Corporations and Charitable Giving

Usually the articles about charitable giving by corporations get trotted-out around the holiday season as charitable appeals increase.  We decided to beat the seasonal rush by looking at two articles on charitable giving by companies that know their business.

Business Week published an interesting article back in November 2005 that noted the increasing salience of charitable giving by corporations.  The article cites "branding expert Carol Cone" as stating that in 1993 only 26% of those surveyed could name a company that "stood out as a strong corporate citizen."  By 2004 that number had risen to 80%.  Among those standouts are places like Home Depot that contributes substantial amounts of materials to rebuilding and refurbishing projects nationwide.  Others, like Altria Group Inc., are big philanthropic contributors earning kudos from philanthropy groups but generally remaining out of the public eye.  Business Week notes that in the case of Altria, the parent company to Marlboro cigarettes, "contributions will never be enough to overcome the issues inherent in making a lethal product."

Interestingly enough it is not corporations who give the most to charity – it's individuals.  According to Forbes, "while Americans gave an estimated $240.72 billion to charitable causes in 2003--up 2.8% over 2002, the largest increase in three years--corporate philanthropy accounted for only $13.46 billion, or 5.6% of the total."  It seems more corporations may be giving than ever before, though, as Business Week reported that, "52% of the world's 250 largest corporations filed separate reports on corporate responsibility in 2005. That's up from 45% in 2002."

It is always nice to see corporations give of themselves, especially since charity is something that does not naturally arise from competitive enterprise in a profit-driven environment.  Hopefully the increased exposure of charitable efforts and the goodwill that results from them will push American corporations to give even more in the coming year.

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