Corporate Philanthropy and Its Impacts

Introduction

Philanthropy is a word with Greek origin but has relevance and meaning for everyone out there. We are aware of philanthropy’s basic concept i.e. love for mankind. Over some time, like everything else, even this basic concept has diversified. There are several ways and strategies in which one can help out their fellow humans. One such way is known as corporate philanthropy (CP). There is an academic way of looking at this concept, and then there is a simpler way. In this discussion, we opt for the latter as we explain the nitty-gritty of CP by narrating its advantages observed in real-life scenarios. So, without further ado, let us begin, shall we?

Defining corporate philanthropy

In simple terms, corporate philanthropy is all about different ways adopted by companies to create a positive social impact. To achieve this positive social impact, companies must utilize the resources at their disposal in a clever manner that is both strategic as well as generous. These resources can include financial capital, human capital, and different services offered. The goal of corporate philanthropy is to bolster the community’s members struggle for achieving their goals and dreams.

Corporate philanthropy strategy

Today, companies are allocating a lot of their resources and time to the development of strategies that comprehensively cover the concept of CP. A CP strategy must be designed in such a manner that it can be incorporated into every aspect of the business while preserving the philanthropic values. Cutting to the chase, a corporate philanthropy strategy must be comprehensive.

Benefits of corporate philanthropy

At this stage of the discussion, we know that CP is all about actions taken by businesses to improve societies. Hence, it is no brainer, figuring out the benefits associated with corporate philanthropy. For one, communities get much-wanted support this way and for another, surrounding markets also benefit from this type of philanthropy. Community support and market development are directly linked to greater economic success. The model pays dividends in all sorts of scenarios, but impoverished and backward areas seem to benefit from it greatly.

Importance of corporate philanthropy

The modern business strategies and models heavily focus on image building. CP has its importance in this context. The more a company is interested in the betterment of a particular society, the more favorable opinions are generated about that company. And that is crucial! Goodwill leads to trust and with trust, there is an increase in customers or consumers of a particular service offered by a company. The ultimate goal of any company is more sales and more profit, no matter how much they beat about the bush. That is where corporate philanthropy has great importance.

Types of corporate philanthropy

Over the past few years, the concept of CP has bloomed and blossomed well. Companies have come up with numerous ways of engaging in CP, which we refer to as types of corporate philanthropy. A company may devise a corporate philanthropy strategy that involves matching gifts, volunteer grants, employee grant stipends, community grants, or volunteer support programs. Each type has its advantages, and in some cases, disadvantages.

Corporate philanthropy examples

This could take a while, but we are going to mention these programs initiated by various companies and Multi-National Corporations, just briefly here. Take the example of PepsiCo which has several philanthropic initiatives going on that cover domain like healthy lifestyle, nutrition, clean water, and sustainable agriculture. Shell has several matching gift programs as well. Apart from that, giants like Google, Apple, and Dell are also running many initiatives of this nature.

Corporate philanthropy vs. CSR

It is all about the scope. The scope of corporate philanthropy is narrower as compared to CSR i.e. corporate social responsibility. While the former deals with a particular cause, the CSR is concerned with society overall. One can say that CSR is concerned with an organization more than CP concept is. Usually, it is the welfare foundations and NGOs that are the major receivers of CSR. An example of this would be Pakistan’s biggest crowdfunding platform Transparent Hands that is a receiver of CSR budget as well.

Conclusion

This is quite a diverse concept, which needs a lot of discussion and deliberation for a better understanding. We wish we could throw some further light on the topic, but the limitations of time and space force us to wrap-up this debate here. We bid you farewell with an optimistic hope that you learned something, if not everything, from this discussion!