Corporate Philanthropy: The Ultimate Guide to Giving
Corporate Philanthropy: The Ultimate Guide to Giving
What is Corporate Philanthropy?
Corporate Philanthropy Definition
Corporate philanthropy is the act of a corporation or business promoting the welfare of others, generally through charitable donations of funds or time.
What are the benefits of corporate philanthropy?
Corporate philanthropy helps support communities where companies are based. It supports corporate giving programs, which essentially lead to free money for nonprofits.
How can corporate philanthropy help nonprofits?
Corporate philanthropy helps nonprofits through various methods of support, such as corporate matching gift programs and volunteer grants. The impact of donations and volunteering for nonprofits can be drastically increased with the help of corporate programs.
How can corporate philanthropy help businesses?
Corporate philanthropy fosters employee engagement and generates business value. When businesses participate in corporate philanthropy, they are creating a positive public image for themselves, enhancing their relationships with consumers, and creating a positive work environment.
What is the difference between corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility?
While they may seem similar, corporate social responsibility describes the overall attitude of an organization toward society at large, while corporate philanthropy is a narrower form of corporate social responsibility.
Corporate Philanthropy Navigation
Types of Corporate Philanthropy
Matching Gifts and Volunteer Grants
Matching Gifts
Matching gifts are the most popular form of corporate philanthropy. Companies with matching gift programs donate the same amount of money (or double or triple this amount!) to the same nonprofits that their employees do.
Common parameters set on such programs are employee eligibility (e.g., only full-time employees), nonprofit eligibility (e.g., only educational institutions), match ratio (e.g., 1:1 or 2:1), maximum and minimum donations matched (e.g., gifts of $50-$2,000), and deadlines (e.g., one year after the donation).
Volunteer Grants
Volunteer grants are second only to matching gifts in popularity. These corporate philanthropy programs match employees’ volunteer hours with donations to those nonprofits.
Volunteer grant programs are usually structured with thresholds instead of an exact hour-to-donation ratio. That is, once employees have volunteered for a minimum predetermined number of hours (e.g., 20 hours), their employer will donate a set amount to that nonprofit (e.g., $500).
Other Types of Corporate Philanthropy
Employee Grant Stipends
Some corporations will award grants to employees to donate to the nonprofit of their choice. While these programs are less common than matching gift or volunteer grant programs, they are impactful for the nonprofits that benefit from them.
Community Grants
Companies, not employees, are the ones who initiate community grants. Nonprofits can apply to companies with these programs in place to explain why their organization’s mission would benefit from the grant money.
Volunteer Support Initiatives
Corporate philanthropy isn’t always about donating money. With volunteer support initiatives, companies partner their employees with nonprofits to provide specialized support only that company can provide.
Corporate Sponsorships
Companies frequently give financial support to a nonprofit to help further their mission. The nonprofit will then recognize this by acknowledging that the business has supported their activities, programs, and/or larger events.
Corporate Philanthropy Basics
Why is Corporate Philanthropy Important?
Becoming familiar with corporate philanthropy is important, especially for nonprofits and corporations. It encourages employee giving, which has a positive impact on nonprofits and society, and benefits businesses by helping them reach their goals.
For example, corporate philanthropy can lead to:
Positive Work Environment
Bringing employees together to participate in team volunteer grants or other team programs encourages everyone to see themselves as part of the greater community. This feeling of community then benefits the greater social good.
Increased Employee Engagement
Companies with engaged employees who enjoy their jobs outperform companies with disengaged workers by up to 202%! Collective participation in philanthropy engages employees with each other.
Positive Public
Image
Partnering with a nonprofit provides corporations the opportunity to publicly show their communities how invested they are through press releases, social media, and word of mouth! Their work then adds to greater social change.
Enhanced Consumer Relationships
Consumers want to buy from companies that are doing good deeds in the world, especially those that support causes they care about. By upholding their commitment to these causes, companies make a huge impact.
Corporate Philanthropy Statistics
Strategies for Nonprofits to Raise More from Corporate Philanthropy
There are multiple ways nonprofits can raise more by taking advantage of corporate philanthropy. From building awareness to actively searching your donor database, try out these tips to raise more money for your organization:
1. Use a corporate philanthropy database.
Encourage your donors to search their eligibility for matching gifts using a corporate philanthropy database. Once donors have completed their gift, they can search for their employer using a search tool embedded into your nonprofit’s website. If they are match eligible, their company’s profile will populate with the guidelines and steps they need to follow to submit a match request.
2. Automate your match eligibility process.
Invest in a matching gift automation platform that automatically searches your donors as they give to your organization and determines their match eligibility. If they are match eligible, the platform will then automate outreach to these donors encouraging them to submit a match request.
3. Encourage volunteers to match their hours.
Many volunteers at nonprofits don’t know that their companies offer volunteer grant programs. Encourage them to search their company name in a corporate philanthropy database to determine whether their employer offers such a program. If their company does, they can then follow the provided guidelines to submit a grant application.
Corporate Philanthropy Examples
| COMPANY | ANNUAL GIVING INFO | LEARN MORE |
| $12,000 maximum match per employee | Google’s program | |
| Coca-Cola Company | $20,000 maximum match per employee | Coca-Cola Company’s program |
| Boeing | $10,000 maximum match per employee | Boeing’s program |
| Walmart | $250 for 25 volunteer hours | Walmart’s program |
| Apple | $25 per volunteer hour | Apple’s program |
| Wells Fargo | $2,000 maximum match per employee | Wells Fargo’s program |
| ExxonMobil | $500 grant after 20 hours of volunteering | ExxonMobil’s program |
| Chevron | $10,000 maximum match per employee | Chevron’s program |
| Microsoft | $15,000 maximum match per employee | Microsoft’s program |
| Bank of America | $5,000 maximum match per employee | Bank of America’s program |
Leading Corporate Philanthropy Programs
Google recently set a 5-year goal to give $1 billion in grants and offer 1 million volunteer hours. They also want to help close the world’s education gap by supporting nonprofits that build platforms to scale digital learning resources to everyone. Google will match up to $12,000 in employee donations at a 1:1 ratio.
Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company values the economic empowerment and entrepreneurial development of women, education and youth development of local communities around the world, and access to clean drinking water in deprived areas. Through their corporate philanthropy programs, they will match up to $20,000 per employee at a 2:1 ratio.
Boeing
In 2018, Boeing gave more than $55 million in charitable grants to 443 nonprofits in 47 countries. They will match their employees’ charitable donations up to $10,000 at a ratio of 1:1. They also offer volunteer grants, giving $10 for every 10 hours volunteered ($10,000 maximum).
Corporate Philanthropy Database:
Learn More About Double the Donation
Nonprofits can increase their revenue by promoting matching gifts and volunteer grant programs to their supporters. Through these corporate philanthropy programs, donors can double their gifts and volunteers can make an even greater impact with their time.
Double the Donation can help both nonprofits and employees take advantage of these corporate philanthropy opportunities.
Double the Donation offers the #1 matching gifts database and volunteer grant database, with more than 8,500 organizations using it. As the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource, corporate employees can look up their companies to determine whether they are eligible for matching gifts, volunteer grants, or both.
In addition, full-service automated matching gift solutions like 360MatchPro by Double the Donation can do more than provide users with the necessary information and forms. These services can actually move donors through the matching gift request submission process, from identifying match-eligible donors through email domain screening to sending automated reminder emails. Your staff saves time, and your donors get the guidance necessary to ensure they submit their matching gift requests promptly.
How the Database Works:
STEP 1:
Access the database.
STEP 2:
Search for your employer.
STEP 3:
View the results.
Additional Corporate Philanthropy Resources
Corporate Giving Programs: The Ultimate Guide
Corporate giving programs allow all sorts of companies to invest in the greater social good.
Learn how corporate giving programs impact nonprofits and how employees can participate.
Corporate Matching Gift Programs
There are a lot of companies that offer corporate matching gift programs.
Learn more about this type of corporate philanthropy and how employees can take part!
Corporate Volunteer Grant Programs
Many companies will offer excellent volunteer grant programs to their employees.
Learn more about volunteer grant programs and how they can bring in free money for nonprofits!