When the arrival of Covid-19 pushed AT&T to rethink its social-impact work, it was a “back-to-basics moment,” according to Neil Giacobbi, who develops and leads philanthropic and communications initiatives for the company. Giacobbi began with questions around the social-impact work already aligned with the company’s products and how the company could invest in work that reflects its public perception. “For AT&T,” he said, “that’s connectivity.”

“There’s a lot of people who don’t have access that’s affordable or accessible where they live,” he continued. With the county’s digital divide on stark display during the pandemic, AT&T focused on solutions, including partnerships with nonprofits like Connected Nation. “We’ve seen a honing of our company’s portfolio to reflect that.”

Giacobbi joined four expert panelists for a From Day One webinar, “How Companies Can Find and Vet the Right Partner for Social Impact,” moderated by Fast Company staff editor Lydia Dishman. The group assessed how much Covid-19 and last year’s social-justice movement has affected corporate giving and, in moving forward, how to determine the best practices for companies to find partners to support meaningfully giving back.

Brittany Hill, founder of Accelerist, a company designed to boost social-impact partnerships and strategies, kicked off the conversation with an analysis of brands and social impact in a post-pandemic world. Among the findings of a survey of U.S. consumers: 64% said they believe brands should take stands on social issues, 73% feel more positive about a brand that supports causes, and 62% consider a company’s commitment to causes when considering employment opportunities.

The majority of those surveyed felt that companies should focus their support on five or fewer organizations in order to maximize impact. Asked to choose the best way for companies to support nonprofits, 33% chose monetary donations, while 31% wanted a more holistic approach that included elements like event sponsorships, engagement efforts, and social-media advocacy.

“We are seeing partnerships being forged for the greater purpose of solving a societal challenge,” Hill said. “Oftentimes nonprofit organizations can serve as experts on a social issue that perhaps a company is interested in, or looking to make progress on.” She called these new partnerships “a huge shift that I think has been a long time coming and is here to stay.”

Panelists agreed. Victoria Hay, director of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for AIG Life & Retirement, said the company examined how it partnered with nonprofits “to figure out how to take that from a transactional partnership to one that was transformational.” One key way, she added, was by implementing skills-based volunteer programs with nonprofit partners.

Companies differ on how they make decisions about social-impact work. Hay, for example, is a “one-woman team” who collaborates with employee resource groups (ERGs) for ideas to be spearheaded at the executive level. Shelley Sylva, SVP and head of U.S. social impact at TD Bank, oversees a 40-person team that’s organized regionally. She stressed the importance of recruiting experts. TD’s team includes an art curator, environmentalists, a health-equity expert, and a chief medical officer. “We do let our experts bring, and bubble up, new and inventive partnerships and then we talk about it as a leadership team,” she said.

Hill shared Accelerist’s data on the types of causes people care about most. “We’ve obviously seen a shift in the past 15 months,” she said. Long-running causes like education, mental health and the environment have been joined more recently by social justice and health equity. “What’s really resonating [with stakeholders] are the more specific, the more tangible–what is that tangible impact that companies can make on these various issues?”

Hill added that “360 engagement” around employee’s needs can be more powerful than simply giving back to causes they care about. She gave the example of employees who care specifically about mental health–and the company responding by creating programs around its philanthropy by working with nonprofit partners and offering virtual engagement opportunities.

Panelists stressed the importance of building programs that reflect employee’s passions and interests. Hay spoke about the effectiveness of matching-grant programs; last year AIG Life & Retirement increased its match cap as well as paid volunteer days. Sylva’s team at TD Bank built a matching-grant program so that employees could help raise money for the cause of their choice. “That program, virtually, has been insane,” she noted. “My team’s job is figuring out how to get to ‘yes’ within the constructs of our program.”

Kathleen Owsley, president of the Bosch Community Fund, the social-impact arm of the appliance and engineering company, noted the opportunity of connecting corporate giving to employee skill sets. During the pandemic some of the company’s engineers retrofitted a van for an animal shelter that had to limit its capacity. “I made a grant on behalf of those employees doing that on behalf of their own passions to do so,” she said. Owsley said about 70% to 75% of her foundation’s giving is focused on local communities, steered through community advisory committees.

Giacobbi added that AT&T’s workforce is getting younger, and “the expectations aren’t that volunteering and philanthropy will satisfy their desire for social impact, they want to see the company’s business practice and products deliver that social impact to the consumer.” The company, for example, made a pledge to be carbon neutral by 2035 and is also supporting companies on its network “to use our engineering expertise to achieve renewable and less carbon emission from their energy consumption within their company.”

The panel’s conversation progressed to the issue of measuring the impact of their effects. “I’d say that it’s this mix of qualitative versus quantitative data,” Hay said. For a financial-literacy course that AIG Life & Retirement underwrites, the company looks at the scores of the students who take the course as well as feedback from participants.

“I think you build the evaluation process into your agreement, so there’s no surprises,” Sylva added. “We don’t just write a check anymore.” Agreements can include impact reports throughout the partnership. “I think the key is open and honest communications with these partners,” she said.

Impact measurement should be paired with public awareness of the work, according to Giacobbi. That could be through measuring social media, research, and polling. “If we have a partner who has a social-media following, how does this particular subject rank on social media?” he posed. “For your shareholders and your employees, you need to demonstrate that there’s some impact above and beyond the social impact, and that it drives the company’s brand.”

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this webinar, Accelerist. You can watch a video of the conversation here.

Emily Nonko is a Brooklyn, NY-based reporter who writes about real estate, architecture, urbanism and design. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Curbed and other publications.