Contribution from corporates rises steadily

01 Feb '08

4 min read

Education, on the other hand, is gaining in importance as a beneficiary category for companies and corporate foundations.

For the first time since 1999, survey participants reported an upturn in the share of U.S. contributions allocated to education—up 7.1 percentage points from 2005, to 17.8 percent.

Pharmaceutical Companies are Top Donors:
“Bolstered by exceptionally large non-cash gifts, pharmaceutical companies continued to dominate as the top donor industry in the U.S,” says Carolyn Cavicchio, Senior Research Associate, The Conference Board Center for Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability.

“Their U.S. contributions outpaced all other industry groups substantially with respect to actual dollars and goods.”

For pharmaceutical companies, the median ratio of contributions to consolidated pretax income was 7.03 percent, compared to the overall 0.71 percent; the median ratio of contributions to worldwide sales was 1.45 percent, compared to the overall 0.08 percent; and median ratio to the number of employees was $12,273 per employee, compared to the overall $449.

The survey also reports:
- Among the 76 companies and corporate foundations that provided forecasts of their international cash giving for 2007, cash giving is expected to rise by a median of 1 percent, and according to 61 companies, non-cash contributions budgets are expected to remain unchanged.
- In a continuation of historical trends, a major portion of international contributions made by manufacturing companies consisted of non-cash gifts (74 percent).
- On the other hand, the services sector contributed nearly 80 percent of its funds in cash donations through corporate foundations, with close to half of the share distributed directly through regional foundations abroad and nearly one-third through foundations at corporate headquarters in the U.S.
- U.S. corporate contributions as a median percent of U.S. pretax income increased to 1.16 percent in 2006, compared with 1.01 percent in 2005, keeping pace with corporate profits. But they have not rebounded to the approximate level of 1.61 percent between 2002 and 2004.
- The ratio of U.S. contributions measured as a median percent of worldwide sales was at 0.12 percent in 2006, which is a slight rise from 0.10 percent in 2005, but still below the level of 0.14 percent in 2004.
- In 2005, median total (U.S. and international) contributions per worldwide employee were $449, a small increase of $15 per employee from 2005.
- The compositional breakdown of cash and non-cash gifts remained largely unchanged from 2005 to 2006. Continuing the trend of the past four years, non-cash gifts—including company products, property, equipment, and other material donations—made up the largest portion of all corporate contributions in the U.S.

This category alone accounted for half of overall giving. Company direct cash contributions (25 percent) and cash donations made through corporate foundations (25 percent) accounted for the other half.

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