Corporate Relations & Engagement

Corporate philanthropy is changing.

Companies may allow their employees to volunteer while on the clock or reward customers for their volunteerism. Many give goods rather than cash and focus more on areas in which they have expertise. And, in what is perhaps the most profound shift, some companies are thinking more long term and aligning their philanthropy with their core business strategies looking for ways to do good at the same time they improve their bottom lines.

A majority of big companies cut their giving in 2009, according to a study released Wednesday by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, in New York.

Fifty-nine percent of companies gave less last year, the study found, with 40 percent reducing their giving by at least 10 percent.

Those figures were based on 95 companies that provided data for both 2008 and 2009. Over all, the survey gathered information from 171 businesses.

The Brady-Audi-Best Buddies connection is part of a world known as cause marketing, an arrangement that allows a corporation to affiliate with a charity and celebrities to burnish its public image and — potentially — boost sales. The charity, in turn, benefits from the exposure and increased marketing power that come from a corporate ally.

The arrangements are especially valuable to companies because research has shown that consumers tend to prefer products with a charity connection.

Microsoft is vastly expanding its efforts to prevent governments from using software piracy inquiries as a pretext to suppress dissent. It plans to provide free software licenses to more than 500,000 advocacy groups, independent media outlets and other nonprofit organizations in 12 countries with tightly controlled governments, including Russia and China. With the new program in place, authorities in these countries would have no legal basis for accusing these groups of installing pirated Microsoft software.

Causes, a for-profit company that lets Facebook Inc.'s users give money to charities, raised $9 million in new funding and began selling gift cards in supermarkets as it tries to bring more philanthropy to the Web.

Causes' Facebook application connects 119 million people to a range of charities, making it easy to donate small amounts.

The York County Industrial Development Authority and the York Revolution will grant Bridge of Hope of York County and the York County Library System $5,000 worth of marketing expenses and other perks to host events rent-free in Sovereign Bank Stadium next year, the authority and the team said Wednesday.

Chevron Corporation announced that it will commit an additional $25 million to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, raising its 6-year investment in the organization to $55 million. Chevron is now the single largest private sector donor to the organization. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is one of the largest funders of programs to fight global epidemics.

Gifts In Kind International has partnered with the National League of Cities (NLC) to lend a hand to Denver-based nonprofits. The organizations will join forces at NLC’s 2010 Congress of Cities & Exposition, November 30 – December 4 in Denver, Colorado. Attendees of the conference will help to sort and organize products donated through Gifts In Kind from businesses and retail stores throughout the city and beyond; donations will be distributed to qualified charities in the Denver community.

Businesses following Toms Shoes' so-called "one-for-one" giving model are pinning their hopes on consumers' consciences, saying the strategy can benefit more than just people in need by being an effective marketing tool. Eighty percent of 1,057 U.S. adults surveyed in July said they'd favor a brand that's associated with a good cause over another that's similar in price and quality, according to Cone LLC, a strategy and communications agency in Boston. And 19% said they would switch to a more expensive brand to support a cause.

Neutrogena, the #1 dermatologist-recommended skin care brand, announced today that, with the help of teens across America, the Wave for Change campaign achieved its goal of raising $200,000 for communities in need.  The donation will be divided among three causes in the US and globally, as determined by teens on Neutrogena's Facebook Page.