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Annual Report 2024-25

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By the Numbers

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By the Numbers

The efforts of the Center’s marketing and communications team are designed to deliver materials created by our program leaders, ethicists, and student fellows to the widest possible audience and increase visibility for the Markkula Center and Santa Clara University. Below is an overview of the various channels used to reach our audiences.

 

A collage showing various media tools (microphones, video, social media, etc.) 3,110 media mentions 17% increase over previous year.
Media Coverage:

On a daily basis, publications around the world turn to the Center and its deep pool of ethicists and scholars. They request ethics perspectives on breaking stories or that we provide commentary through opinion pieces or recurring columns. In the 2024-25 academic year, the Ethics Center was cited in print, online, and broadcast outlets 3,110 times. The total estimated advertising equivalent of this media coverage is approximately $166 million. Markkula Center staff have been featured in premier publications including the Wall St. Journal, New York Times, Wired, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Axios, Daily Beast, and many others.

A computer monitor displays the Markkula Center Website. 2,806,030 2024-25 website page views 1,443,332 2024-25 website visitors.
Website Traffic:

Our continued goal is to reach individuals, companies, and governments beyond the SCU community and Silicon Valley to make our valuable resources available to the widest possible audience and achieve the greatest impact. The Ethics Center website welcomed 1,443,332 visitors in 2024-25 generating 2,806,030 pageviews. Of that traffic, 52% of our visitors were from within the United States, with 7.5% of those coming from California. 48% of visitors access the Ethics Center website from outside the United States, with visitors from Germany, the Philippines, India, Canada, and Australia topping the list of global populations to access Markkula Center website materials. We are continuing to reach communities far beyond our local, state, regional, and country boundaries. 

 

An outline of a person holding a mobile phone and looking at social media content. 19,138 social media followers. A document in an envelope with
Social Media:

Our online community reached via six social media platforms is our most direct way to engage with wider audiences. In utilizing these communication platforms, we strive to engage with both the SCU student body to encourage younger audiences to participate in the discussion of ethics, as well as to reach alumni, industry professionals, media, and academic constituents. Across the Markkula Center’s six social media platforms we published 912 posts, reaching 19,138 followers – an increase of 5% from the previous year, and we saw a 28.6% increase in overall engagement (likes/comments/shares/clicks) with our social media content. 

Newsletters:

The Center produces and sends a monthly Center Newsletter, as well as focus-area specific blog posts, RSS content notifications, and e-newsletters to over 10,000 mailing list subscribers with an open rate of 43%. 

Video:

Ethics Center video content including replays of previous year’s events and focus-area-related content received over 150,000 views in 2024-25. For the fifth year running, “In His Own Words: The Theranos Whistleblower,” remains the most watched video on our YouTube channel, and continues to be utilized within higher education as a business and leadership ethics teaching module.  Our business ethics and internet ethics playlists follow as the second and third most viewed content in our YouTube Channel.

Outline of three people with speech bubbles over their heads sitting at a table conducting a panel presentation. 14 events hosted / sponsored / moderated, by the Markkula Center in 2024-25.
Virtual and On-Campus Events:

Virtual and on-campus events are one among many forms of outreach that the Markkula Center offers to engage our community in discussions about ethics. Our staff conducted, co-sponsored, and promoted 14 events and webinars from topics ranging from misinformation and voting in the 2024 Election, and Black maternal mortality in America and a variety of AI topics – including two, day-long cross-disciplinary conferences: “AI and the Environment” and “Digital Dignity Day.”  Many of the recordings from Center events attract ongoing attention from our YouTube audience. 

New this year, we launched a series of two-day, in-person, certificate workshops on Ethical Decision Making exclusively for Santa Clara University students. The workshops filled quickly and sparked an expansion of these offerings designed for students and staff across campus, taking place during the 2025-26 academic year.

Podcasts:

The Ethics Center and Miller Center continued their collaboration with the Line of Sight podcast, and produced and promoted 7 new episodes. Together with past episodes, the podcast was downloaded over 500 times in 2024-25.

Symbols of text based website content. 117 articles, blogs, cases, and web content.
Ethics Spotlights:

Released in Summer, 2025, our Ethics Spotlight this year focused on Compassion in Governing,  with a focus on analysis of the role that compassion should play, and examining the current presidential administration’s approach to governance. 

Previously produced spotlight content on a wide array of important and timely ethical considerations continues to generate interest. Our combined spotlight-related content across all topics was viewed more than 64,000 times in 2024-25.

Articles/Blog Posts: 

Ethics Center staff and students produced 117 new essays, articles, and case studies for the Ethics Center website in 2024-25.