Managing community investment or corporate giving programmes presents a major challenge for both global corporations and Small and Medium Sized (SMEs) due to, often limited, human/financial resources and community knowledge, as well as programme management expertise. Establishing a partnership with a foundation offers one effective way to address this challenge. The added value of such a partnership is that it:

• Connects the business with experienced philanthropies and enhances their image in the community;
• Enables the business to draw on the foundations' resources, networks, and knowledge of the community, as well as their expertise in programme management; and
• Enables the company to leverage its resources and expertise.

Community foundations can be particularly interesting and valuable partners at the local level in this regard as they present an important pool of local expertise, networks, private and public financial resources, and knowledge of community needs and actors. In addition, they can provide tailored services to businesses and facilitate the development of long-term relations with the local community.

Corporate Giving Programmes

Foundations can help the company with the design and management of its corporate community investment strategy, community involvement in particular. The foundation will thereby advise companies on best practice grantmaking programmes, targeting specific organisations or fields of interest.

Corporate giving programmes are similar in function to corporate foundations but they are not bound by the legal framework that regulates corporate foundations. Contribution budgets are linked to company profits and are allocated on an annual basis, usually as a (fixed) percentage from the company's profit. They can be managed by community relations departments, public relations/affairs department or the chief executive office. They are usually closely aligned with business objectives and a company's geographic location. An international corporation may establish a global corporate community investment strategy. However, the local managers, depending on the community's needs, often define the specific actions and priorities.

Employee Giving and Volunteering

Enabling employee giving and volunteering schemes as part of a company's corporate citizenship strategy has been growing in popularity and importance. These schemes are generally designed and implemented by the company's foundation or giving programme, and/or in partnership with other foundations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Companies have recognised that employee involvement in the communities carries many benefits, particularly with regard to improved employee morale and commitment, skills development, as well as in terms of recruitment. Employee volunteerism can also be an effective way to build long-term relations within the communities.

In this area foundations have been working with companies for instance to develop:

• tax-effective payroll giving scheme, which enable the company's employees to make regular donations straight from their gross salary to any non-profit charitable organisation of their choice; and
• to build match giving programmes to support employees' charitable giving through matching donations, fundraising and volunteering time.

Corporate Funds

In some case these foundation-corporate partnerships can be further formalised / institutionalised. Here foundations will support companies' grantmaking activities by managing and distributing funds on their behalf. These partnerships can take the form of corporate funds housed by the foundation for a limited period, which can be renewed by both parties. Examples can be found in the health, sport and food sectors for healthcare, social integration, children and young people projects.

Corporate Community Involvement: Promotion, Evaluation and Effectiveness

Peer-to-peer pressure on the one hand, and knowledge transfer, on the other hand, are both important ways to increase and enhance the practice of corporate community investment. In this field foundations are, or can get, involved in a range of activities to:

• supporting research, promotion and awareness raising efforts in the field of corporate community investment and corporate social responsibility
• supporting the development of organisations that focus on improving the knowledge and practice of corporate community investment
• developing specific initiatives to teach corporate citizenship to different stakeholders; and
• convening and facilitating dialogue between companies, public authorities, civil society organisations and the local communities.

Foundations and corporate community affairs managers support and encourage efforts to develop and improve tools to implement monitor and measure the effectiveness of company involvement in the communities. Such partnerships have produced, among others, the London Benchmarking Group model; the ProbusBNW Corporate Community Involvement Index; and the Measuring the Business Value of Corporate Philanthropy tool kit.

Another example of such an approach is the "Clean Business" programme, an initiative of the Polish Environmental Foundation. The programme aims to improve the competitiveness of companies in Poland by demonstrating that dealing with environmental considerations in day-to-day operations is a key contribution to business success, as well as to environmental improvement and social revitalisation. It is designed specifically for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) but is open to any company that wishes to participate.

Foundations can help facilitate coordination between different initiatives with a view to achieving greater coherence among existing initiatives in the area of evaluation, reporting, validation, etc, as well as contribute from their own body of knowledge and expertise in this area. Moreover, they can create value through enabling dialogue and partnerships, and supporting further research and analysis in this field.

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