What the 2025 Corporate M&E Community of Practice Report Reveals About Evaluation in the Corporate Sector

As companies navigate a rapidly evolving social impact landscape, measurement and evaluation are no longer optional—they’re strategic imperatives. That’s why the 2025 Benchmarking Survey from the Corporate Measurement & Evaluation Community of Practice (COP) is such a valuable read for any corporate leader serious about learning, accountability, and lasting impact.

Developed by the Corporate M&E Community of practice (Facilitated by Raya Cooper Impact Consulting and TCC Group), the report draws insights from 30 corporations across industries and grantmaking scales. It surfaces emerging trends and long-standing gaps in how companies define, structure, and fund evaluation.

Here are 5 things we learned from this study:

1. High Support, Low Investment
   While most C-Suite leaders express strong support for evaluation, just 29% of respondents said their company had invested adequately. The median evaluation budget was only $100,000—suggesting a misalignment between intent and resourcing.

2. Thin Evaluation Staffing
   Only half of companies have a full-time evaluator on staff, and many rely on employees without formal evaluation training. This can limit credibility and consistency in evaluation work and create downstream risks in reporting and learning.

3. Evaluation = Grants, But It Could Be More
   Evaluation remains heavily focused on grantmaking (89%), with far less attention paid to other forms of corporate social good—like employee engagement, product donations, or sustainability. Expanding evaluation to these areas can help companies tell a more complete story about their impact, and make the case for programs. 

4. Learning Loops Are Incomplete
   While most companies say they are sharing findings - 62% say they share internally, 45% share their results externally -  only 38% engage in regular learning or reflection sessions. Learning sessions are essential for transforming measurement from a reporting exercise into a driver of strategy and innovation.

5. Partnership Practices Lag Behind Rhetoric
   Half of companies include grantees in defining success, but far fewer (25–29%) involve them in interpreting or communicating findings. Truly collaborative evaluation still has room to grow.

Use this report to reflect on your own practice
This report paints a picture of the Measurement & Evaluation landscape in terms of investments, common practices and opportunities for growth. And it encourages readers to reflect on their own Measurement & Evaluation Practice.

• How does your company allocate budget for evaluation activities? Is it meeting your needs?

• How does evaluation currently create value for your company? How could that be increased?

• Is your company’s evaluation expertise sufficient to address risk and concerns?

• What aspects of learning and evaluation does your company prioritize? 

• How might you encourage interaction and learning with evaluation results?

If any of this sounds familiar and you're looking for support with your company's impact measurement and evaluation work, set up a discovery call to talk through how we can help.