By the Numbers: Charitable Giving
Banking and giving While it’s true that companies and corporations of all stripes are involving themselves in strategic charitable giving, banks and other financial institutions are in a particularly advantageous position to play a more pronounced role in aiding charitable causes. Aaron Tunison, a senior vice president and senior wealth planning strategist for California Bank & Trust, sees this firsthand. “Because it is their business to advise and assist their clients in the ways and means of financial planning, banks are in a unique position to further advance these worthy causes across the board,” he says. Tunison notes that as an employee of CB&T, and in his very specific role of advising and educating clients on how to accomplish their charitable goals,
a moral imperative that they and their employees include giving back as a direct function of their business activities and their employment. Corporate philanthropy has evolved further over the last decade. One of the key developments is how responsive corporate causes have become to the leading cultural and political issues of our times. In fact, a recent survey in Forbes magazine revealed that in 2022, nearly a third of U.S. companies allocated new funding to support recovery and disaster relief in Ukraine as a result of the war in that country. Here at home, more than 90% of the companies surveyed reported an increase in funding that addresses racial inequality. Today, the importance of corporate social responsibility can’t be overstated. Businesses— especially large corporations—are generally expected to take a leadership role in addressing social, educational, health-related and environmental challenges. That corporate mandate is reflected in innumerable strategies to actively fund charitable causes and organizations. Customized volunteer experiences One of the major outcomes of the emphasis on today’s corporate charitable giving is reflected in how many different opportunities it presents for employees to give back to their communities. Companies are clearly getting creative. Project Angel Food, for example, is a Los Angeles County-based nonprofit that cooks and delivers healthy meals to people suffering from serious, disabling illnesses. The organization exists largely through individual, corporate and governmental
In 2022, Americans gave $499.33 BILLION to charity. The largest source came from individuals, who contributed $319.04 billion, presenting 64% of total giving.
Corporations gave more than $21 BILLION to nonprofits in 2022, an increase of 3.4% over 2021. The top 10 most generous corporations donate over $2 BILLION annually to nonprofits, much of it through employee matching gift programs. 91% of companies match donations dollar for dollar. 84%
donations, as well as individual and corporate- sponsored volunteering. In fact, volunteers are the heart of Project Angel Food. Each year, thousands of local individuals, many of whom participate in corporate “give back” initiatives, dedicate more than 40,000 hours helping prep food in the kitchen, pack meals, deliver meals or help with administration. Another program for corporate-sponsored volunteerism in the community is Dollars for Doers, which provides financial donations, or service grants, to nonprofits based on the number of volunteer hours corporate employees perform. According to Bright Funds—an organization whose sole purpose is to assist companies in developing corporate social responsibility strategies—for every hour volunteered, a company will match those hours at a designated rate-per-hour, and donate those matching funds to the charity where the employee volunteers his or her time.
the bank is fully behind charitable work and that philosophy of doing business. “In my view,” he continues, “what’s interesting is that the emphasis on corporate giving to worthy causes has had a trickle-down effect on the employees of those companies. Company leaders are encouraging them to personally get involved in charitable organizations the company supports, as well as charities of their own choosing.”
“The emphasis on corporate giving to worthy causes has had a trickle- down effect on the employees of those companies.” Aaron Tunison Senior Vice President and Senior Wealth Planning Strategist, California Bank & Trust
of employees say they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered, while one in three say they’d give a larger gift if matching is applied to their donation. 40% of Fortune 500 companies offers volunteer grant programs, which award monetary grants to organizations where their employees regularly volunteer. 80% of companies with volunteer grant programs pay between $8 and $15 per volunteer, per hour volunteered. 65% of Microsoft employees participate in annual giving campaigns, making the company the largest contributor of corporate philanthropy funds.
Primarily, Tunison says, the bank’s responsibility in promoting charitable giving is a moral one. “It’s just the right thing to do. Anytime we have a client who is charitably inclined, it’s important to recognize and support that inclination to help others.” From the bank employees’ perspective, that philosophy of giving back takes many forms, Tunison explains. “There are numerous CB&T bank employees who serve on the boards of a variety of charities. So, at any given time, there might be a lot of different charitable causes that the bank is supporting, either in the form of straight allocations of funds or through the ‘roll-up-your-sleeves’ activities our employees engage in to personally support those causes.”
Today, the importance of corporate social responsibility can’t be overstated. Businesses— especially large corporations— are generally expected to take a leadership role in addressing social, educational, health- related and environmental challenges.
Source: Double the Donation
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IN YOUR CORNER ISSUE 15 | 2023
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