Research shows scale of corporate giving in Ireland
Howard Lake | 2 December 2014 | News
Eighty percent of companies in Ireland are engaged in some sort of philanthropy, according to new research published by Philanthropy Ireland.
Multinational companies having the highest rate of engagement at 94%, followed by large domestic companies at 88% and SMEs at 70%.
The most popular causes supported by Irish based companies are heath (38%), poverty (34%), young people (34%) and children (33%). Most companies favour cash giving while multinationals and larger local companies are more likely to also provide volunteering opportunities to charities.
Who in a company makes the decision on charitable support?
The research showed that the CEO is the most influential decision maker in local companies when it comes to charities, with 49% of CEOs at large domestic companies and 62% in SME’s taking a lead in company giving.
In larger multinational companies employees tend to play a bigger role where the research found only 16% of CEOs make the decision who to support. A core benefit of corporate philanthropy for multinationals and larger companies is empowering their employees by giving them the responsibility for selecting the cause that the company will ultimately support.
The research found that a high proportion of companies (42%) aim to align their philanthropic activity with the company’s overall business goals and objectives but the importance of tying in philanthropic activity with business objectives varies across business categories.
Measuring impact of philanthropy
Over half of the companies in the survey measure the success of their philanthropy (53%) and each use different methods to do this. The most popular measurement of success for companies is the feedback that they receive from the cause supported.
A copy of the full report can downloaded from Philanthropy Ireland’s website.
Photo: corporate giving by Syda Productions on Shutterstock.com
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.