Corporate Leaders Tout Philanthropy's Benefits Amid Grim Financial News

By Caroline Preston

In addition, GE started providing $2 for every $1 its employees give to social-service charities, a doubling of support.

Mr. Corcoran said his company trimmed giving to some of its core programs, such as education, the environment, and global health, in order to step up its support for social services.

“We had to find a way to address this current crisis within our budget,” he said. “We found a way to cut some programs and reduce the funding to some others. Everybody got a little bit of a hair cut.”

While Mr. Moore, of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, said some companies are laying off employees at their foundations and corporate-social responsibility programs, none of the four businesses represented on Monday said they had cut such jobs.

Nor did the foundation executives anticipate that giving to charities overseas would be hit particularly hard as a result of the recession. Corporate philanthropy to international causes has increased steadily over the last few years, according to a Chronicle survey, and the group of corporate executives expected that trend would continue.

“If your program is really strategic, it will reflect where the growth is in your business,” said Ms. Laserson, of the Moody’s Foundation. “Our growth is coming from outside the United States and our philanthropy is increasing outside the U.S.”

Marketing Strong
The foundation executives said that the money they spent on cause marketing would also remain strong during the recession, because customers continue to say they prefer products that benefit charities and social causes.

“Cheerios’ consumers like the fact that we give money to support childhood reading; our Yoplait customer really cares about the fact that Yoplait has contributed $14-million to the Race for the Cure,” said Christina L. Shea, president of the General Mills Foundation. “The more you can build giving back into what your company is doing or what your brand stands for, the more sustainable that giving is.”