Corporate Gifts Research Articles

Mothers Against Drunk Driving—MADD in the USA

Many organizations have been born from tragedy, but few are as widely recognized, powerful, and enduring as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Primarily grassroots and volunteer driven, MADD has over...

Corporate Gifts to Academic Researchers

Corporate Gifts to Academic Researchers

Do corporate gifts compromise biotech researchers?

Do corporate gifts compromise biotech researchers?

Side Payments in Marketing

Side payments, known politely as gainsharing and pejoratively as bribery, are prevalent in marketing. Indeed, many management schools have added ethics modules to their basic marketing courses to d...

Tax and Government Policy Implications for Corporate Foundation Giving

Even though there were over four million firms in 1988, only 1,300firms had foundations. However, these foundations contributed nearly $1.3 billion to charities. This article examines the effects of tax and other government policies on the establishment and use of corporate foundations in the United States from the early 1900s until the late 1980s. In addition, the study looks at the effect of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on corporate and foundation giving. Two hypotheses are tested. First, corporate foundations may allow firms to smooth corporate gifts and maintain a steady level of corporate "goodwill." The notion of goodwill is similar to firm image or reputation. Second, corporate foundations may allow firms to minimize their tax bills, or maximize profits, over time. The findings of this paper support both hypotheses under the assumption that firms are profit maximizers. Tax and government policy makers can affect the timing and amount of corporate charitable donations by changing the corporate marginal tax rate, the social perceptions of corporate charitable activities (including foundations), the rulings on tax liability for foundations, and laws on deductibility of corporate and foundation gifts.

Campaign for Chemistry Drawing to a Close

The American Chemical Society's fund-raising drive, the Campaign for Chemistry, which was launched in 1988 to obtain financing to bolster several society activities, will end next March 31. Currently, the campaign has raised nearly $24 million in contributions and pledges, still short of the original $35 million goal. Corporations were initially targeted to supply $25 million of that total and individuals $10 million. As the campaign draws to a close, 44 corporations so far have contributed a total of about $17.8 million. The largest of these corporate gifts kicked off the campaign—$2 million each from Du Pont and Dow Chemical. Three other firms—Eastman Kodak, Exxon, and Monsanto—have contributed $1 million each. According to ACS's Campaign Office director Jennifer D'Elia, individual contributions and pledges currently total more than $6 million. Among these are two very large donations: $2.5 million (the largest single donation from any source) from Donald F. Othmer and his wife Mildred Topp Othmer, ...

Market and Institutional Factors in Corporate Contributions

Corporate gifts to nonprofit organizations are determined by both market and institutional factors. Among the leading market factors are a firm's pre-tax earnings, advertising and customer relations, and community and national reputation. Among the main institutional factors are a company's size, program professionalization, senior management commitment, local and national business attitudes toward giving, sectoral concentration, and company reorganization. The blend of factors in corporate giving suggests that appeals—whether from an outside group to a company or from a contributions manager to a chief executive—must be responsive to both market and institutional concerns.

From What We Gather: On a quiz machine, University of the Trees, Indiana U. and divestiture, corporate gifts, Coastermania

From What We Gather: On a quiz machine, University of the Trees, Indiana U. and divestiture, corporate gifts, Coastermania