Corporate foundations and broader corporate giving
 Corporate giving is not a new phenomenon
 However, growth in corporate responsibility agenda has meant:
 Emphasis on business practices
 Less inclination for corporate philanthropy
 Align charitable / community activities with core business focus
That said…
 Corporate giving still considered to be important (Percent Club)
 GlaxoSmithKline = £328 million in 2005 (cash, time and gifts)
 Corporate donors contribute just under 3% of the UK charity income
 52 new corporate foundations were set up in 1990’s
 24 so far since 2000
“Revealing the Foundations”
Rationale for research
 Knowledge and understanding of corporate foundations is limited
 Little previous research conducted
 Views on even the basic information vary widely
 Interest in knowing more and need for practical guidance
Aims and objectives
The aim of the research was find out more about corporate foundations in England
& Wales:
 how many are there?
 how much income do they receive and what do they invest it in?
 what activities do they support?
 how integrated are they with their founder companies?
Our objectives were to use the findings to:
 inform interested parties about corporate foundations
 provide some practical - setting up / reviewing
 open up a debate about the role of foundations in corporate giving
Methodology
 Gathered lists of foundations from relevant organisations and
directories including CAF and ACF
 Cross-checked data with FTSE 100 and BITC list
 Confirmed details using Charity Commission Register of Charities
 Conducted 34 telephone interviews
 Identified nine corporate foundations for detailed case studies
Defining a corporate foundation
A corporate foundation is a registered charity whose
primary income is derived in some way from a
corporate source
Funding sources
 Investment income on assets originally given by a company
 Regular donations from a company
 An endowment linked to a company’s profits
 Money raised by a company’s or employees’ fundraising efforts
 Gift and support in kind
Main findings
Prevalence
Based on our definition, there are 126 corporate foundations currently
active in England and Wales
60
52
50
40
28
24
Number of foundations 30
20
13
9
10
0
1960s
1970s
1980s
Decade of foundation set up
1990s
2000s
Reason for set up
Most foundations are set up to provide a transparent, formalised
structure to corporate giving.
Other reasons include:
 marking an anniversary or special event
 individual philanthropy of senior person in the company
 structural change, eg mergers, demutualisation
Levels of support
Total income for corporate foundations 2004-5 amounts to
approximately £208 million
37
40
Number of
foundations
35
28
30
25
20
17
15
13
15
10
6
7
3
5
0
up to
£50k
£50k £100k
£100k £500k
£500k £1m
£1m £5m
Income bracket
£5m £10m
Over
£10m
No
accounts
Total expenditure for corporate foundations 2004-5 amounts to approximately
£167 million, with approximately £148 million going on direct charitable
donations, mostly in grant form
42
45
Number of
foundations
40
35
30
23
25
20
15
10
21
15
11
9
2
5
3
0
up to
£50k
£50k £100k
£100k £500k
£500k £1m
£1m £5m
Spend bracket
£5m £10m
Over
£10m
No
accounts
Nature of support

Majority fund through grants
 Minority fund research, scholarships, secondments etc
 Generally support a broad range of charitable activity
 More likely to have broad funding areas than narrowly focused ones
Focus of support
Most foundations are not focusing their work on areas that link closely
with the activities or focus of their founder company
Unknow n, 12
No link w ith
business focus, 78
Links w ith business
focus, 36
Focus of support
Small number have specific regional focus, usually linked to traditional
location and focus of founder company
Unknown, 13
Regional focus, 29
No regional focus,
84
The issue of risk
 Ability to fund more controversial areas felt to be benefit of having a foundation
 Company can remain at arms length, whilst gaining reputational benefits
 Foundation = legitimacy and authority
 Can lead to conflict with the business
Northern Rock – exclusion and disadvantage, domestic abuse and reoffending
Nationwide – “Supporting Families” prisoners families, domestic violence, young offenders
Zurich Community Trust – “Disadvantage” drug abuse, older people, India
Employee involvement
Some foundations support the involvement of employees in charitable
activities: match giving; organising volunteering events / programmes;
payroll giving
Unknown, 18
No employee
involvement, 79
Supports
employee
involvement, 29
Identifying partners
 Most giving is reactive, although some do approach specific organisations
 Some feel overwhelmed with requests – don’t need to look for more causes to
support
“We do not proactively seek out causes, or heavily market our foundation as it is a small
foundation and we would be inundated”
“If we advertised in any way other than the website, there would be too many applications to
process. The trust receives around 10,000 applications per year”
“There are many applications to the foundation each month. The trustees do examine new
areas that they may be able to support, but they do not particularly seek them out.”
Evaluation
 CCI – growing focus on evaluation:
Inputs:
Outputs:
Outcomes:
Impacts:
Resources contributed
Quantifiable units that are direct products of
activity
Benefits or changes for intended
beneficiaries, usually linked to objectives
All changes arising from the programme’s
activities
 Almost all monitor inputs, outputs and outcomes
 Evaluation varies - six monthly / annual report, withholding of funding
 Some starting to measure impacts
 Recognition of evaluation burden but also value
What next?
1) Maintaining a database of corporate foundations
2) Exploring corporate foundations from other perspectives
3) Exploring issues in more depth
4) How are corporate foundations different
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