Corporate Philanthropy
Corporate philanthropy refers to the allocation of organizational resources toward social causes, in the form of money (financial support), goods (in-kind donations), or time (employee volunteering). What is understood to constitute a social cause varies. Companies may support the provision of public goods, such as offering financial support to a museum or volunteer time to clean local parks, or the alleviation of social ills such as child leukemia or bilharzia, often by allocating resources to global NGO partners like the Red Cross. Corporate philanthropy is sometimes understood as a facet of a broader “corporate social responsibility,” or CSR, whereas others challenge this notion by differentiating between corporate philanthropy’s “one-off check writing” versus more systematic forms of companies’ social engagement, such as efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.