posted on: Thursday, March 30, 2006

What’s the value of corporate philanthropy? We know that lots of corporations now require their philanthropic giving to have a positive impact on their bottom lines. The notion is “strategic philanthropy”, defined as “Corporate philanthropy that serves the interests of the corporation” (http://www.wordspy.com/words/strategicphilanthropy.asp).

Here’s a recent example of relevance to NCRP’s work. In 2005, NCRP published a study looking at the strategic philanthropy of the Wal-Mart Corporation and the Walton family members who own the retail behemoth (The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy, available at www.ncrp.org). Here’s a great example straight from the pages of the national newspapers:

Wal-Mart wants to go into retail banking and has filed an application with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Lining up against Wal-Mart’s application have been numerous community organizations that were distressed by Wal-Mart’s initial desire to get an exemption for its bank from the Community Reinvestment Act requirements for bank investments in low-income areas, a request Wal-Mart has since dropped as a concession to its opponents, though the opposition to the Wal-Mart application hasn’t ceased.

Offering to weigh in in favor of Wal-Mart’s bank application? The Salvation Army. Yep, according to the director of national community relations for the huge nonprofit, the Salvation Army plans to be a “character witness for Wal-Mart and their (sic) support for communities”, citing among other things Wal-Mart’s support for the Sallies’ Red Kettle Christmas Campaign in addition to Wal-Mart’s charitable work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (“A Show of Hands on Wal-Mart,” New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/24/business/24bank.html?ex=1144386000&en=882ac2c4b1134d9d&ei=5070&emc=eta1, March 24, 2006).
Maybe that’s a thank you for Wal-Mart’s rushing in to offer support to the bell-ringers when the Target company decided not to give the red kettles charitable solicitation rights at their stores over other charities (Rick Cohen, “Target vs. Salvation Army: It’s About More than Just Bell-Ringers”, The NonProfit Times, February 1, 2005, available at http://www.ncrp.org/downloads/NCRPinTheNews/AR-020105-The%20NonProfitTimes-Target_vs_Salvation_Army.RC.pdf). There you have it, a case study of the corporate bottom line benefits of strategic philanthropy.