Lawrence Morahan, CNSNews.com
Wednesday, June 13, 2001

For every $1 that major corporations gave to conservative groups in philanthropic contributions in 1997 - the last year for which comprehensive data on corporate giving are available - they gave $4.66 to organizations seeking more government, the study said.

This is up slightly from the previous year, when the ratio was 4.61 corporate dollars to the "nonprofit Left" for every dollar to center or conservative groups, according to "Patterns of Corporate Philanthropy: A Mandate for Reform," published by the nonprofit Capital Research Center.

"In fact, corporate funding to big-government organizations is at a near all-time high," said Christopher Yablonski, the study's author.

The study examined corporate giving by the 250 largest publicly held companies to more than 500 public affairs organizations. It also ranked companies according to the size of their grant and the ideology of the recipient organizations.

The "10 worst corporate misgivers" for 1997, according to the study, were: PNC Bank, Sara Lee, May Department Stores, Target Stores, Freddie Mac, Honeywell (acquired by Allied Signal), Schering-Plough, Georgia Pacific, Merrill Lynch and Aetna.

The "10 best corporate givers" in 1997 were: CIGNA, Chrysler, American International Group, Weyerhaeuser, Exxon Mobil, Texaco, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia, Proctor & Gamble, and Rockwell International.

CRC also reported many companies are reluctant to provide details of their giving. "Last year 150 of the 250 companies we surveyed failed to respond to written requests for giving data," Yablonski said.

"When we telephoned, 70 companies declined to participate and many others failed to return messages. A mere 57 companies voluntarily provided information for the study, and only 30 provided all data we requested. We relied primarily on IRS data that is publicly available," he said.

As the economy grew in the mid- to late 1990s, foundations grew also, and giving increased, particularly to "human service" organizations, education, health and religion, analysts said.

Corporate philanthropy is good not only for the community but also for the company's public image.

But corporate donors tend to be liberals who are likely to cave to the pressures of political correctness, said James Glassman, a commentator with American Enterprise Institute, who praised the CRC study.

"The people making these decisions on giving out foundation money in large corporations tend to be liberals who gravitate toward these kinds of jobs," he said.

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and if people on my side don't complain about it, then nothing's going to be done. I think over time you will see a shift in giving, but at this point it requires exposure and pressure," he said.

Yablonski said conservative groups should point out to corporate donors that conservatives have their best interests at heart, and if companies are funding groups such as American Civil Liberties Union, they should be persuaded to put more money into groups that are looking out for a free market.

"In the short term, companies might see a reason to fund a liberal group, but in the long term it's going to come back and bite them," he said.

Copyright CNSNews.com

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