The rates of charitable donations against profit before tax were analysed for the years 1988 to 2002 for two groups of UK FTSE 100 companies. Using a method based on public recognition of company name, the two groups, controlled by mean and standard deviation market value by year for size, were categorised as high and low visibility. It was hypothesised that higher visibility companies would have a higher overall rate of corporate giving based on the presumption that charitable involvement and associated giving would be associated with the higher need to manage a range of social stakeholder claims concomitant with the higher visibility. The hypothesis was supported at a statistically significant level of confidence. The authors are, respectively, lecturer in financial accounting at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and principal lecturer in accounting at Northumbria University. Dr Campbell is the corresponding author (d.j.campbell@ncl.ac.uk). Contact details Dr David Campbell Accounting and Finance University of Newcastle upon Tyne Business School Armstrong Building Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU England Tel: 00 44 191 222 5395 Email: d.j.campbell@ncl.ac.uk Acknowledgements Thanks to Chris Cowton for helpful feedback on an earlier version of this paper and to Mike Cox for helping with the stats. Public visibility as a determinant of the rate of corporate charitable donations. Abstract The rates of charitable donations against profit before tax were analysed for the years 1988 to 2002 for two groups of UK FTSE 100 companies. Using a method based on public recognition of company name, the two groups, controlled by mean and standard deviation market value by year for size, were categorised as high and low visibility. It was hypothesised that higher visibility companies would have a higher overall rate of corporate giving based on the presumption that charitable involvement and associated giving would be associated with the higher need to manage a range of social stakeholder claims concomitant with the higher visibility. The hypothesis was supported at a statistically significant level of confidence.The rates of charitable donations against profit before tax were analysed for the years 1988 to 2002 for two groups of UK FTSE 100 companies. Using a method based on public recognition of company name, the two groups, controlled by mean and standard deviation market value by year for size, were categorised as high and low visibility. It was hypothesised that higher visibility companies would have a higher overall rate of corporate giving based on the presumption that charitable involvement and associated giving would be associated with the higher need to manage a range of social stakeholder claims concomitant with the higher visibility. The hypothesis was supported at a statistically significant level of confidence.