FEBRUARY 2007: BUSINESS TOOLS
Corporate Philanthropy: Start the new year with a new look at
giving
Creating a charitable giving program can be as simple as
sitting down and writing out a list of what’s important
to you.
As you reflect on the year past and the year to come,
it’s common to begin to think about what you will do
differently, even better in 2007. Like the personal fitness
commitments we often make at the advent of a new year, now
marks an opportunity for you to attend to the fitness of your
business as well. One strategy that can move your organization
toward well-rounded health is to start — or revamp
— a corporate giving program.
As the end of the first decade of the new millennium
approaches, philanthropy as a business strategy continues to
hold a place of importance in shaping a company’s mission
and values. According to the Center for Corporate Citizenship
at Boston College, there are four principles that define
corporate citizenship:
The five easy pieces of starting a giving program
1. Clarify your goals. Convene an internal
committee to assess what your business hopes to accomplish
by implementing a giving program. Goals may include support
for an organization whose mission — such as
education, the environment or health — aligns with
your business and is important to your employees.
2. Identify tax benefits. Businesses can
benefit from government tax incentives for charitable
giving. In addition to your tax adviser, an organization
such as the Oregon Community Foundation can advise you
about the tax benefits of setting up a business or family
foundation, as well as provide guidance on all aspects and
choices for charitable giving to help maximize the success
of your business’s philanthropic efforts.
3. Set a budget. Create a line item on
your annual budget for the amount you will allocate to
charitable giving. Once the annual donation amount is set,
it can serve as a roadmap for how many worthy causes your
business can support throughout the year.
4. Develop an internal process.
Administration of the charitable giving function is
important to overall program success. Before launching your
program, determine logistics, such as how solicitations
will be handled, frequency of donations, how donation
history will be tracked and who will coordinate the actual
contribution awards.
5. Establish clear criteria to evaluate
requests. Because there are many worthy causes in
every community, it can be difficult to choose where to
give. By establishing criteria you can narrow the field of
requests to those that best meet program objectives.
Criteria can include: tax-exempt status, use of the
donation, board size and activity level, and scope and
importance of organization to the community.
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Minimize harm:
Minimize the negative consequences of business activities and
decisions on stakeholders, including employees, customers,
communities, ecosystems, shareholders and suppliers. Examples
include operating ethically, championing human rights,
preventing environmental harm, treating employees responsibly
and delivering safe, high-quality products.
Maximize benefit:
Contribute to societal and economic well-being by investing for
the benefit of the larger community, such as volunteering in
the arenas of education, health care and family and youth
development; ensuring stable employment; paying fair wages; and
producing a product with social value.
Be accountable and
responsive: Build relationships of trust and
transparency. Create mechanisms to include the voice of
stakeholders in governance, produce social reports assured by
third parties, operate according to a code of conduct, and
listen to and communicate with stakeholders.
Support strong financial
results: The responsibility of a company to return a
profit to shareholders must always be considered as part of its
obligation to society.
In the same way that a business plan helps a company stay on a
profitable course, a charitable giving program can help a
business strengthen its position as a good corporate citizen
and create an increased sense of satisfaction among
employees.
Understandably though, the prospect of beginning a charitable
giving program and choosing a worthy charity can be
daunting.
Even if the economy has you worried, here are five simple steps your business can
take to get a giving program started — or back on
track.
Creating a charitable giving program can be as simple as
sitting down and writing out a list of what’s important
to you. Or it may take the form of a more organized series of
meetings that include managers, employees or even customers. In
any case, by setting a clear course up front, you can ensure a
solid charitable giving program that will benefit your business
and your community.
— Greg Chaillé,
president,
Oregon Community Foundation;
www.ocfl.org
