Business contributions to UK charities are increasing in monetary terms, according to the latest edition of The Guide to UK Company Giving, published by the Directory of Social Change on September 4. The 504 companies listed in the guide contributed £502m in cash and kind in 2000-01, compared to £429m reported in its 1998/99 edition. For the top 400, this represents 0.42% of pre-tax profits – 0.2% less than the previous year. Ten years ago the figure was 0.46%, indicating that corporate contributions have fallen short of rising profitability.
approaching half of companies in the Guide’s research (45%) publish a total community contributions figure more comprehensive than pure charitable donations, up from 25% in the last edition;
just under a third operate a payroll giving scheme;
17% undertake at least one causerelated marketing (CRM) activity – worth £17.5m which the DSC has excluded from its reported total. Contact John Smyth, DSC, on 020 7209 4949 (http://www.dsc.org.uk)
Giving by the USA’s largest 2,019 corporate foundations amounted to an estimated $2,984m in 2000, according to the Foundation Centre. The figures show a rise of 2.6%, slightly slower than inflation. Contact Stephen Lawrence, FC, on 00 1 212 807 2410 (http://www.fdncenter.org)
Comment: international: ‘globalisation is good’ say the poor
August 01 2002
by Briefing staff
Contrary to the brouhaha about Jo’burg, international business brings benefits, a fact more widely welcomed that campaigners care to admit.
So globalisation is good for you after all? The NGOs who are making corporations the villain of the Jo’burg piece have got it all wrong? Alas no. Welcome though the news reported in this sectionis, there is still much more to do. Take the GSK commitment to healthcare in the developing world: in our health section below, we also report WHO research that only one per cent of new treatments discovered in the last 25 years address diseases found mainly in poor countries. (In itself hardly surprising, since the private sector has been paying for most of the research and it has to make a return on investment by selling to people who can afford to pay: small consolation to the overwhelming majority of the world’s population who can’t.)
But the fact remains that the private sector is stepping forward. Viable solutions can be found, as the SustainAbility study shows. Individual companies are starting to make changes. Responsible business leaders say they want transparent reporting and appropriate international regulation. What’s needed are the other sectors, public and civil society, to join in (and, it must be said, help to keep up the pressure on the private sector). Perhaps that’s why Friends of the Earth is running its pre-Earth Summit fundraising pitch to UK members under the slogan “act now to stop corporate power wrecking our planet” (aka, give us a big donation). Or may it’s just they’ve noted another finding of the Environics study. Never mind that people in poor countries think they benefit from globalisation. Westerners (=FoE members) know better: six in ten say the poor are losing out from our affluent lifestyles. Let’s blame a company, and ease our guilt. Seems as if effective but disingenuous marketing is not the sole preserve of the private sector after all.
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