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Ethical records on top corporate donors published
Howard Lake | 26 May 2005 | News
Access to this information will enable charity fundraisers, campaigners and policy makers to scrutinise the ethical records of some of the UK’s largest organisations.
Fundraisers might be surprised at the records of some of the top corporate donors to charities, based on Ethical Consumer Information Systems’s (ECIS) information.
Visitors to ECIS’ stand at Charity Fair 2005 exhibition were presented with a league table that highlighted the true ethical performance of the top corporate donors to charities.
The league table was based upon the Ethiscores compiled by the organisation’s Corporate Critic database and the Directory of Social Change’s own table that appeared in its recent edition of ‘The Guide to UK Company Giving 2005’.
Helen Middleton, Business Development Director at ECIS, said: “fundraisers were surprised if not alarmed to discover that some of the leading corporate donors didn’t always have the most ethical records. Accepting money directly, or embarking upon corporate sponsorship and marketing arrangements with the ‘wrong’ partner, could present long-term reputational problems for charities”.
The portfolio of the top 25 Corporate Charitable donors includes organisations such as Unilever, Marks & Spencers and Northern Rock plc.
In addition to this free listing, ECIS’ subscription-based Corporate Critic database is now available at a “substantially lowered” rate.
The Top 10 UK Corporate Charitable Donors
Rank Company Ethiscore
1 Lloyds TSB Group plc 5
2 Northern Rock plc 13.5
3 The Royal Bank of Scotland plc 4.5
4 Barclays plc 1.5
5 Unilever UK 1
6 Diageo plc 8
7 HBOS plc 8.5
8= Ecclesiastical Insurance Group plc 12.5
8= Marks & Spencer 3.5
10 GlaxoSmithKline plc 3.5
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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.