Global Corporate Giving Data Reveals Greater Focus on International Giving
Thirty One Companies Participated in Unique Look at Global Giving
April 11, 2013 /3BL Media/ - CECP, a valued partner to leading CEOs and companies that prioritize community engagement, found through its pilot Global Guide study that leading companies around the world, sharing data on their 2011 contributions, designated 44% of their total giving to international recipients. Median overall giving for Global Guide respondents was US$39 million. The Global Guide study is the first collection of global corporate contributions data using newly developed criteria and valuation guidance that can be applied to giving programs across the globe, created by CECP last year with pro bono assistance from Deloitte.
“With these Global Guide findings, the public for the first time has access to a focused analysis of global corporate giving data, allowing a deeper look at how companies are approaching international societal engagement,” stated Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP. “We knew through our Corporate Giving Standard (CGS) analysis of 214 companies that global footprints were expanding, but until we asked a new set of questions using new definitions for what counts, we did not know how extensive the global commitments were.”
The results also showed that while setting funding priorities, reporting on data, and budgeting are done in the headquarters office, the approval process of the grantees was largely done at the local level.
The data were collected from 31 companies from diverse industries representing North America, Europe, and Latin America. Fifty five percent of survey respondents were headquartered in the US, 13% in France, 10% in Brazil, and 10% in United Kingdom.
The median annual revenue of respondents was US$38.9 billion; the median pre-tax profit was US$5.27 billion; and the median total employees equaled 61,000. The sum of total contributions across all respondents was US$5.2 billion in total giving: 46% direct (corporate) cash, 32% foundation cash, and 22% non-cash.
Eleven companies reported their total giving breakdown to specific countries; 114 countries received contributions from at least one company. More specifically, eight companies made contributions to South Africa, and seven companies made contributions to Argentina, China, Japan, and Mexico.
The following 31 companies contributed their data to create a better understanding of global giving:
Abbott, Alcoa, Amway, AXA, BNP Paribas, Brasil Foods, Cargill, Cisco Systems, The Coca-Cola Company, ConocoPhillips, Gerdau, GlaxoSmithKline, Hess Corporation, HSBC Holdings plc, JPMorgan Chase, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Kraft Foods, Macquarie Group, Merck, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola Solutions, Inc., Pearson, Praxair, RBC, Renault sas, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Sabre Holdings, TOTAL S.A., Votorantim, Western Union, Zurich Insurance Group.
These results will inform a global expansion to CECP’s benchmarking tools that compare international giving between companies, including Fortune 500 companies.
The criteria for the survey originated from The Global Corporate Giving Initiative which analyzed giving standards in 17 countries (those with the greatest concentrations of headquarters of the largest companies in the world) to establish a single, precise characterization of the types of organizations that can be counted within corporate contributions programs. CECP released this report in 2012 with pro bono assistance from Deloitte.
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CECP draws together and empowers senior executives of the world’s leading companies to achieve unprecedented progress on society challenges while driving business performance. Through high-powered connectivity and the platform to multiply investments in solving the world’s most pressing issues, CECP is an irreplaceable tool catalyzing the forces that drive big change.
