Donations Learn how to correctly treat donations.

Sarah Simon

6 min Read Time | August 10th 2021

Key takeaways

1

Donations are a great way for companies to contribute to societal and environmental problems positively. However, we must be critical of companies’ philanthropic activities.

2

You can cover the topic of donations only if the company donated a significant amount (at least US$ or EU€10 million) in one year and the donations are related to the company's core business activities.

3

Analyses on philanthropic activities outside of the company's core business activities can be accepted as long as tens of thousands of people are impacted, i.e. 20,000+ individuals.

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What is the issue?

Most companies make donations for social and environmental causes.

Writing an analysis simply on the yearly donations of a company is not sufficient to assess its impact.

How to use them?

To cover this topic, the company's donations have to be significant (at least US$ or EU€10 million) in one year/per year and be linked to the company's core business activities in terms of products or services offered.

For example, a tech company investing $100 million in underserved youth's STEM education.

Make sure to contextualize the amount of donation. You should compare the donation amount to the company's annual net income (what percentage do these donations/programs represent the company's yearly profits or net revenue?).

You can also compare the company’s donation to the overall donations for the specific cause. This will show how much the monetary contribution has helped. This can help readers better understand the scope of these initiatives (i.e., is it marginal or significant?).


Note
: Analyses on philanthropic activities outside of the company's core business activities can be accepted as long as tens of thousands of people are impacted, i.e. 20,000+ individuals.


Topics to book

Provided your analysis matches these conditions, you can write about this topic under Human Rights & Community Relations, Access to Education & Training, Promote or Hinder Gender Equality or Inclusion, or Food Waste, depending on the best fit or relevant industry.

Only one topic should be treated at a time.

Caution

One-offs donations should not make the subject of an analysis. They do not portray the real or current impact of the company.

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