The Business Case for Strategic Philanthropy

Is strategic philanthropy smart business? More and more companies are donating goods, services or cash for good causes—causes that fit a company’s overall strategy. Corporate philanthropy often gets a bad rap, but the reality is the largesse of industrialists past and present has helped build a strong America. Regardless, past corporate scandals, globalized supply chains with dubious social impacts and environmental degradation together mean companies just cannot cut a check and say they are “doing good.”

So they are doing more, and yes, partly out of self-interest. One company embarking on a strategic philanthropy agenda is the multinational company, SAP. The company has recently ramped up donations of its technologies across the world. At first glance, they are compassionate, but there is more behind giving out free software for a good cause. As in the case of many companies, emerging and “frontier” markets are the last places where SAP can grow, and these countries offer potentially huge rewards and returns. So strategic philanthropy as part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) in emerging markets agenda, is wise, yet complicated, policy.

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