Corporate Philanthropy Responds to the Economic Downturn

Feb. 21, 2009
As the stock market plummets and businesses struggle, corporate philanthropy is being challenged to meet growing community needs. In recognition of International Corporate Philanthropy Day on Feb. 23, Washington Grantmakers asked its corporate members how the economy is affecting giving and how they are responding to the downturn.


MAINTAINING GIVING
Barbara Dyer of The Hitachi Foundation noted that the foundation’s giving, in the Washington, DC region at least, is stable. She allowed that “like nearly every company in the world, Hitachi is being affected by the global economic crisis. Indeed, we've experienced a 20% drop in our foundation's endowment. So our giving in 2009 certainly won't increase, [but] we believe that, in the DC area, we’ll be able to maintain our current giving levels throughout 2009.”

BUILDING NONPROFIT CAPACITY
Booz Allen Hamilton will focus part of its efforts on building the capacity of the nonprofit sector. The firm will host a conference series for Washington area nonprofit professionals where experts will speak about best practices in fundraising and nonprofit management. “These sessions are designed to build the capacity of nonprofits to make them as strong as possible to weather this economic storm,” explains Joe Suarez, Director of Community Relations.

DONATING EXPERTISE
Emily Rothberg of Deloitte LLP says that the downturn “has inspired us to consider how we can make the most significant impact on the community. We've learned that in addition to traditional donations, we can often make an even more significant impact to key organizations by donating the expertise of our partners and practitioners to help nonprofits better serve individuals and families in need.”

On Saturday, Feb. 7, 60 Deloitte employee volunteers donated more than 800 volunteer hours to organize and host a Community Tax Assistance Day, providing free tax preparation for households making less than $42,000. Deloitte helped 57 Fairfax County families receive approximately $120,000 in state and federal tax refunds. According to Rothberg, “These skills-based investments represent a much greater impact than traditional giving affords, because the business skills of our executives are necessary to organizations large and small, yet groups can rarely afford the type of top shelf business building counsel they receive from Deloitte.”

LEVERAGING DOLLARS
PNC is in the midst of implementing a 10-year, $100 million investment as part of its Grow Up Great initiative. PNC’s Craig Pascal, a WG board member, notes that “Like other companies operating in this challenging environment, we are having to evaluate our charitable giving more closely than ever to ensure that every dollar is leveraged to its fullest capacity. We recognize our community commitment is now more important than ever, and we will continue to lend and make investments to encourage home ownership, economic development and partnerships with community-based organizations.”

EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES
In recent months, Booz Allen Hamilton, has ramped up internal communications to its 20,000 employees to encourage, and to make it easier for them, to reach out to nonprofits to volunteer. Says Joe Suarez, “We have put extra effort into raising awareness of our web-based GivingStation where employees can donate to their favorite causes via payroll deduction and where the firm picks up all administrative costs associated with the gifts."

Booz Allen looks for a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer time being given to a non-profit by a staff member before the firm considers becoming involved financially. In this way the intellectual capital and passions of our employees have been focused on the non-profit and its mission. That should help to ensure that [we] will have the greatest impact”

WORKING TOGETHER
Many local corporations understand that one key to success in philanthropy is collaboration. On March 12, many will gather at the The Case Foundation for an event of Washington Grantmakers’ Corporate Philanthropy Affinity Group, designed to help firms see big returns on their social investments. "High Impact Nonprofits: Investing for Results" will feature Leslie Crutchfield, co-author of Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High Impact Nonprofits.

Tamara Copeland, President of Washington Grantmakers points out that "As businesses, many in our corporate philanthropic community have different goals—they may even be competitors. When it comes to giving, though, we’re all working on the same problems and facing the same challenges. Learning together makes a lot of sense."