Corporate Giving Increased 2.7% Last Year, Study Finds

By Ian Wilhelm

Corporate foundations gave a record $4.2-billion to charity last year, and the majority expect to donate a larger amount in 2007, says a new report.

From 2005 to 2006, philanthropy by corporate foundations rose 2.7 percent after adjusting for inflation, says the report by the Foundation Center, in New York. The research group examined 2,600 organizations for the study.

Last year's growth, however, paled in comparison to the increase in company foundation giving in 2005, when it jumped almost 13 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars.

The Foundation Center attributed the slower growth in part to the massive outpouring of contributions to help victims of the South Asian tsunamis and Hurriance Katrina two years ago. Corporate foundation donations to the Gulf Coast alone equaled $358.1-million as of June 6, 2006, said the Foundation Center.

For this year, charities can expect another robust year of grants from corporate donors. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they expected to increase giving in 2007, with many of them saying it would grow more than 10 percent.

About a quarter of corporate funds said they planned to decrease the amount of money they give to charity, and 16 percent said it would stay the same.

The study does not include charitable giving by corporations themselves, which account for the bulk — about 70 percent — of their total philanthropy.

Other findings from the survey include:

• Giving by corporate foundations was 11 percent of all foundation giving in 2005, the most recent year data were available for comparing different types of grant makers. That share rises to about 20 percent if giving by corporate operating foundations is included. Usually such organizations have been set up by pharmaceutical manufacturers to distribute medicines to sick people.


• In 2005, corporate funds had $17.8-billion in assets, the smallest amount in assets compared to all other types of foundations.


• While corporate foundation giving has grown in terms of the total dollar amount, it has declined as a percentage of companies' pre-tax profits. In 1986 that figure equaled 2 percent, but in 2005 it was 1 percent.

The 7-page report, "Key Facts on Corporate Foundations," is available free on the Foundation Center's Web site.