Corporate giving improves negative PR?
In a study looking at the charitable donations of 305 UK plcs, comprising around half of FTSE All-Share Index companies...
...analysts found that a corporate presence in one or more countries in which political rights and civil liberties are curtailed pushed up the average level of donations from £1.148m to £1.977m.
Writing in the Journal of Management Studies, the researchers suggest that this increased philanthropy could be seen as an attempt to ‘offset’ negative connotations related to the companies’ operations in controversial countries such as China, Burma, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
‘The positive impact on charitable giving is restricted to a presence in only those countries that are most lacking in political rights and civil liberties’, said Dr Stephen Pavelin, of Henley Business School, UK, part of the team who carried out the research.’Our findings suggest that companies are seeking to offset negative impressions in the eyes of the public that arise from doing business in such countries by making greater gifts to charity.’
The study drew information from the companies’ annual reports from 2002 and looked at presence in ‘countries of concern’ as defined by criteria established in the FTSE4Good index, as well as indicators of political rights, civil liberties and corruption derived from research by the independent organisations Freedom House and Transparency International.
cs-journals@wiley.com
Brammer S.J., Pavelin S., Porter L.A.; Corporate charitable giving, multinational companies and countries of concern. Blackwell Pub., 2009
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from
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