A recent global study by Corporate Citizenship provides insights on corporate foundations and why they are shifting from mere altruism to a more strategic, hands-on approach. Elga Reyes reports on EcoBusiness.com
Here is an excerpt from the article:
While companies worldwide are increasingly integrating their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes into their operations, corporate foundations continue to be a popular vehicle for corporate giving, a recent report by consultancy firm Corporate Citizenship has found.
In the report, “Corporate foundations: A global perspective”, released in March, the UK-headquartered firm noted that the nature of corporate foundations are changing and many are moving away from traditional grant giving to a more focused and hands-on approach.
In some cases, these entities, although legally distinct, actively draw on the expertise and knowledge of the funding company to solve key social issues.
While there is no global definition for a corporate foundation, the firm in their report defined it as a non-profit body that has been established and primarily funded by a company for the purposes of social and community investment.
Corporate foundations have been around even before the concepts of CSR or social impact investing have been invented, said Corporate Citizenship, which has extensively studied the subject since 2006, particularly in the United Kingdom. Corporate foundations began as philanthropy, a “history of reactive grant giving”, they said.
The firm’s co-founding director Amanda Jordan said the continued popularity of corporate foundations “might be surprising to some” as the trend is to integrate community investment and corporate responsibility more generally into mainstream business.
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