The role of non-profit corporate foundations in Korea: Positive and negative perspectives

Abstract

There are two opposing views on the role of private foundations, especially the corporate foundations. Korean people seem to think that corporate foundations have been used as a device to transfer the wealth of rich families with favourable tax treatment. Considering the curret status and past performance of corporate foundations, the evidence seems to lend support to this negative view at the moment. The corporate foundations have performed within a very limited range of activities and have not made many efforts to develop non-profit activities to meet the expectations of Korean society. The negative view does not imply that corporate foundations have not contributed to Korean society. But the negative view can be regarded as a criticism of the past performance of corporate foundations and the way they have been managed.