Companies Urged to Increase Grants to Minority Programs

U.S. corporations should significantly increase their support for programs that benefit racial and ethnic minority groups, a new report suggests.

America’s principal minority groups — blacks, Hispanics, Asian Pacific Americans, and American Indians — together make up about 28 percent of the U.S. population, the report notes. But a survey of 124 major companies in 15 industries shows that just 14 percent of their grants go to programs primarily intended to benefit such groups.

The report, produced by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, urges grant makers to expand the support they give directly to minority groups, which it points out are growing rapidly in both size and economic and political influence.

It calls on corporations to make grants to minority groups roughly in proportion to their share of the overall U.S. population: about 14 percent for black Americans, 11 percent for Hispanics, 3 percent for Asian Pacific Americans, and 1 percent for American Indians.

The 733-page report seeks to give corporate grant makers and charity fund raisers alike the information they need to have fruitful conversations and forge stronger alliances. It summarizes giving to minority programs by each of the companies that participated in the survey, which is based on giving in 1995, the latest year for which figures were available. A grant was classified as intended primarily to benefit minority groups if the donor company identified it as doing so or if minority-group members predominated among the program’s clientele or neighborhood residents.

Of the companies profiled, some earmarked virtually all their grants for the benefit of minority groups, while others made no such grants at all. Among the most generous, as a percentage of their total giving, were the Matsushita Electric Corporation of America and its subsidiary Panasonic Foundation, Hitachi America, American Honda Motor Company, Levi Strauss & Company, and the PaineWebber Group.

Companies that gave the most cash to minority groups included American International Group (whose giving is consolidated in the report with that of the Starr Foundation, with which it has board members and top officials in common, among other close links), Exxon Corporation, General Mills, the St. Paul Companies, Aetna, the Coca-Cola Company, Levi Strauss, and Bank of America, all of which gave more than $5-million to programs directed at minority groups.

Two companies — Domino’s Pizza and Mazda North America — made no grants intended to benefit minority groups, the report says. And several others, including Huffy Corporation, Stop & Shop, Navistar International, SmithKline Beecham, Calvin Klein, and Xerox Corporation, gave less than $25,000 to such causes in 1995, it says.

The report awards each company letter grades (from A to F) for its minority-group giving both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of its total giving.

Some types of companies consistently outperformed others, the report says. “The insurance industry, which was No. 1 in this study, has proved time and again that it’s a wonderful industry in terms of grant making for people of color,” says Steven L. Paprocki, who directed the research project. “The banking industry and the automotive industry also are extremely good.”

By contrast, he adds, media and entertainment companies and those that produce personal-care products give relatively little to minority-group programs. “We don’t see those corporations participating in communities of color,” he says.

Yet because the survey reflects only cash donations, it can be somewhat misleading, he acknowledges. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, make many product donations that are not included in the figures, while many companies also make matching grants that are not reflected in the figures.

Mr. Paprocki also notes that several companies have overhauled their giving programs since 1995, so their grades do not necessarily reflect their current practices. He cites Texaco, for example, which received a C grade for its $1-million grant total to minority-group programs, and an F because those grants amounted to just 4.3 percent of its overall giving. More recently, he says, the company has substantially increased its giving to minority communities.

All the companies have been invited to submit updated figures to be posted on the organization’s Web site, along with a summary of the report.

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy hopes to update regularly its figures on corporate giving to benefit minority groups.

Mr. Paprocki says it is also hoping to obtain wider participation among major companies that did not provide sufficient information to be included in the survey, including such corporate giants as Best Buy, Burger King, Home Depot, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Kmart Corporation, Microsoft, Nike, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Time Warner.

Copies of the report, “Grants: Corporate Grantmaking for Racial and Ethnic Communities,” are available for $89.95 (plus $6 for shipping) from the publisher, Moyer Bell, at 888-789-1945, or by sending e-mail to sales@moyerbell.com. A summary of the report is available on the organization’s Web site: http://www.ncrp.org.