
Q1 2025 marked one of the most turbulent periods for the social impact sector since the COVID-19 pandemic. What emerged was a mix of reactive, proactive, and strategic responses: creating shared value, evolving DEI approaches, strengthening supports and deepening engagement, and advancing collective action.
As social inequality and economic disparities continue to rise across the United States, there is a pressing need to reverse the trends, transform the economic landscape, and build a foundation for sustainable intergenerational prosperity. Data shows areas of greater inequity experience weaker economic growth — so it benefits all of us to overcome those inequities.
On February 26, NationSwell convened leaders from across sectors for a virtual roundtable on the strategies and opportunities they’re seeing to address systemic inequities, including affordable housing, access to quality education, healthcare disparities, and the racial wealth gap.
Some takeaways from the conversation appear below:
Insights
We need to invest in widening “wealth literacy” not just financial literacy.. There are still knowledge gaps in how individuals tend to conceptualize income as wealth vs. understanding asset-based accumulation.
Lowering the barriers to entry can give millions more people access to powerful tools. . Tools that have been widely vetted and applied — including grants, “patient” loans, and market rate loans — are still some of the best in our collective arsenal, but access is still an issue for communities who have been historically regarded as unbankable. In order to mitigate those roadblocks, organizations like the Groundbreak Coalition focus on stacking resources to make it easier for people to find them and benefit from their collective impact — using tried-and-true puzzle pieces, but reconfigured in a more accessible way.
Employee ownership is a powerful way to empower people to build wealth. Organizations such as Ownership Works offer businesses of all sizes the opportunity to offer their staff stock – a vital pathway to wealth building, and addressing the imbalance that currently the top 1% wealth owners own 99% of the stock and mutual funds.
Safety net reforms show promise when they mirror the values of trust-based giving. The principles of trust-based giving — like not having to prove your worthiness over and over again — a should be reflected in our social safety net and direct cash transfer programs.
Targeted policy reforms like “baby bonds” help to reimagine the role the government has to play in closing the wealth gap. Baby bonds are government-funded trusts created at a child’s birth. California has started the largest baby bond program in the country aimed at children who have lost a primary caregiver through COVID or have long term stays in the state’s foster care system.
For underserved individuals, entrepreneurship can be a significant pathway for wealth generation. Undocumented and formerly incarcerated individuals are not always able to legally work as employees; and incarceration is shown to be a huge factor in the wealth gap. Entrepreneurship creates avenues to work as your own boss and can help to make inroads for wealth-building. Focusing on business development and supporting co-ops and CDFIs — as well as working with partners focused on seeding community-based organizations (CBOs) — can help to strengthen such opportunities.
Narrative change is a necessary component of the wealth-building conversation. As a society, our tendency to attribute poverty to a moral failure or theorize that poverty is solvable through hard work and the “bootstraps mythology” help dictate the ways that policies are prioritized and shaped, creating tremendous barriers to entry that exacerbate the wealth gap. Using sociopolitical context and narrative storytelling can help to catalyze our communities into feeling like they’re part of a larger picture in wealth-building — helping to create buy-in, engender pride, and form a sense that this work is larger than ourselves.
As we take stock of the urgent needs on the ground in Los Angeles following the devastating wildfires earlier this month, a group of NationSwell members convened to discuss how to best allocate energy and resources in response to the near and long-term impacts of the disaster.
Below are some of the key takeaways that were surfaced:
Think in phases to align support with evolving needs during disaster recovery. As you build your response and recovery strategies, consider the distinct needs at different stages of recovery. Focus on immediate relief and first responder support in the near term, stabilizing communities with housing and essential services in the mid term, and rebuilding homes, mental health, and economic resilience in the long term. Phased grantmaking and collaborating with trusted community organizations during each phase ensures aid meets actual needs, preventing overwhelm or misallocation of resources.
Invest in disaster mitigation and prevention to improve preparedness. Proactive efforts in disaster prevention, including for wildfires, can significantly reduce the impact of future disasters. For example, initiatives like clearing fuel sources, creating defensible space around homes, and providing home protection training can help communities better withstand wildfires. Find opportunities to invest in mitigation strategies during blue-sky periods to enhance resilience and reduce the strain on recovery resources after disasters occur. Consider encouraging employees to take wildfire prevention training (e.g. home ignition zone training).
Work with credible partners to ensure product donations are targeted and effective. Collaborate with organizations that specialize in timely and efficient product distribution to increase the likelihood that in-kind donations reach the right people at the right time. Leveraging established relationships with grassroots organizations or well vetted partners can prevent product donations going to waste or the creation of logistical challenges for impacted communities.
Prioritize cash assistance to meet diverse and immediate needs. Direct cash assistance is one of the most effective ways to help individuals and small businesses address their unique needs following a disaster. Cash assistance is particularly critical for underbanked populations and undocumented workers, who often face barriers to accessing traditional financial support. Supporting communities at risk of being left behind, such as day laborers and micro-businesses, can lessen lost livelihood from the fires. Flexible cash-based approaches empower recipients to make decisions that best suit their circumstances, from securing housing to rebuilding businesses.
Leverage platforms and create opportunities for employee giving. Activating employees as contributors to disaster relief efforts can amplify an organization’s impact while increasing a sense of purpose and community within the workplace. Companies are using platforms for employees to donate directly to vetted organizations, matched by corporate contributions. Companies can also create point-of-sale donation opportunities, raising funding through QR codes and round-up campaigns and increasing public awareness about disasters.
Use informal networks and communication channels to improve collaboration during crises. Creating private and informal communication channels can be a valuable tool for leaders to coordinate and exchange ideas during times of crisis. For example, being part of a group of LA-based leaders or organizations for off-the-record exchanges of strategies and lessons learned can provide a safe space to troubleshoot challenges, share real-time updates, and identify opportunities for collaboration.
Invest in narrative work to sustain attention on disaster recovery. Shifting the public and media narrative toward systemic issues like inequality and generational wealth loss can promote better understanding of community needs. Getting innovative with your funding choices, such as investing in photography projects or local storytelling initiatives, can help highlight underrepresented voices in public forums and the full scope of post-disaster challenges.
At a moment of unprecedented technological evolution, we stand at the crossroads of digital transformation and human potential. NationSwell Summits’ thought-provoking panel, “Augment and Evolve: Empowering Workers in an AI-Driven World” — presented by Omidyar Network — explored just this. Featuring an all-women lineup, moderated by Michele Jawando, Omidyar Network, joined by Nicole Johnson, Cadence Design Systems, Molly Kinder, The Brookings Institution, Carri Twigg, Culture House Media, and Ambassador Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative, the panel illuminated a critical pathway forward: focusing not just on how AI will shape the future, but how we in turn can shape the future of AI.
As moderator and Senior Vice-President at the Omidyar Network, Michele Jawando pointed out, AI has dominated the public conversation since Chat GPT first launched, but that conversation has been baked in fear as much as possibility. The panel situated their conversation at the intersection between the two as they discussed who will be most impacted by this new technology and how we can ensure that we all have a voice in shaping its advancement.
Here are some key takeaways from the discussion:
Workers must play a role in the development and implementation of AI technology and policy.
Jawando first turned to Molly Kinder, David M. Rubenstein Fellow at The Brookings Institution, to lay the groundwork for the conversation with her research into the impact of AI on workers.
“The reason this is capturing our anxiety and our imagination,” she said, “is that generative AI is upending a lot of experts’ advice about how to stay ahead of technology.” She went on to elaborate that in the past, that advice focused on developing expertise, creativity, and empathy. But AI is advancing so quickly that its ability to mimic those qualities is putting white collar workers and creative industries on the frontline of technological disruption.
U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai also noted that we have seen disruption like this before, particularly in trade. We are still reaping the consequences of the development of globalization and free trade, which left workers behind as it reshaped the economy.
“Trade and technology actually have very similar impacts on the economy and on the workforce,” she stated. “They both have displacing effects, and they both go to this capitalistic pursuit of efficiency and cost minimization.”
But both Kinder and Tai reminded us that who gets to participate in conversations around AI is critical in ensuring that AI can be a force for good. And the NationSwell audience is uniquely suited to that goal. “You are the people who are focused on figuring out how that power is used, and how that power can be used for good,” Tai said, addressing the room.
“A lever that this room in particular can be so impactful on,” Kinder said, “is at the workplace, and as employers… making sure that employees and workers have a real seat at the table.”
Women are on the frontline of AI as a disruptive technology.
Kinder highlighted that her research also shows that women are more exposed to the impacts of generative AI, for two reasons. First, because the jobs most likely to face automation by this technology are predominantly held by women – clerical and customer service work, as well as positions like bank tellers and paralegals. And second, because women are underusing this technology compared to men.
But fellow panelist Nicole Johnson, Global Director of Social Impact at Cadence Design Systems, is on the case. Johnson shared that at Cadence Design Systems, they’ve seen a 50% increase in women in technical positions over the last ten years and they are taking that playbook into the world with the launch of Fem.AI and a $20 million commitment to close the gender gap in AI.
“We looked at this AI development, this AI economy, the AI revolution that’s happening and we looked at it as an opportunity space. How can we ensure that unlike the development of the internet that happened 30 plus years ago there’s intentionality about the workforce that is behind this technology?” she said.
As creative industries face challenging shifts in technology and the attention economy, how can we protect art’s breadth as well as its depth?
“[Artists] have the most to gain, and we have the most to lose,” said Carrie Twigg, Co-founder and Head of Development for Culture House media. “But that’s also true for audiences, and people who consume art.”
Creatives, particularly in media, face significant pressure. Not only does AI already have a foothold in how we edit movies and TV, but consumers frequently split their attention between several screens at once. As Twigg noted, we’re always half looking at our phones, and that creates a downward pressure on creatives to make content that doesn’t require as much of our attention or discernment. And she added that while there has always and will always be high art, it’s that middle class of media, the shows that everyone watches but that don’t usually win awards that are most vulnerable.
“That medium tier where people really spend their time has this awesome power to shape who we are and who we become and that is the most threatened by the AI landscape…and what we’re really going to miss if we don’t build in protections for it. It may not make immediate obvious economic sense but we have to think about it in a longer term way.”
The panel provided critical insight on the challenges AI presents, and the importance of intentionality throughout the process of developing technology and integrating AI into our lives – not just in how we use it, but in who is in the room, and what we should preserve from AI’s influence. But how the panel channeled the theme of Hope in Action can best be summed up by Michele Jawando’s last words. She got into tech policy because of Star Trek and left us with the image of Captain Picard using technology to boldly go where no man has gone before to save civilizations all over the galaxy.
“Humans first, technology second,” she said. “Let’s do it together.”
For more moments from NationSwell Summit 2024, click here.
At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact?
In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.
For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Nishant Roy — Chief Impact Officer at Chobani.
Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: Tell us a little bit about your leadership journey — was there a formative experience that helped you to arrive at this space and this position of leadership?
Roy, Chobani: I started my professional life in the United States Air Force, and had the privilege to deploy to both Afghanistan and Iraq. That experience got me thinking far more about overall civil society, economic empowerment, and the things that could have potentially prevented those conflicts from happening. I started to really think about the role the government and the private sector can play in addressing some of the systemic issues that are happening in countries and places all over the world.
After leaving the military, I took a job working for former President Clinton at his foundation in New York, and he actually recommended that I go to law school or get an engineering degree. He said that I had more lived experience than most of my peers because of my time in the military, and he saw that what I needed was a framework with which to identify the root causes of problems and come up with creative and thoughtful solutions to solve them.
In 2006, he ended up connecting me to a friend of his, Bob Harrison, who happened to be a former partner at Goldman Sachs, and he said that it was an easy decision — that I should go work at Goldman Sachs. He suggested that I go somewhere to deepen my understanding of what the private sector is all about, to understand how business operates and apply that into the public sector, and so that’s what eventually sparked the interest of marrying business and social impact together back in 2006.
Behrman, NationSwell: What makes your approach to your work at Chobani differentiated — are there any programs, initiatives, or partnerships that feel particularly exciting?
Roy, Chobani: To start macro, Chobani is trying to prove that businesses can be both purposeful and profitable at the same time. As Hamdi says, a cup of yogurt won’t change the world, but how we make it can — especially in terms of how we’re using the dollars we get in profits and investing them back into the community. If you look at the yogurt category in this country, it’s gone from 43 grams of sugar in a single serving on average to around 15 grams of sugar in a single serving. That’s truly disruptive in a category that’s been run by some of the biggest food companies in the entire country, and we’re doing that next with creamers, and with coffee.
So impact and the work that we’re doing starts with the product, and then our people are the next pillar of how we’re making this food. At one point in time, 30% of our workforce was immigrants and refugees, and we’re focused on paying folks in the 75th percentile and getting folks equity in the business. We’re getting childcare, we’re getting elder care, we’re focused on upskilling — there are a lot of unique things that we’re doing to support our people.
The third pillar of how we’re making our food is the sustainability side of things, and we’re always looking upstream to see how we can impact and empower our suppliers and find new ways in which we can use our purchasing power to influence better standards on farms.
The final pillar is how we’re spending our profits, and here we have this big ambition to get to zero hunger in the communities in which we operate, which is in central New York and in Twin Falls, Idaho. We’ve seen food insecurity rise in this country by more than 30 plus percent, and unfortunately 13 million children are food insecure. Our thesis is that we as Chobani can partner with a number of different retailers to help improve overall food accessibility, which also allows other NGOs to come and join us in our journey to start to look at the other social determinants of health, such as access to housing, access to transportation, access to healthcare. These are all things that are critical in order to truly address hunger, but it’s got to start with one of the social determinants that’s being solved for least, which is food accessibility.
Behrman, NationSwell: As you look at this moment for CSR and corporate philanthropy, how do you make sense of where we are, and where do you think we’re headed?
Roy, Chobani: The acronyms have changed so much, but the bottom line that I’m seeing behaviorally is that from a purchasing perspective, people want to see that the brands that they’re buying are actually doing something to really move the needle on issues.
There’s been this big focus from the citizens of this country to want to see that their government is delivering for them at the federal and state level, and in the absence of that, they’re deferring to businesses.
I think the fascinating thing we’re learning is that you can be profitable and purposeful at the same time: If you are operating your plants with a high level of efficiency, you’re going to be using less electricity, less water, and you’re going to be spending less money on overtime because you have a pretty efficient operation, which leads to better profitability in the long run. That profitability, in turn, enables us to then invest in our employees and our community.
And at the end of the day, we also make a great product that people love — it’s not just operational efficiency alone that makes us profitable.
Behrman, NationSwell: What are some of the resources that you might showcase or lift up that have helped to inform your leadership?
Roy, Chobani: Hamdi, of course, has been my biggest shepherd in all of this. As the founder and CEO of the business, he took a chance on me, and a hallmark of his leadership is the way he believes in everyone that works at Chobani; he sees something in everyone that we may not see in ourselves. He asked me to step in on projects and responsibilities not because I had experience in them, but because I did not have that experience and my perspectives would challenge conventional wisdom and the “regular/traditional” way of doing business.
As of late I would also say Rajiv Shah — his book, Big Bets was pretty inspirational because as we’re in this work thinking about food insecurity, we want to make a big ambitious bet by getting to zero hunger, and it can seem a pretty lofty goal at times. To address the naysayers and the skeptics and bring people along with you is probably one of the biggest challenges, and I think the book does a great job of addressing how coalition-building is a superpower.
The third person I would mention has been our COO, Kevin Burns. Kevin is a world class operator — he takes businesses when they’re at this level of efficiency and brings them up to another level that they probably never thought that they could ever achieve. As I talk to him about the work that we’re doing to address hunger, he’s constantly pushing me harder and harder about thinking even bigger.
Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some of the peer leaders you really admire — folks more or less in your role at other companies or organizations who you think are really great leaders doing great work?
Roy, Chobani: Jake Wood comes to mind right away — not only did he found Team Rubicon, but he’s also involved with a new venture called Groundswell. He’s always thinking about disruptive ways to be innovative and deliver on what’s needed at the moment in time, and it’s always done in such a way where it democratizes people’s ability to go and contribute towards solving a problem.
The other person that comes to mind is C.D. Glin over at PepsiCo. When I think about what he’s done with the PepsiCo Foundation, in terms of bringing in a level of focus, energy, and innovative programming, I just admire his work so much and his commitment to doing it in a way that feels long-term and sustainable.
