Corporate foundations spending & income trends revealed in nfpSynergy report
Melanie May | 23 January 2017 | News
Corporate foundations receive the greatest proportion of their incoming resources from their founding company, and spend near to or over 100% of this on charitable giving, according to an nfpSynergy report.
The report, Strong Foundations: How corporate foundations raise money and do good work, has been compiled using information from two previous reports on corporate foundations published by Corporate Citizenship, a report published by the Association of Charitable Foundations, data from the Charity Commission and the individual webpages of the foundations in question.
nfpSynergy researched 20 UK corporate foundations to reveal general trends regarding sources of income, spending on charitable activities, causes supported, and relationship to founder company.
It found that more than half of the 20 foundations investigated receive over 50% of their incoming resources in the form of financial gifts from their founding company. This varied greatly between the foundations in the study however: Bupa UK Foundation and the Panasonic Trust receive 100% of their incoming resources through donations from their founder corporations for example, while the Hoover Foundation and the John Lewis Foundation receive none. Nine foundations out of the 20 receive 80% or more of their incoming resources from their corporate founder.
Around a quarter receives donations from the public as part of their incoming resources, often through collection tins in stores, or using online schemes. Four of the 20 foundations receive income from sales of merchandise by the founding store, namely John Lewis (98% of incoming resources), Costa Foundation (48%), The Body Shop Foundation (41%) and Greggs Foundation (25%).
Four also receive some income from staff fundraising. The WH Smith Group receives the most, as 50%, followed by Ford of Britain Trust (21%), Costa Foundation (4%) and Greggs Foundation (2%).
While most foundations seem to support multiple causes, those with staff or in-store fundraising schemes often support causes picked by the staff or public, and common sectors are social welfare and economic hardship, young people, and education.
90% of respondents to one of the Corporate Citizenship surveys referred to said that they have at least ‘some senior management involvement’ from the founding company. 84% have at least one trustee from the founding company, and 58% said their giving strategy is linked to their business focus.
In general, corporate foundations are spending near to or over 100% of their incoming resources on charitable giving, supporting multiple causes from a wide range of sectors, many of which have no link to the business focus of the founding company.
The report, including references to the data used, can be read in full on the nfpSynergy site.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.