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Brian Grim shares his calling to be a missionary when he was only 4-years-old and how that eventually led him to Catholicism, but also a life as an educator in the former Soviet Union, China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe from 1982-2002. Eventually his research in economics reveals that religious freedom is good for business. Brian J. Grim, Ph. D. (Penn State), is the founding president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and works with Fortune 500 companies to include religion and belief as part of their belonging initiatives.

By Brian Grim

I’m thrilled to be working with Lawrence Chong, Group CEO of Consulus, who is organizing this year’s Shape the World Summit in Rome in collaboration with the Vatican.

The summit will include the global launch of an AI-Powered Common Growth Fund for Social and Faith-Based Enterprises.

In partnership with the FoRB Foundation, the launch will be witnessed by Cardinal Luis A Tagle and David Smith, MP, the UK’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief. The initiative will also integrate our Faith-Friendly Workplace “REDI” Index as a benchmarking tool.

See the whole program here.

Report: Religious freedom increasing in workplace By Michaela Estruth in The Heartlander

Report Shows Despite DEI Cuts, Religious Inclusion is Improving at Fortune 500 Companies By Kathryn Post in RNS

Religion on the Rise at Fortune 500 Companies by MovieGuide

Survey: Fortune 500 companies becoming more religious-friendly by Hannah Hiester on CatholicVote

Faith at Work: Accenture Leads the Charge as Corporate America Redefines Religious Inclusion| ZENIT – English, The World Seen From Rome

The impact of religious dialogue on the international recognition of Kazakhstan | DKNews International News Agency

Brian Grim will participate in a Cross Cultural Religious Literacy (CCRL) Summit in Krakow, Poland, in early June. The Summit will seek to develop best practices and chart new possibilities for CCRL and is convened by the Templeton Religion Trust, Love Your Neighbor Community, and The Review of Faith & International Affairs.

As summarized in “Toward a Global Covenant of Peaceable Neighborhood,”

Covenantal pluralism is simultaneously about “top-down” legal and policy parameters and “bottom-up” cultural norms and practices. A world of covenantal pluralism is characterized both by a constitutional order of equal rights and responsibilities and by a culture of reciprocal commitment to engaging, respecting, and protecting the other— albeit without necessarily conceding equal veracity or moral equivalence to the beliefs and behaviors of others. The envisioned end-state is neither a thin-soup ecumenism nor vague syncretism, but rather a positive, practical, non-relativistic pluralism. It is a paradigm of civic fairness and human solidarity, a covenant of global neighborliness….

Covenantal Pluralism has three key constitutive dimensions: (1) freedom of religion and belief (including equal treatment of all people, of any faith or none), (2) cross-cultural religious literacy, and (3) character virtues essential for living constructively with deep difference.

The practice of CCRL presupposes, embodies, and expresses all of these dimensions. CCRL is a framework of engagement bringing religious freedom and religious responsibility together; that is, it brings equal citizens together to take take on our world’s greatest challenges, building dynamic and resilient societies, and states, as a result. In other words, the core commodity of CCRL is trust— it usually begins in the transactional, but if sustained, becomes transformational. Put one last way: CCRL builds teachers who embody an empathetic and elicitive engagement methodology, as demonstrated in the “classroom” (of life), that ripples across the campus, community, culture, and country.

Congratulations to Accenture for being the most faith-friendly workplace among Global Fortune 500 companies in 2025! This is the 6th annual Faith-Friendly Workplace REDI Index published by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, and the 3rd time Accenture has taken or tied for the top spot.

This year, a record number of global companies participated, including those based in the U.K., and for the first time, in the Middle East. The REDI Index has 11 indicators of best practices including having faith-and-belief employee resource groups (ERGs), sharing best practices with other companies, and honoring holy days of their employees, among other accommodations such as dress and diet.

Leaders from Accenture’s interfaith network gathered in Washington DC last week to be recognized for their work in creating workplaces where people can bring their whole “self” to work, including their faith.

Learn more about faith-and-belief friendly workplaces here.

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation Is thrilled to announce that Glenda Cameron is the 2025 ERG Leader of the Year.

Glenda is recognized for her extraordinary service and pioneering impact — not only within her own companies (EMC and now Dell Technologies) — but also in helping other companies on their journeys toward more religiously inclusive, faith-friendly workplaces for people of all faith and beliefs.

When DELL and DELL merged in 2016, Glenda was leading EMC’s interfaith ERG, but DELL had no such ERG. As the merger was being fleshed out, Glenda was the Interfaith ERG champion that brought EMC’s interfaith ERG to DELL. And thanks to Glenda’s pioneering work, DELL has become the third most Faith-friendly business among Fortune 500 companies today.

Leaders of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) do so as volunteers in addition to their main jobs.

Accenture takes top spot as most faith-friendly workplace

Accenture is most faith-friendly workplace among Global Fortune 500 companies in 2025, for the third year running. Equinix takes the number two spot, with DELL, Merck and Intuit rounding out the top five spots on the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s 6th annual Faith-Friendly Workplace REDI Index survey.

CMS Energy, Rolls-Royce, and FirstEnergy also score highly among Fortune 500 companies for their faith-friendly policies and practices. Lexmark made its debut among Fortune 500 companies as a record number of global companies participated, including those based in the U.K., and for the first time, in the Middle East, with the entry of Future Pipes Industries.

The REDI survey has 11 indicators of best practices including having faith-and-belief employee resource groups (ERGs), sharing best practices with other companies, and honoring holy days of their employees, among other accommodations such as dress and diet.

In addition to the REDI Index, we monitor the People web pages of Fortune 500 companies.

Faith-oriented inclusion and belonging initiatives have grown in intensity in Q1 2025. For example, the average REDI Monitor score increased significantly from 2024 to 2025 (3.6 to 4.2), and more than doubled since 2022, as shown in the chart.

As mentioned, the average REDI Monitor score increased significantly from last year. This indicates an increase in the intensity with which companies are embracing faith-friendly workplaces. Another indicator is that for the first time in 2025, eight Fortune 500 companies mentioned the REDI Index on their websites. 

At the same time, we saw a slight drop (from 62 to 60) in companies reporting that they have faith-based ERGs.

Also, coinciding with many companies decreasing the visibility of inclusion and belonging information on websites, many U.S. companies stopped participating in external benchmarking surveys this year. Indeed we saw a marked increase in U.K. and international participation even as some U.S.-based firms took a year off.

ABOUT THE INDEX AND MONITOR

The Faith-Friendly Workplace REDI Index is an international benchmarking survey that companies use to track their progress in (and be recognized for) embracing religion and belief (including non-theistic beliefs) as an integral part of their overall commitment to workplace belonging and success. The 2025 REDI covers activities occurring during the 12 months ending March 31, 2025. 

Of the companies participating in the REDI Index survey:

• • 75% of their public-facing websites mention religion and/or describe how religion is part of their workplace belonging commitments. 21% mention this on other webpages. Only 4% make no mention of religion on their websites.
• • 92% have formally approved, faith-and/or-belief-oriented employee resource groups (ERGs) or other such official employee-led groups whose aim is to foster a welcoming, faith-friendly workplace aligned with the company’s purpose.
• • 92% described their practices related to faith-oriented ERGs or other faith-oriented activities to other companies.
• • 100% address religion (incl. faith and belief) as a topic in their internal HR training.
• • 25% provide professional chaplaincy services to serve their employees, while an additional 50% provide other spiritual care opportunities.
• • 92% seek to understand the faiths and beliefs of their clients and stakeholders.
• • Most have procedures that are communicated annually to request accommodations.
• • 88% report that their employees participated in related external professional conferences or faith-related professional events.
• • 58% match employee donations to faith-based and religious organizations.
• • All report celebrating or honoring holy days of their employees. 58% do this both internally and externally.

The public websites of Fortune 500 companies are carefully analyzed by our staff to determine if they include religion as part of their belonging and inclusion initiatives. The REDI Monitor allows us to assess the state of faith-friendly workplaces in FTSE 100 and BSE 100 companies. Not all topics from the opt-in REDI Index survey can be observed. Therefore, scores are given for those mentions of religion we can see, including: having faith-oriented ERGs; mentioning religious nondiscrimination and/or inclusion, as well as the rationale for such policies; linking to additional information; and (for some) mentioning being on the REDI Index or Monitor.

In all, among the Fortune 500, 177 companies saw an increased REDI Monitor Score, while 136 saw their score go down. 187 companies stayed the same.

For more information, down load the full report here or visit our Faith-Friendly Workplace REDI page here.

Is workplace religious inclusion on the rise?

Corporations across the U.S. have scaled back their diversity programs, not only in response to the changing environment, but also in response to Supreme Court rulings finding that some affirmative action programs ran afoul of law.

Because most faith-friendly initiatives have been situated within these corporate programs, have they been scaled back along with the other initiatives?

Tomorrow, at the annual Fortune 500 Faith@Work conference in Washington DC, the results of the 6th annual Fortune 500 Faith-Friendly Workplace Report will answer this question. Stay tuned!

What to Expect at Washington Faith@Work Summit

Good news – despite economic challenges, major companies are gathering together to highlight the business imperative of making their workplaces faith-and-belief friendly. Dare to Overcome begins on May 20 with with special resource roundtables for faith-specific and interfaith employee resource groups (ERGs).

Following a networking lunch, the Keynote Plenary will feature Busch School of Business Dean Andrew Abela. All attendees get his new book Superhabits: the Universal System for a Successful Life. Also, our sponsors will share their Ways Forward in today’s changing environment.

The program is filled with a variety of sessions that inspire, equip and connect people from across the US and world. Topics include the nuts and bolts of faith@work initiatives such as employee resource groups (ERGs).

We will also look at ways faith initiatives at work increase productivity by increasing resiliency through stronger networks as well as spiritual and emotional health.

As Dare to Overcome ends and the IRF Builders Forum begins, the cross-over event at 3pm on May 21 looks at how our India team have successfully piloted a human rights and business skills curriculum for teenagers.

The Executive President of the University carrying out the pilot will receive the 2025 Global Business & Interfaith Peace God Medal, an honor shared previously by CEOs of companies as diverse as Intel, Tyson Foods, Godrej Industries, American Airlines, EY, Senior United Nations officials, and other leaders of business in more than 30 countries worldwide.

The closing plenary of Dare to Overcome will coincide with the opening of the first-ever International Religious Freedom (IRF) Builders Forum. U.S. Senior Official performing duties of the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom will deliver a keynote followed by a fireside chat with RFBF President Brian Grim, IRF Secretariat Chair Greg Mitchell and Chris Seiple, Senior Fellow, Love Your Neighbor Community (LYNC).

𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐦, 𝐏𝐡.𝐃. – 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐒𝐓𝐖𝐒 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

Dr. Brian Grim, Founding President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF), will speak at Shape the World Summit 2025 in Rome & Vatican City.

An internationally recognised expert on the intersection of economic sustainability and religious freedom, Dr. Grim has worked with multinational corporations to demonstrate how belief inclusion strengthens innovation, workplace culture, and long-term impact. He is also a Davos speaker and a trusted advisor on global interfaith business strategies.

At STWS 2025, Dr. Grim will speak on:
🎙 “Creative Leadership for Technology: Dialogue for Impact – A Creative Leadership Approach from the Tech World”, as part of the Creative Leadership for Dialogue segment. He will explore how values-based leadership and freedom of belief can empower ethical innovation and social impact within today’s tech-driven economies.”

In this Jubilee year at the Vatican, Consulus will convene 200 leaders and senior executives from the worlds of geopolitics, business and faith-based organisations, for dialogue and debate on creative leadership for social impact in a time of turmoil, economic inclusion, tectonic shifts due to AI, and the ripple effects after a year of worldwide elections.

Shape the World Summit has been organised since 2005 and is inspired by the vision of UNESCO Peace Prize Winner Chiara Lubich who launched the idea in 1991 to build an Economy of Communion(EoC), a concept inspired from Catholic Social Teaching so that no one is in need. In 2017, Pope Francis pushed the entire EoC movement to go beyond giving and work to change the rules of the socio-economic system so that there is no more victim.

• Dates: 12th to 13th June, 2025
• Venue: Urbaniana University, Rome, and Vatican City

About Consulus