Corporate giving now exceeds $1 1/2 billion annually. At a time when foundation giving has apparently stopped growing, corporate philanthropy has great potential to take up the slack. Yet only one in five corporations reports a tax-deductible gift and corporate giving averages only one fifth of the deductible contributions the law allows.

This book describes how corporate giving can be not only effective - but exciting and relevant; that these efforts are of benefit to the giver as well as to the receiver; and that philanthropy can be an important part of the corporation's presence in society. But to do this with maximum impact, each corporation must develop an effective giving strategy:

• How will the company organize its philanthropic efforts?
• How much will be contributed each year?
• What criteria will be used to decide where these funds will be distributed?
• How will decisions be reached and by whom?
• Should support go to established causes and/or new initiatives?
• How much risk-taking is appropriate in corporate giving?
• To what degree will employees be involved?
• How can corporate executives be more effective board members of nonprofit organizations?
• Will noncash company resources also be utilized?
• What is the proper role of united giving in the company's overall program?
• How much corporate giving information should be made available to employees, shareholders and grant-seekers?
• How can corporations help nonprofits to be better managed?

Many areas of critical social need can benefit from corporate giving, including assistance to minorities and women, training the unemployed, family planning, addiction research, protecting the environment, special education programs, international educational and health projects, and support of the arts and public television. Examples of creative and effective giving are provided from the author's own corporate experience.

CONTENTS
Part 1.

  1. Corporate giving: The untapped potential. 
  2. A strategy for corporate giving and community involvement.
  3. Corporate disclosure: Let the sun shine in.
  4. Organizing for effective giving.
  5. Proposal evaluation: Impulse, habit, or reason.
  6. Employee involvement: A rich but under-utilized resource.
  7. Fifteen ways to provide valuable support without making a cash
      contribution.
  8. Helping nonprofits to be managed more effectively.
  9. How corporate executives can be more effective Board members of
      nonprofit organizations.
10. United giving: the only way to fly?

Part 2.

11. Aid to education: A solemn duty.
12. Free enterprise: should business support those who don't support the
      system?
13. Helping minorities: education, jobs and housing.
14. Support for women's causes.
15. Family planning: Parenthood by choice -- not by chance.
16. Addiction research and treatment.
17. Employment: looking for new ways to work.
18. Environment and ecology.
19. Common ground: A community garden on company land.
20. Better transit systems for work trips.
21. Support of the arts: Fastest growing area of corporate philanthropy.
22. Public television: vital communications and cultural need.
23. International assistance: Several projects in Latin America.
24. Human rights and a peaceful world.

Corporate giving now exceeds $1 1/2 billion annually. At a time when foundation giving has apparently stopped growing, corporate philanthropy has great potential to take up the slack. Yet only one in five corporations reports a tax-deductible gift and corporate giving averages only one fifth of the deductible contributions the law allows. This book describes how corporate giving can be not only effective - but exciting and relevant; that these efforts are of benefit to the giver as well as to the receiver; and that philanthropy can be an important part of the corporation's presence in society.