It is theorized that corporate social responsibility contributes to sustainable development to the extent that it favors social inclusion, reduces environmental impact, and reinforces governance while at the same time strengthening the economic viability of the company; however, not all corporate social responsibility practices are equal or contribute in the same way to sustainable development. This is because many of these, on the one hand, do not reduce the impacts of the operation of companies. On the other hand, they do not directly assume the associated costs, which is why this article aims to characterize the practice of corporate responsibility in Colombia in terms of its contribution to sustainable development, identifying whether the company itself assumes CSR practices. To achieve this objective, data from 7,233 Colombian companies are examined, performing a two-stage cluster analysis (hierarchical and K-means), resulting in an empirical model of characterization of modalities of social responsibility versus CSR cost externalization, where diverse behaviors were found, which were grouped into five profiles—externalizers, conservatives, politically correct, undecided and pioneers—that account for the different perspectives with which Colombian companies approach their corporate responsibility and their contribution to sustainable development.