June 14, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Corporations increased their giving by a median of 4.7 percent last year, say preliminary findings from a new study.
The median value of company contributions last year was nearly $33.3-million, which means half the companies gave less than that amount and half gave more.
The growth, fueled mostly by businesses in the service industry, followed a spike in corporate giving in 2005, when many companies increased their donations to provide relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, says the report by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, in New York.
The committee based its research on data provided by 113 companies, 44 of which ranked among the 100 largest companies in terms of revenue according to Fortune magazine. The organization said the companies in its study awarded $10.6-billion last year.
Differences in Approach
Companies were divided in their giving patterns, the study found. Of the 89 companies that provided data over the past two years, 50 of them gave more in 2006 than the year before — including 12 companies that increased giving by more than 30 percent. Thirty-nine decreased their donations last year.
The companies that gave more last year were mostly those in the service industry, which have earned strong profits in recent years. New accounting procedures have also allowed companies to better track and report their donations of cash, goods, and services, the report says.
Manufacturing companies — especially those donating fewer products in the wake of disaster-relief efforts in 2005 — made up the bulk of those businesses that decreased giving last year. Some companies also produced fewer goods or saw the value of their donated products drop last year.
Companies also increased the share of their giving that went overseas. In 2005, 11.4 percent of all company donations went to overseas beneficiaries; last year that number rose to 13.5 percent. Manufacturing companies gave 20 percent of all their donations overseas, the report says, reflecting a corporate trend toward providing donations where employees and customers are based and revenue is generated.
The release of the committee’s figures comes a few weeks after the Foundation Center released a report showing that corporate foundations increased their giving last year by 2.7 percent after adjusting for inflation (The Chronicle, May 31).
A full report of the survey results will be available in the fall. For more information, go to the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy Web site.
