How The Chronicle Compiled Data on Giving by Big Companies

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual survey of corporate giving is based on data from 106 of the biggest companies in America.

The newspaper sought data from all of the 300 highest-ranking corporations on Fortune magazine’s list of the 500 top revenue-producing companies. Companies are not required by law to disclose data about their giving.

Corporate foundations, however, must follow the same disclosure rules as all other private grant makers, providing details on their tax forms about the amount they give each year.

The Chronicle has included giving figures for 49 companies based on these tax forms.

The Chronicle’s analysis is based on cash and product donations distributed in the United States and abroad. Cash totals include grants awarded by company foundations and money donated by the corporations themselves to charities in the United States.

Overall giving totals include cash gifts plus the fair-market value of products the corporations donated. The figures do not include money that companies transfer to their foundations or the value of paid time off for employees who do volunteer work.

More information is available online, including a searchable database of company giving information, an interactive look at the companies in the survey, and a list of companies that declined to complete the survey.

The Chronicle’s survey of corporate giving was compiled by Marisa López-Rivera, Emma Carew Grovum and Sarah Frostenson.