CORPORATE MOVEMENT

A new report on corporate giving will be music to some ears and will be ringing in others for quite some time to come. Forty-two percent of corporations and 37 percent of corporate foundations recently surveyed said their charitable giving budgets will decrease in 2009. LBG Research Institute predicts that the overall decrease will be in the 3 percent to 5 percent range.

Fully half of corporate foundations said that their giving budget (including cash and non-cash) will stay the same in 2009. Thirty-seven percent, though, said this budget will decrease. Only 4 percent said their charitable giving budget will increase.

As for corporations themselves, more respondents are decreasing their giving budget (42 percent) and fewer said their budget will remain the same in 2009 (35 percent).

The 76 corporations and corporate foundations that participated in the survey indicated an abrupt move from arts and culture toward basic needs and environmental causes. Forty-nine percent of those that supported arts and cultural institutions in 2008 said they will decrease their giving in that area, while 24 percent of corporations and corporate foundations that support environmental causes plan to increase their support in 2009 for that area. Of those that in 2008 supported organizations serving basic human needs, 23 percent will increase their support this year.

The overwhelming majority of respondents said they plan to be more strategic with their giving, meaning they will shift to supporting local organizations instead of national ones. Corporations said they want to give more money to fewer organizations to increase the impact of their gifts.

LBG Research Institute’s report, Doing More With Less: How the Economic Downturn Will Impact Corporate Giving in 2009, is available for a fee at the institute’s website www.lbgresearch.org. Diversifying your income stream, as well as recouping support, will be discussed in greater detail at the Public Interest Fundraising symposium next month.