UK Companies not giving enough

UK Companies not giving enough

News (UK)

The Directory of Social Change (DSC) has published its latest Company Giving Almanac, analysing the top 418 corporate donors to UK charities and communities. The companies gave a total of £600m, including £470m in cash. The Almanac shows that giving is concentrated among a few large companies with 20% of companies giving 90% of the cash.

The majority of company support goes to educational causes, community/social welfare and children and young people. Companies also favour giving locally, based on where they have offices or branches. However, this does not necessarily account for need or levels of deprivation and leads to a concentration of giving in London and the South East.

DSC believes that its analysis covers 80-90% of all corporate giving in the UK so it estimates that the total given by all companies is £700-£800 million. This represents around 2% of the voluntary sector’s total income, while giving by the general public represents 43% and statutory sources 37%.

Dr Catherine Walker, DSC’s head of sector trends, evidence, analysis and metrics, says: “If you compare the giving totals with data taken from the last edition of the Guide to UK Company Giving, this means that total corporate support to the UK has fallen by nearly one quarter. And, before you start thinking that this is a natural consequence of the recession, let me tell you that over the same period the pre-tax profits of these companies have risen by 55% across the piste. Total contributions as a proportion of pre-tax profits stand at around 0.4% overall (across all 418 companies), with cash at 0.3% - nowhere near the 1% level widely touted as a touchstone level for corporate charitable support for many years.”

The almanac features case studies, the geographical distribution of company giving, an industry breakdown of giving and an analysis of UK corporate trusts and foundations. Cathy Pharoah, co-director, Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy, Cass Business School says: “It is an invaluable tool for busy fundraisers, and gives companies, government and policy makers a long-awaited state-of-the-art picture of corporate giving today.”
 

DSC plans to follow up this publication with a campaign aimed at getting companies to give more. Mike Tuffrey, co-founding director of Corporate Citizenship and co-founder of London Benchmarking Group, says: “If companies are to do more to support the voluntary sector - as I believe they can and should – then the powerful analysis in this Almanac can help make it happen. In these tough times, both business and society will benefit.”
 

The Company Giving Almanac, sponsored by the Pears Foundation, is only available as a digital download, priced £24.
 Company Giving Almanac 2013

  • Business/corporate philanthropy
  • Philanthropy stats & trends
  • UK