Big Companies Start To Give More

By The NonProfit Times - November 4, 2014

As the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession, nearly two-thirds of the nation's largest corporations increased their giving between 2010 and 2013. This is often driven by performance: revenue increased a median of 11 percent among companies giving 10 percent or more between 2010 and 2013. Those were some results from Giving In Numbers, an analysis of corporate giving by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) and The Conference Board, both based in New York City. Data comes from 261 corporations representing more than $25 billion worth of giving in 2013. Median total giving was $18.46 million per company. Central to the study was a matched subset of 144 companies that provided giving data in all four years, 2010 through 2013. More than half of the 64 percent of those companies in the matched set that increased giving increased by 10 percent or more. In that matched set, aggregate giving went up 15 percent, from $15.22 billion in 2010 to $17.55 billion in 2013. Non-cash contributions - product donations and pro bono services - accounted for 90 percent of that increase. Pro-bono service is the fastest growing employee engagement program. Companies offering pro-bono service jumped from 35 percent in 2010 to 50 percent in 2013. However, pro-bono was only 19 percent of all noncash giving. Product donations were king in 2013, making up an average of 60 percent of noncash giving. Other noncash contributions clocked in at 21 percent of noncash gifts.

Growth, however, slowed last year compared to prior years analyzed in the study. Among companies that increased their giving, their change in median giving was 6 percent, down from 17 percent in 2012 and 21 percent in 2011. Companies that decreased their giving did so by 6 percent in 2013, compared to 1 percent in 2012 and 5 percent in 2011.

For the 10 percent of organizations in the matched set that reported a slight decrease (less than 10 percent), many cited a one-time spike in giving in response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012 as the reason for a slowdown in 2013. Those companies giving significantly less (10 percent or more) reported company-wide cost reductions, corporate divestitures and transitioning away from cause areas previously supported. While respondents classed as Fortune 100 companies (of which there were 52) gave much higher than average, giving fell for those companies between 2012 and 2013, from a median $66.29 million in 2013 to $62.94 million in 2013. "Several (Fortune 100) companies have begun better aligning their corporate giving focus with their business strategy, resulting in a transition away from unaligned partnerships. Several survey respondents cited this as a reason for the decrease in giving," wrote report author Michael Stroik, manager of research and analytics at CECP. As giving climbed, the number of corporate grants dropped from a median of 1,000 in 2010 to 701 in 2013.

Grant making expenses also fell: median $2.2 million in 2010 to $1.8 million in 2013. "Companies are clearly making fewer grants and contributions staff likely have greater bandwidth to monitor and evaluate grants on an ongoing basis." More than three-quarters of corporate giving departments measured the outcomes or impacts of the grants they made in 2013. More than one in three survey respondents (38 percent) expect their giving levels to increase for 2014. About half, or 48 percent, expect no change, and only 13 percent expect a decrease. "Two cause areas, Higher Education and Health and Social Services, could have a strong year in 2014, based on the fact that these two areas were supported more in 2013 by companies that expect to increase their giving than by companies that expect to decrease their giving," wrote Stroik. Stroik sees the trends found in the Giving In Numbers report as a continuation of business practices established during the recession. "Companies implemented more strategic and business-aligned community investment strategies during the recession, which continue today," he said via a statement.

"They continue to see the win-win of their more strategic - and in many cases increased - community investments as their revenues rise with their societal engagement."

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