Abstract
In the United States, corporate foundations are seen as part of the foundation sector and of the nonprofit sector more generally. They began to emerge after World War II. In the early years, corporate philanthropy was purposely detached from business interests, a trend that changed staring in the 1980s. Although there are no regulations targeted specifically toward corporate foundations in the United States, they are subject to regulations as private foundations by tax authorities. According to the Foundation Center, as of 2014, about 3 percent of American foundations were corporate foundations (2521 out of 86,726). One estimate suggests that 40 percent of corporations in America have a corporate foundation. They tend to give locally, to relatively uncontroversial causes, and to many grantees—such a strategy creates goodwill from the community, a better trained workforce, and a loyal customer base. Ironically, as corporate foundation officials are pressured to maintain a strategic connection to the parent corporation, they often struggle to find support for the foundation’s activities from their peers inside the parent corporation. This tension between serving the greater good and advancing the interests of the corporation is a challenge that no other type of foundation is facing.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
The National Center for Charitable Statistics compiled this information. For the exact numbers, please see http://nccsweb.urban.org/nonprofit-overview.php
- 2.
The Boston Review (2013) published a forum of prominent scholars on the place of foundations in a democratic system, available at http://bostonreview.net/forum/foundations-philanthropy-democracy (accessed 10 February 2019). The arguments discussed above mirror some of the points raised by these scholars.
- 3.
Again, I invite readers to read the nuanced arguments presented by the scholars in the Boston Review forum (available at http://bostonreview.net/forum/foundations-philanthropy-democracy) to get a better sense of the overall debate.
References
Anheier, H. K., & Hammack, D. C. (Eds.). (2010). American foundations: Roles and contributions. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Anheier, H. K., & Leat, D. (2013). Philanthropic foundations: What rationales? Social Research: An International Quarterly, 80(2), 449–472.
Barnard, J. W. (1997). Corporate philanthropy, executives’ pet charities and the agency problem. New York Law School Law Review, 41, 1147–1178.
Bernardo, R. (2017). 2017’s most charitable states. WalletHub [online]. Available at: https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-least-charitable-states/8555/. Accessed 30 Nov 2017.
Billitteri, T. J. (2000). Donors big and small propelled philanthropy in the 20th century. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, January 13.
Boris, E. T., Renz, L., Barve, A., Hager, M. A., & Hobor, G. (2006). Foundation expenses & compensation. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, the Foundation Center, and Philanthropic Research, Inc..
Bremner, R. H. (1988). American philanthropy (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Brown, E. R. (1979). Rockefeller medicine men: Medicine and capitalism in the Progressive Era. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Brown, W. O., Helland, E., & Smith, J. K. (2006). Corporate philanthropic practices. Journal of Corporate Finance, 12(5), 855–877.
Brulle, R. J. (2000). Agency, democracy, and nature: The U.S. environmental movement from a critical theory perspective. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
CECP. (2016). Giving in numbers (2016th ed.). New York, NY: CECP.
Council on Foundations (CoF). (2012). Increasing impact, enhancing value. Arlington, VA: Council on Foundations.
Cousens, T. W. (1949). How far corporations may contribute to charity. Virginia Law Review, 35(4), 401–424.
Diaz, W. A. (1999). The behavior of grantmaking foundations. In H. K. Anheier & S. Toepler (Eds.), Private funds, public purpose: Philanthropic foundations in international perspective (pp. 141–154). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic.
Domhoff, G. W. (2002). Who rules America?: Power and politics. Boston, MA: McGraw.
Dowie, M. (2001). American foundations: An investigative history. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ebrahim, A. (2005). Accountability myopia: Losing sight of organizational learning. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 34(1), 56–87.
Faulk, L., Lecy, J., & McGinnis, J. (2012). A partial theory of nonprofit success in grant markets. Presented at the annual conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organization and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), Indianapolis, Indiana.
Fernandez, K. M., & Hager, M. A. (2014). Public and private dimensions of grantmaking foundations. Public Administration Quarterly, 38(3), 405–439.
Foundation Center. (2012). Key facts on corporate foundations. New York: Foundation Center. Available at: http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/nationaltrends.html?_ga=1.68574232.841823220.1459433112. Accessed 31 Mar 2016.
Foundation Center. (2017). Foundation stats. [online] Foundation Center. Available at: http://data.foundationcenter.org/. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.
Frumkin, P. (1998). The long recoil from regulation: Private philanthropic foundations and the Tax Reform Act of 1969. The American Review of Public Administration, 28(3), 266–286.
Frumkin, P. (2006). Strategic giving: The art and science of philanthropy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gramm, C. J. (1961). Corporate donations to religious and educational bodies. Notre Dame Law., 37(2), 206–219.
Guthrie, D. (2010). Corporate philanthropy in the United States: What causes do corporations back? In E. S. Clemens & D. Guthrie (Eds.), Politics and partnerships: Voluntary associations in America’s political past and present (pp. 183–204). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hall, P. D. (2002). “Inventing the nonprofit sector” and other essays on philanthropy, voluntarism, and nonprofit organizations. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hammack, David C. (2006). American Debates on the Legitimacy of Foundations. In: K. Prewitt, M. Dogan, S. Heydemann, and S. Toepler, eds., The Legitimacy of Philanthropic Foundations: United States and European Perspectives. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, pp.49–98.
Hammack, D. C., & Anheier, H. K. (2013). A versatile American institution: The changing ideals of realities of philanthropic foundations. Washington: Brookings Institution Press. Hill.
Himmelstein, J. L. (1997). Looking good and doing good: Corporate philanthropy and corporate power. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Karl, B. D., & Katz, S. N. (1981). The American private philanthropic foundation and the public sphere 1890–1930. Minerva, 19(2), 236–270.
Karnani, A. (2010). The case against corporate social responsibility. The Wall Street Journal, August 23.
Katz, S. N. (2016). Does philanthropy threaten democracy? Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall, 70.
Kiger, J. C. (2000). Philanthropic foundations in the twentieth century. Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Koushyar, J., Longhofer, W., & Roberts, P. W. (2015). A comparative analysis of corporate and independent foundations. Sociological Science, 2, 582–596.
Labovitz, J. R. (1973). 1969 Tax reform reconsidered. In F. Heinman (Ed.), The future of foundations (pp. 101–131). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Lagemann, E. C. (1989). The politics of knowledge; the Carnegie Corporation, philanthropy, and public policy. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Marts, A. C. (1953). Philanthropy’s role in civilization: Its contribution to human freedom. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.
Masulis, R. W., & Reza, S. W. (2014). Agency problems of corporate philanthropy. [online] ECGI – Finance Working Paper No. 370. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2234221. Accessed 10 Jan 2017.
McCambridge, R. (2016). Philanthropy of pharmaceutical companies under DOJ scrutiny. Nonprofit Quarterly [online]. Available at: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/08/02/philanthropy-pharmaceutical-companies-doj-scrutiny/. Accessed 10 Dec 2017.
McClimon, T. J. (2004). The shape of corporate philanthropy yesterday and today. GIA Reader, 15(3). Available at: https://www.giarts.org/article/shape-corporate-philanthropy-yesterday-and-today.
Morsy, L. (2015). Corporate philanthropic giving practices in US school education. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 26(4), 1510–1528.
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2002). The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy. Harvard Business Review, 80(12), 56–68.
Prewitt, K. (2006a). Foundations. In W. W. Powell & R. Steinberg (Eds.), The nonprofit sector: A research handbook (pp. 355–377). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Prewitt, K. (2006b). American foundations: What justifies their unique privileges and powers. In K. Prewitt, M. Dogan, S. Heydemann, & S. Toepler (Eds.), The legitimacy of philanthropic foundations: United States and European perspectives (pp. 27–48). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
Reich, R. (2013). Forum: What are foundations for? – Opening. [online] Boston Review. Available at: http://bostonreview.net/forum/foundations-philanthropy-democracy. Accessed 10 Jan 2017.
Roelofs, J. (2003). Foundations and public policy: The mask of pluralism. New York, NY: Albany.
Rushton, S., & Williams, O. (Eds.). (2011). Partnerships and foundations in global health governance. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sealander, J. (1997). Private wealth and public life; Foundation philanthropy and the reshaping of American social policy from the progressive era to the new deal. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Sharfman, M. (1994). Changing institutional rules: The evolution of corporate philanthropy, 1883–1953. Business & Society, 33(3), 236–269.
Smith, N. C. (1994). The new corporate philanthropy. Harvard Business Review, 72(3), 105–114.
Smith, J. A. (1999). The evolving role of American foundations. In C. T. Clotfelter & T. Ehrlich (Eds.), Philanthropy and the nonprofit sector in a changing America (pp. 34–51). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Smith, W. H., & Chiechi, C. P. (1974). Private foundations: Before and after the Tax Reform Act of 1969. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute. State University of New York Press.
Tremblay-Boire, J. (2015). International grantmaking by American foundations. PhD. University of Washington.
Weaver, W. (1967). U.S. Philanthropic foundations: Their history, structure, management and record. New York: Harper and Row.
Weisbrod, B. A. (1975). Toward a theory of the voluntary nonprofit sector in a three-sector economy. In S. Rose-Ackerman (Ed.), The economics of nonprofit institutions (pp. 21–44). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Werbel, J. D., & Carter, S. M. (2002). The CEO’s influence on corporate foundation giving. Journal of Business Ethics, 40(1), 47–60.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tremblay-Boire, J. (2020). Corporate Foundations in the United States. In: Roza, L., Bethmann, S., Meijs, L., von Schnurbein, G. (eds) Handbook on Corporate Foundations. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25759-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25759-0_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25758-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25759-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)