Ethisphere Institute

What Ethisphere Institute does

Ethisphere Institute is a privately held, Scottsdale-headquartered (US-domiciled LLC) for-profit company founded in 2006-2007 that measures, defines, and advances standards of ethical business practices through data-driven insights. It serves large and complex organizations—particularly Fortune 500 companies and mid-sized enterprises—along with the senior ethics, compliance, legal, and risk leaders who run those programs, with reported reach across 100+ countries. The company sells a suite of subscription and assessment-based solutions built around The Sphere analytics and benchmarking platform, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) community, specialized Program, Culture, and Risk assessments, and the proprietary Ethics Quotient methodology that underpins the flagship "World's Most Ethical Companies" recognition program. Supporting products include the Ethicast podcast, Ethisphere Magazine, the Real Biz Shorts video library (produced with Second City Works), and the annual Global Ethics Summit.

Name

Ethisphere Institute

Legal name

Ethisphere, LLC

Website

https://ethisphere.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Ethisphere Institute is a US-based private company founded in 2006 that provides data-driven ethics and compliance benchmarking, assessments, and community solutions—anchored by The Sphere platform and BELA membership—to Fortune 500 enterprises and senior ethics, compliance, legal, and risk leaders across 100+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Ethics and Compliance Benchmarking

SIC

Services-Management Services (8741)

akta.pro primary industry

Ethics, Integrity & Whistleblowing Program Advisory (BPAHAFAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

ESG Governance, Sustainability Reporting & Assurance Advisory (BPAHAFAJ)

Keywords

• Ethics compliance benchmarking
• Compliance program assessments
• Ethics culture surveys
• Corporate integrity measurement
• Compliance leadership community

Headquarters

HQ city

Scottsdale

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Assessment and Benchmarking Services: Program and culture assessments that benchmark organizations against regulatory expectations and leading practices, providing custom benchmark reports and prioritized roadmaps for improvement.
2. BELA Membership: Annual membership in the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance providing access to resources, roundtables, and peer community.
3. Events and Conferences: Global Ethics Summit and regional summits, forums, webcasts, and roundtables providing education and networking.
4. Content and Resources: Ethisphere Magazine, Ethicast podcast, Real Biz Shorts videos, whitepapers, and research reports.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Ethisphere Institute measures, benchmarks, and advances standards of ethical business practices using data-driven insights. Its core offering combines The Sphere analytics platform, the BELA peer community, and expert-led Program, Culture, and Risk Assessments that help organizations evaluate ethics and compliance (E&C) programs against the 300 most important benchmarks and regulatory expectations. Supporting offerings include subscription benchmarking, assessments, and recognition programs targeting Chief Ethics and Compliance Officers at large global enterprises.

Product overview

Ethisphere Institute offers a suite of ethics and compliance measurement and improvement solutions. The core platform, The Sphere, provides analytics and benchmarking capabilities. BELA (Business Ethics Leadership Alliance) serves as a community membership component offering peer resources and frameworks. Supporting services include Program Assessments, Culture Assessments, and Risk Assessments for comprehensive program evaluation. Content products include Real Biz Shorts (video library in partnership with Second City Works) and the Ethicast Podcast. The World's Most Ethical Companies recognition program rounds out the portfolio as an annual benchmarking initiative. Together, these offerings provide ethics and compliance leaders with measurement tools, peer community, educational content, and industry recognition to strengthen organizational integrity programs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Sphere Analytics and benchmarking platform that enables ethics and compliance teams to evaluate their programs against the 300 most important benchmarks, compare against peers, and receive a prioritized roadmap for improvement. Subscription-based access for enterprise E&C teams.
• Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) Annual membership community of companies committed to advancing business integrity, providing members benchmark data, peer-contributed policies and frameworks, roundtables, and working sessions with ethics and compliance leaders.
• Program Assessments Expert evaluation of ethics and compliance programs against regulatory expectations and leading practices, providing benchmark comparisons and actionable recommendations for senior E&C leaders.
• Culture Assessments Employee survey-based assessments measuring trust, willingness to speak up, comfort raising concerns, and perceptions of fairness across geographies, business units, and demographic groups, benchmarked against a database of millions of employee responses.
• Key Risks Assessments Specialized assessments for identifying and managing key ethics and compliance risks within organizations.
• Private Equity Holistic Risk Assessment Assessment service measuring and improving portfolio companies across key risk factors including ethics, compliance, and ESG practices, targeted at private equity firms evaluating and strengthening portfolio company integrity programs.

Quantifiable outcome

• 89% of customers accelerate program goals
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Second City WorkscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with the professional development division of the iconic Second City Comedy theater to create Real Biz Shorts, the world's largest collection of comedic video shorts dedicated to risk areas in Ethics & Compliance. This partnership produces 235+ short-form videos used by 350+ Fortune 500 companies with over 20 million views.
• Baker McKenziecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBaker McKenzie, a global law firm and BELA global partner, collaborated with Ethisphere to create a Generative AI Policy Template available to BELA members as a customizable starting structure for AI governance.
• Columbia University Mental Health + Work Design LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEthisphere partnered with Columbia University's Mental Health + Work Design Lab and One Mind at Work to develop the Mental Health at Work Index, a framework and self-assessment tool to help employers evaluate and improve organizational-level workforce mental health efforts.
• One Mind at WorkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEthisphere partnered with One Mind at Work and Columbia University to develop the Mental Health at Work Index framework applying a '3 Ps' continuum (Protection, Promotion, Provision) across 10 categories of evidence-informed employer practices.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• NAVEX Global: NAVEX Global is the dominant ethics and compliance operations platform (whistleblowing, policy management, training) serving many of the same Fortune 500 CECO buyers as Ethisphere. Both compete for budget allocated to ethics and compliance programs, though NAVEX is software-led while Ethisphere is benchmarking/assessment-led.
• LRN Corporation: LRN provides ethics and compliance education, advisory, and culture assessment services to global enterprises, including benchmarking against peer companies. LRN's advisory culture assessments directly overlap with Ethisphere's Culture Assessments and Sphere benchmarking offerings.
• The Red Flag Group: Red Flag Group is a specialist ethics and compliance advisory and benchmarking firm focused on assessing integrity programs across industries. It competes directly with Ethisphere in compliance program diagnostics and integrity culture measurement.

Broad incumbents

• Diligent Corporation: Diligent provides governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software to boards and executives — overlapping with the ethics/compliance buyer but covering a much broader GRC portfolio. Diligent's broader platform footprint makes it a threat to bundle ethics benchmarking into daily-use GRC workflows.
• Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions: Wolters Kluwer's compliance division (including its OneSumX, TeamMate, and Enablon businesses) serves compliance officers with regulatory and ESG compliance software, overlapping with Ethisphere's buyer base at a broad-incumbent level. Much larger scale, but less specialization in ethical culture.
• Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence: Thomson Reuters offers regulatory intelligence, compliance, and risk data products to large enterprises and law firms. Shares Ethisphere's regulatory-defense buyer persona but is a broad, diversified incumbent rather than a focused ethics/culture specialist.
• Dow Jones Risk & Compliance: Dow Jones provides anti-money laundering, sanctions, and third-party risk data — distinct from Ethisphere's culture/benchmarking niche but reaching the same compliance officers and ESG/risk buyers at large enterprises. Adjacent incumbent.
• Workplace Ethics & Compliance (various Big 4 advisory practices): Big 4 advisory practices (EY, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte) run ethics and compliance advisory engagements for large enterprises, competing with Ethisphere's program assessment services. Broad incumbents with cross-industry consulting scale but less specialized in standalone ethics benchmarking data.

Emerging players

• Workiva: Workiva is a cloud platform for ESG, sustainability, audit, and governance reporting. As mandatory ESG reporting expands, Workiva increasingly competes for the same CCO/ESG budget that drives demand for Ethisphere's Private Equity Holistic Risk Assessment and ESG-related BELA resources.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@Ethisphere
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ethisphere-institute
• Xx.com/ethisphere

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ethisphere Institute