At the heart of every transformative community lies a network of dedicated individuals and organizations tirelessly working to bridge divides, create opportunities, and champion sustainable futures. This week’s Community Conversations spotlights one such global powerhouse: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)—whose Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs are not just corporate checkboxes, but living testaments to meaningful, sustained community engagement across the globe.
With an astounding 8.9 million global volunteer hours recorded in its 2025 fiscal year (a 30% increase from the previous year), TCS has positioned itself not merely as a leader in IT services and consulting, but as an agent of hope, opportunity, and inclusive progress for the communities its employees call home.
In today’s feature, we unpack the depth and breadth of TCS’ CSR activities—ranging from empowering underrepresented youth with digital skills to facilitating innovative partnerships for digital equity—while reflecting on the real-life stories, impacts, and lessons we can all draw from their journey.
A Culture of Volunteerism: How TCS Turned Compassion Into 8.9 Million Hours of Action
It’s not every day that a corporation clocks nearly 9 million volunteer hours in a single fiscal year. This milestone speaks volumes about a company culture that doesn’t just encourage social contribution but weaves it into the professional fabric of its employees worldwide.
In North America alone, TCS volunteers have been at the forefront of a multifaceted community engagement strategy:
- Supporting local and national nonprofits
- Facilitating hands-on STEM education for K-12 students
- Mentoring women, veterans, and youth to open doors to future-ready careers
Behind this expansive effort lies the myPurpose app, an internal platform that curates and connects employees with volunteer opportunities tailored to their skills, interests, and local needs. By leveraging technology for good internally, TCS exemplifies how digital infrastructure can amplify human compassion and community impact.
“We are grateful to our team members who took part in our programs to achieve meaningful change. Their efforts align TCS’ social and environmental efforts with our core business values,” shared Lina Klebanov, Head of CSR, North America. Her words underscore a key insight for all CSR practitioners: aligning business, community, and sustainability goals amplifies both social outcomes and organizational culture.
Leaders With Purpose: Building Social Changemakers from Within
One shining beacon of TCS’ volunteerism strategy is its Leaders With Purpose (LwP) program—a highly selective, nine-month leadership journey designed to equip employees with the knowledge, skills, and practical experience to drive social impact.
Graduating its sixth cohort in FY2025 and welcoming a seventh, LwP is more than just a professional development course; it’s a transformational incubator for corporate changemakers. Participants undergo rigorous classroom and online learning about nonprofit operations, culminating in capstone projects that deliver tangible, local impact for nonprofits in their own communities.
In an era where corporate leadership is increasingly defined not only by profits but purpose, the LwP initiative offers a blueprint for how companies can grow leaders who are as committed to communities as they are to business metrics.
Empowering the Next Generation: TCS’ Pioneering STEM Education Initiatives
In our evolving digital economy, one challenge looms large: equipping the next generation with the skills and confidence to navigate—and lead—the future of work. TCS is tackling this head-on through two groundbreaking initiatives: Ignite My Future and goIT (Go Innovate Together).
Ignite My Future: Sparking Computational Thinking at Scale
With a focus on transforming K-12 education through computational thinking, Ignite My Future reached 1.8 million students and nearly 32,000 teachers across all 50 U.S. states and Canada in FY2025. Through Family STEM Nights, Career Day events, and targeted teacher trainings, the program is equipping educators and families alike to integrate computational thinking into daily learning.
In an age dominated by AI, machine learning, and data-driven industries, this initiative reflects a profound truth: “Future-ready students require future-ready classrooms.”
goIT: 15 Years of Innovating for Equity and Inclusion
Celebrating its 15th anniversary last year, goIT has blossomed from a local program in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a global digital innovation experience reaching over 310,000 students across 49 countries.
In North America alone during FY2025, goIT:
- Engaged 16,172 students (with 56% young women participants)
- Delivered 253,981 hours of high-impact skill building
- Brought digital innovation experiences to 83 North American cities
Students explored design thinking, computer science, AI, IoT, and mobile app design—not just learning technologies, but practicing problem-solving, collaboration, and entrepreneurial mindsets.
A standout innovation this year was the pilot of a Generative AI curriculum, preparing students not only to understand emerging technologies but to imagine and create with them.
In a world where underrepresented communities face systemic barriers to STEM careers, TCS’ investment in inclusive, empowering digital education is sowing seeds of equity, opportunity, and hope.
Digital Empowers: Convening a Movement Toward Digital Inclusion
Beyond education, TCS is catalyzing system-level change through its Digital Empowers initiative—a platform bringing together corporate leaders, local governments, nonprofits, and innovators to collaboratively advance digital inclusion and opportunity.
In FY2025, Digital Empowers achieved significant milestones:
- Hosted the Together Toward Inclusion Digital Equity Summit, co-designed with 10 other organizations
- Organized the Digital Empowers Sustainathon to crowdsource solutions to social challenges
- Published insights from “The Digital Skills Imperative in Canada” report
- Initiated a Digital Opportunity Playbook to guide future collaborations
With a community of nearly 12,000 thought leaders and practitioners, Digital Empowers is not just a program—it’s a growing movement dedicated to closing the digital divide through shared learning, partnership, and innovation.
Tech4HOPE: Harnessing Corporate Expertise for Social Good
One of TCS’ lesser-known but profoundly impactful programs is Tech4HOPE, its pro bono consulting and service initiative for nonprofits. In FY2025, Tech4HOPE lent its expertise to organizations like:
- Council for Responsible Sport
- Global Giving
- NAF
- PAN Foundation
- Pathway to Tomorrow
- Sports Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA)
By donating technical skills, IT solutions, and strategic consulting, TCS helps these nonprofits scale their missions, improve operations, and deepen their community impact.
In an era where technology is a critical enabler of social good, Tech4HOPE offers a compelling model for how corporations can leverage their core competencies to empower the social sector.
Lessons and Inspiration: What TCS’ CSR Strategy Teaches Us All
As we reflect on TCS’ expansive CSR journey, a few powerful lessons emerge for companies, community leaders, and individuals alike:
- CSR works best when aligned with core competencies. By focusing on digital skills, technology access, and innovation, TCS channels its expertise into areas where it can make the most sustainable, scalable impact.
- Sustained engagement builds trust and transformation. With 15 years of goIT, ongoing teacher partnerships through Ignite My Future, and long-term volunteer pathways, TCS shows that impact grows deeper over time, not just wider.
- Volunteerism is leadership in action. From myPurpose to LwP, TCS empowers its employees to see community service as integral to leadership development, not separate from it.
- Collaboration is key to systemic change. Whether through Digital Empowers or Tech4HOPE, TCS models multi-stakeholder collaboration as the pathway to solving complex challenges like digital inequity.
A Conversation Worth Continuing
In this Saturday’s Community Conversation, TCS’ CSR initiatives remind us that corporate social responsibility isn’t just about philanthropy—it’s about co-creating resilient, inclusive, and future-ready communities. It’s about empowering students who’ve never coded before to design their first app. It’s about giving nonprofits the digital tools they need to scale their missions. It’s about cultivating employees who see leadership as synonymous with service.
As we look ahead, may the TCS example inspire businesses, educators, policymakers, and everyday changemakers to ask:
How can we leverage our unique strengths to meet our communities’ most urgent needs?
What partnerships, programs, or volunteer efforts can we initiate to expand opportunity and inclusion?
This conversation is only just beginning—and each of us has a seat at the table.
Join the conversation! What’s one way your community is advancing digital inclusion or STEM education? Share your stories in the comments below or tag us with #CommunityConversations on social media.
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