As another year draws to a close, it's a great time for corporate citizenship professionals to review and reflect on what has been accomplished, both at the company level and on a global scale.

This year, our world continued to experience great change, with companies taking the lead and working together to tackle social and environmental goals. Business continued to play a more active role in issues of public policy—from education, to immigration, to human rights—from Black Rock CEO Larry Fink’s letter to CEOs advocating for purpose to the social activism of Apple CEO Tim Cook. We know that our corporate citizenship professionals were advising leaders to focus on the issues most aligned with company values and business goals.

Even if you don’t sit at the top of the organization, as a corporate citizenship professional your leadership skills are critical to your company’s success in achieving its purpose. Our future prosperity and sustainability depend on your continuous learning. We’ve been proud to support your accomplishments this year—and every year—with the tools and expert insights you need to lead your programs and your companies to success. Here are just a few of the resources we shared this year, which also present opportunities for corporate citizenship professionals in 2019:

In April, 600 CSR professionals traveled to Los Angeles for the annual International Corporate Citizenship Conference to strengthen the connections between resilience, responsibility, and results in their organizations. Don’t miss out on this unique event for CSR professionals: Register now to join us for the 2019 Conference in Dallas as we explore the theme of People + Purpose = Progress with convening sponsor Mary Kay. While we are together, you will learn learn practical strategies for deepening engagement, discover tactics to unleash the full power of your teams by connecting them with your unique purpose, and be inspired to set and achieve ambitious goals in corporate citizenship.

During the 2018 Conference, we celebrated the 10th year of the Corporate Citizenship Film Festival, which honors storytelling and programmatic excellence and recognizes the hard work of corporate citizenship professionals. This year, Bella Group took home the top prize of Best in Show, as well as the Small Company award, for their inspiring story of hurricane relief in Puerto Rico. The 2019 Film Festival is now open for entries—be sure to submit by January 18, 2019 for the chance to present your story on stage in front of hundreds of corporate citizenship professionals.

In the 2018 calendar year, we were delighted to welcome more than 60 new corporate members (and counting), who joined the member companies we serve each year. In the years to come they will continue to benefit from the latest trends and research both published in-house and curated from experts in the field, including personalized Knowledge Request services, monthly webinars, condensed or curated resources delivered to directly via email, and our newly redesigned digital Resource Library which offers answers and insights on demand efficiently and conveniently.

As always, this year the Center was dedicated to publishing rigorous and practical research that corporate citizenship professionals can apply to their work. This year, we released the Profile of the Professionals study, a regularly updated research project that examines the roles, responsibilities, development, and compensation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) professionals. We also released a brand new report, Trends in Sustainable Business, a guide to help you address the environmental impacts in your operations. Last, but not least, the Community Involvement Technology Vendor Report presents self-reported survey responses of 14 technology vendors that support community involvement programs, as well as an additional list of vendors. Full research reports are exclusive to members of the Center—if you’re not a member, learn more about how to join here.

We also gave you plentiful opportunities to accelerate your learning with week-long certificate programs like the Management Intensive and Leadership Academy—and this fall, we introduced our new Accelerated Certificate Summit. We are excited to offer flexibility to those seeking to earn their Certificate in Corporate Citizenship Practice through this flexible, combined in-person and online learning experience that dives deep into CSR best practices and connects core skills with elective courses most relevant to your work. Seats are filling fast, so enroll now to join us in San Diego, CA for the Summit on Jan 14-18, 2019.

Thank you for all that you do to create a great business environment and the world in which we want to live! Here’s to your continued success in 2019 and beyond.