By: Paul Klein
According to a recent LBG Research Institute survey, American corporations anticipate no change or, in fact, an increase in charitable giving for 2009. Although 42% of corporations and 37% of corporate foundations surveyed say their charitable giving budgets will decrease in 2009, the Institute predicts that the overall decrease will be far less than the 12.1% drop in 2001 reported by Giving USA 2002.
80 percent of corporations report that their giving will be more strategic next year, directed at causes in need, with greater impact and efficiency at work. Related to this, a key implication is the need for corporations to evaluate and measure the social and business outcomes of their investments in social issues. (I’d be happy to happy to provide anyone who’s interested with an overview of the Impakt Valuation Tool – the management tool Impakt developed over the last four years to pinpoint the business outcomes of key community investment partnerships.)
Finally, I saw Bill Clinton on TV speaking about how the landscape of donations is changing this year. According to Clinton, we will see a growing importance of grassroots-level support as evidenced in Obama’s election campaign.
One Response to “ Philanthropy in 2009: Strategic, Measureable, Grassroots ”
With regard to the last point, another interesting development may be the move towards community service-focused CSR (e.g. Frosted Flakes’ ‘Plant a Seed’ campaign which supports renovating playgrounds/playing fields.)
There is some feeling that this may come at the expense of green initiatives, as corporations/communities begin to focus on their immediate surroundings, perhaps losing sight of the bigger picture initiatives that are typically the domain of the green movement.
Is this a kind of CSR isolationism? And if so, is this is a bad thing?
By Jeremy on Feb 23, 2009