Community and Economic Impact

Our approach to community and economic impact is multi-faceted, combining the work of our business and Foundation, and focusing on both our basic responsibilities and the unique opportunities we have to make a positive impact in the world. This reflects not only the central importance of this topic for our company and stakeholders, but also its intersectionality with many other issues and topics addressed in this report.

In this section, we highlight how we enable community and economic impact – in partnership with key stakeholders – through three key channels: 

• Powering Global Markets includes how we think about our role in supporting our customers and enabling efficient, effective markets worldwide.
• Local Economic Development includes how our investments in our workforce and supply chain, as well as the value we create and distribute as a business, contribute to economic development and prosperity for individuals and communities.
• Community Impact includes how we leverage our resources and skills to help address societal needs and make a positive difference in our communities.

In all cases, we are guided by our purpose to accelerate progress and our values of discovery, partnership and integrity, with leadership and oversight from the Executive Committee and Board

Powering Global Markets

S&P Global’s history of economic impact stretches all the way back to 1860, when one of our founders began supplying investors with data about the biggest and most radical innovation of that time – the railroad. Then as now, the analysis and tools that S&P Global provides play an essential role in helping economies to advance and markets to grow. By helping our customers identify risk and uncover opportunities, we help facilitate the efficient flow of capital toward investments that provide vital resources and services, spur innovation, create jobs and more. Our data and insights help businesses and governments develop smarter strategies and make critical decisions that move the world forward, including on critical challenges like energy transition, climate change, supply chain management and inclusive growth.

We believe these effects represent the largest and most important impact we have as a company, and we take seriously our responsibility to manage our business accordingly.

For more details on S&P Global’s strategy and business results, see our most recent Annual Report Form 10-K and Investor Fact Book. For more information on how we are shaping our products and services to help drive positive impact, see Sustainability Products & Data and Responsible Products and Marketing.

S&P Global recognizes the important role we play in creating economic value in the communities where we operate, including through the jobs and wages we provide to employees, the products and services we buy from suppliers, the taxes we pay to governments, and the profits we generate and distribute to investors. Contributing to economic development and prosperity for our stakeholders can also translate into long-term value for our business – for example, by driving higher levels of education, innovation and investment that further propel economic growth.

With a global workforce of more than 40,000 individuals working in our offices and remotely across 43 countries, S&P Global touches thousands of communities each day. In addition to competitive pay and benefits, we strive to provide our people with industry-leading knowledge, skills and development opportunities that can help them grow their career and support the wellbeing of their families and communities over the long term. For more information, see Talent Attraction and Development. For a breakdown of employees by country, see the Appendix.

S&P Global also supports community and economic development through our relationships with suppliers. In 2023, the company spent more than $2.9 billion with approximately 10,900 direct suppliers, helping them provide jobs and wages to their employees and further invest in their businesses and communities. For more on our approach to supply chain management, including our supplier diversity efforts, see Responsible Sourcing and Supply Chain Management.

The taxes we pay as a company help fund essential public services such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, and public safety, which are crucial for economic and community development.  

Community impact is core to our purpose at S&P Global. We focus our efforts on connecting our philanthropic funding, knowledge and skills with the needs of society and global sustainable development priorities. Through the giving of time and their talent, our employees demonstrate how they are making a difference in communities around the world.

S&P Global accelerates progress. Our philanthropic funding helps drive the development of inclusive and resilient economies.

The S&P Foundation is the keystone of our philanthropic efforts. In 2023, we extended $10.6 million in grants to 73 grant partners in support of our Foundation priorities: diversifying tech and data, creating environmental resilience, building thriving communities and disaster relief.

To support our philanthropy for the long term, the Foundation:

•  Invested the $200 million endowment received from S&P Global in 2022.
• Launched a new grants application, management and reporting platform to streamline the end-to-end grants process.
• Completed first Foundation Board site visit to one of our Foundation grant partners, Trust for Public Land.

In addition, the Foundation:

• Responded with disaster relief grants to aid with major disasters in locations where we have a significant employee presence, including Mexico, the U.S., and the humanitarian crisis arising from the Israel-Hamas war. 
• Relaunched our People Resource Groups (PRGs) grants program, enabling our PRGs to award grants to organizations or programs aligned with their missions.
• Increased our people’s awareness of our impact with key Foundation partners, with more than a thousand colleagues voting for nonprofits to support as part of S&P Global’s enterprise-wide “Accelerate Progress LIVE” event in December 2023.

We combine philanthropic giving with the talent, time and dedication of our people to make a meaningful impact in the communities that we are part of around the world. 

To support employee engagement in 2023 and early 2024, we hired three new regional coordinators, reporting to the Director of Corporate Responsibility Employee Programs and serving the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia Pacific) regions. In addition, we provided division presidents with quarterly updates on employee giving and volunteerism, supporting their efforts to recognize colleagues and foster a culture of giving. 

S&P Global offers a range of programs to support our people in making a difference in the community: 

• Matching Gift Program: Dollar-for-dollar match for employees’ personal contributions up to $5,000 per calendar year to eligible nonprofit organizations.
• Essential Impact Program:
  • The Individual Volunteer Grants program awards $500 per calendar year to any eligible organization with which an employee volunteers a minimum of 25 hours.
  • The Team Volunteer Grants program extends $1,500 of funding support per  volunteer project with five or more employee volunteers. The funding goes  directly to the nonprofit organization, to support expenses related to the  volunteer project.       
• Give Back Days: All eligible colleagues receive 40 hours of paid volunteer time off per calendar year. 

Through volunteering, our people have the opportunity to network with colleagues, connect with purpose and enhance their wellbeing.