The only thing surprising about the article in the url link below is that the FT deemed it sufficiently newsworthy to put it on the front of its ‘Companies and Markets’ section (Issues: Advertising, p151; Brands, p153):
“Wal-Mart, one of the biggest corporate charitable donors in the US, is overhauling how it gives its money to ensure philanthropic efforts are more closely linked to its brand positioning.”
The idea that any firm should do anything other than align its philanthropic donations with its defined interests seems shocking. This is not intended to diminish the social value of corporate philanthropy; merely to indicate that firms have expertise in specific areas. If they are to donate anything of value, it makes sense to do it in an area in which the firm excels, has a stake, and can benefit in terms of a higher profile. I am not trying to be overly controversial, but the more I think about it, the only argument I can think of not to transfer the corporate philanthropy budget into the marketing department is that the tax free status of charitable donations seems to maximize the amount of dollars donated.
As with anything connected to Wal-Mart, the numbers are huge, but it is interesting that the company remained a CSR pariah for so long given the vast amounts of money it donates:
“Wal-Mart gave away more than Dollars 290m in the US last year, a level of corporate giving approached only by Bank of America, the largest US retail bank, and about double the gifts made by GE, JPMorgan Chase and Ford.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
Wal-Mart makes its big charity spend go further for the brand.
By JONATHAN BIRCHALL
420 words
4 March 2008
Financial Times
USA Ed1
Page 17
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9ac7ff4-e98b-11dc-8365-0000779fd2ac.html
