Corporate In-Kind Donations Up 5 Percent in 2009

While corporations cut back their charitable giving in 2009, non-cash contributions by U.S.-based companies rose by 5 percent, USA Today reports.

A recent survey of the nation’s largest companies conducted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy and USA Today found that the dollar amount of cash grants awarded by U.S.-based corporations declined some 7.5 percent, to $3.9 billion, in 2009. The survey also found that non-cash contributions of items such as computer equipment, software, drugs, and employees’ time accounted for more than 50 percent of the total charitable contributions at nineteen of the companies surveyed. For example, employees at Bank of America, which contributed $209.1 million to charity in 2009, donated 800,000 hours of service and have pledged to donate a million hours in 2010.

Corporations have long encouraged their employees to volunteer their time and expertise to community-based organizations. Microsoft, for example, awards paid time off to as many as five employees a year, matching up to $17 for every volunteer hour served. In return, participants in the program help shape and run the company’s charitable giving program.

“Without these people, there is no way that my team of two could sit and dream up the kinds of innovative things that they do each year,” said Akhtar Badshah, senior director of global community affairs at Microsoft. “It also builds this momentum for giving that has all sorts of spillover and impact throughout the year.”

Garton, Christie. “Companies Donate Employees’ Time, Service Instead of Cash.” USA Today 8/08/10.

Source: Philanthropy News Digest