The challenges facing communities are rarely confined to a single issue. A family struggling to find affordable housing may also face challenges accessing child care, health care, or reliable transportation. Employers looking for skilled workers are often confronting those same issues from another direction.
At Business Solves 2026, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation brought together leaders from business, government, and nonprofits to focus on what happens when organizations stop treating those challenges in isolation and start solving them together.
Across two days, conversations ranged from workforce development and community health to food security, disaster resilience, civic trust, infrastructure, housing, and global challenges. Moving beyond passive corporate philanthropy, the conference established a framework for corporate citizenship—one driven by bold, collaborative action, hyper-local execution, and the direct deployment of core business capabilities to achieve measurable, lasting impact.
Explore the main ideas from this year’s event below.
Moving From Giving to Solving
One of the clearest themes throughout the convening was an evolution in how companies think about social impact.
In her opening keynote, Shannon Schuyler, faculty at the University of Chicago’s Leadership and Society Initiative and former chief purpose officer at PwC, traced that evolution through what she described as five waves of social impact, from traditional charity and philanthropy to a model in which solving societal challenges becomes more closely connected to business strategy.
That shift changes the question. Instead of asking simply, “What should we give?” companies can ask: What do we uniquely know how to do, and how can that capability help solve a problem?
That might mean applying supply-chain expertise to food insecurity, workforce knowledge to skills shortages, technology to measure impact, or local relationships to build stronger collaborations.
It is an approach that mirrors the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s own purpose: harnessing the power of business to create solutions for the good of America and the world.
Trust Starts Locally
Solving together also depends on trust.
In a conversation with Mike Carney, president of the U.S. Chamber Foundation, Tom Wilson, chair, president, and CEO of Allstate, described trust through three elements: predictability, reciprocity, and respect.
For businesses, building trust means putting those principles into practice. Allstate’s Trust in Practice Awards, developed with the Aspen Institute’s Alliance for Social Trust, supports nonprofit-led collaborations working to strengthen trust and civic participation. Applicants were required to bring at least three nonprofit organizations together around a joint proposal, putting collaboration at the center of the approach. The program was recognized as the Best Civic Engagement Program in the 2026 Citizens Awards.
Business Capabilities in Action
The strongest examples throughout the conference started with a specific problem and connected it to an asset that a company, nonprofit, government partner, or coalition of organizations could bring to the table.
Discussions on food security highlighted how businesses can contribute far more than charitable donations. Companies can bring logistics networks, transportation, cold-storage capacity, purchasing power, employees, and relationships.
Workforce discussions followed the same pattern. One example highlighted the Manufacturing Skilled Trades Academy at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, developed by Boeing and Hiring Our Heroes with Clover Park Technical College. The six-week program creates a pathway for transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses to earn college credit and industry credentials while preparing for advanced manufacturing careers.
3 Key Themes
- Start with what business does best: Core capabilities can become powerful tools for community problem-solving.
- Build with communities: Local knowledge and partnerships can turn national ambition into scalable solutions that fit real needs.
- Connect across sectors: Business, government, and nonprofits bring different strengths to problems no organization can solve alone.
Innovation Begins with People
Some of the conference's most memorable ideas were also very practical.
Students from the Kansas State School for the Blind participating in Make48, for example, developed an insulated cooler bag that could convert into a pillow in response to a challenge focused on people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity. Their product, MOVA, received immediate support live on stage, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation President Mike Carney and Senior Vice President Marc DeCourcey, pledged to donate funds, as well as leverage their connections to the American Red Cross and FEMA to help the young inventors move MOVA from prototype to distribution.
The story offered an important counterpoint to discussions of systems, technology, and capital: Innovation doesn't begin with scale. It begins with understanding a problem and designing around the people experiencing it.
Celebrating Solutions That Last
Business Solves provided the setting for the U.S. Chamber Foundation's annual Citizens Awards. This year's nine Citizens Awards recipients illustrate the breadth of ways organizations are applying their strengths to community challenges.
In addition to the Citizens Awards, the U.S. Chamber Foundation presented a special Solve Together Award to (RED) and its core corporate partners—Apple, Bank of America, Clear Channel, Merck, Piaggio, Roche, Salesforce, and Stellantis—in recognition of 20 years of sustained cross-sector collaboration to advance global health.
Following the award, (RED) Ambassador Sibulele Nomnganga delivered a moving personal testimony. Orphaned by AIDS as a young girl in South Africa, Nomnganga detailed her journey from caring for her dying father to becoming an international advocate. She reminded the business leaders in the audience that behind corporate statistics and global metrics are real human lives dependent upon uninterrupted access to diagnostic testing, prevention, and life-saving treatments.
(RED) Ambassador Sibulele Nomnganga shares her personal testimony.
From left, Shane Karr of Stellantis, Tisha Wheeler of Roche Diagnostics, Kalahn Taylor-Clark of Merck, AJ Barkley of Bank of America and Kate Charles of (RED) speak during Business Solves.
(RED) 20-Year Impact Milestones
- $800M+ generated for The Global Fund
- 375 million lives impacted worldwide across life-saving prevention, testing, and treatment programs
The U.S. Chamber Foundation also presented its inaugural Business and Civic Leadership Award to the Honorable R. James Nicholson, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, whose career has been dedicated to advancing civic education and creating employment opportunities for veterans and military families.
4 Ideas to Take Back With You
Business Solves 2026 highlighted four approaches leaders can consider as they look to strengthen their impact:
- Partner locally: Work with organizations that understand their communities and can help identify needs, build solutions, and extend impact.
- Bring more than funding: Consider how your company’s unique strengths, from expertise and employee skills to facilities, technology, and supply chains, can help address community challenges.
- Connect the dots: Look for challenges that overlap and opportunities to bring partners and solutions together. Addressing interconnected needs can create a more meaningful impact for communities.
- Use data to learn and improve: Use technology, research, and long-term measurement to understand what’s working, demonstrate impact, and make programs stronger over time.
The challenges communities face are complex, but Business Solves left us with a sense of optimism. Progress is possible when people and organizations bring their strengths together, transforming promising ideas into solutions that make a lasting difference.
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About the author
Alicia Sondberg
Alicia Sondberg is the manager of communications and digital marketing at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
