Although the relevance of corporate philanthropy is widely accepted, few companies achieve significant, lasting societal impact because most lack a cohesive strategy. Effective philanthropy must be run no less professionally than the core business.
Corporate philanthropy has gained substantial relevance to daily business operations. In the United Kingdom alone, leading publicly traded companies made donations to nonprofit organizations in 2003 and 2004 that were valued at more than $1.6 billion and that equaled close to 1% of the companies’ pre-tax profits.1 However, for leading companies, corporate philanthropy goes well beyond mere donations. Fannie Mae, a private mortgage company that works with the U.S. government to facilitate home loans, and the Procter & Gamble Co., were ranked first and second inBusiness Ethics’ 100 Best Corporate Citizens list in 2004. They engage in a variety of philanthropic activities, such as volunteer initiatives, community service and educational or cultural projects. Often, such engagement is part of a larger framework of corporate social responsibility that also covers issues such as ethical business conduct, diversity and protection of the environment.2
Academics and practitioners alike have been emphasizing the strategic relevance of corporate philanthropy. They argue that companies can and should strategically use their charitable activities to create win-win opportunities for themselves and for the beneficiaries of their philanthropy.3 A similar idea is reflected in a joint statement that CEOs from renowned companies such as Accenture, McDonald’s Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, Siemens AG and Renault S.A. signed in January 2003 at the World Economic Forum. These corporate leaders acknowledged that social issues are crucial elements of their businesses and that taking active responsibility for such issues in a sound way is both economically and ethically crucial.4
Although the strategic relevance of corporate philanthropy is widely accepted, its effectiveness varies substantially. Few companies achieve significant lasting societal impacts with their philanthropy, and even fewer manage to accomplish both sustainable social effects and significant economic returns. Most companies’ philanthropic activities lack a cohesive strategy and are conducted in a piecemeal fashion, causing investments in corporate philanthropy to often simply dissipate.
In most cases, executives dismiss this ineffectiveness as an inevitable part of philanthropic engagement. By doing so, they misjudge the situation. There is no reason to treat a company’s charitable activities less professionally than the core business.