Corporate social responsibility professionals are seeing deeper integration with legal teams in 2026 amid growing DEI-related litigation risk and stricter scrutiny of ESG claims, according to a report by the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals (ACCP), a US social impact advocacy group.
The State of Corporate Social Impact in 2026 survey showed that 34% of CSR teams increased integration with legal this year, the second-largest cross-functional increase after HR (42%). The ACCP noted that CSR teams are increasingly operating in environments where CSR programme design, communications and grant decisions carry legal implications.
Some 55% of respondents said this is causing them to reframe the narrative about their work, 29% said they are relying more on internal rather than external communications, and 28% said they are also changing approval and governance processes.
The ACCP said: “The compliance turn reflects a broader institutionalisation of CSR – a field that was once largely self-governing is now subject to the same oversight infrastructure as legal, finance and HR. That brings accountability, but it also brings bureaucratic weight that can slow decision making and reduce the agility that makes CSR programmes effective.”
Against that backdrop, CSR teams are being held to a higher evidentiary standard. A majority of CSR professionals (66%) said they face increased demand to make a formal business case for CSR initiatives to internal stakeholders, with 29% saying they have to demonstrate the business impact of volunteerism.
The ACCP said: “Together, these figures reflect a field that is under sustained pressure to justify not just what it does, but what it is worth to the organisation.”
Only 44% said they feel confident that they can measure the impact of their CSR programmes.
The data also shows that executive orders related to diversity, equity and inclusion are starting to drive structural change rather than just a language adjustment around DEI policy, with 10% of respondents saying they have eliminated their DEI department or function this year.
Some 44% of respondents said they were focused on racial equity and justice-related community initiatives in 2023 as part of their CSR programmes; that number had fallen to 10% in 2026. Meanwhile, 30% said they were focused on gender, equality and LGBTQ+ community initiatives in 2023, dropping to 11% this year.
The top three community investment priorities in 2026 were food insecurity (48%), K-12 education (47%) and workforce development (44%).
The report was based on a survey of 120 companies representing around $1bn in community investment globally.
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