Top 10 Unique and Helpful Insights (with Fitting Emojis):
🌍 What is corporate philanthropy?
It's how organizations contribute to societal well-being through charitable donations, volunteerism, and initiatives that address social challenges.
🏛️ What’s an iconic example of corporate philanthropy?
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, funded with over $50B by Gates and Buffett, tackles global issues like healthcare and poverty.
🎯 How can philanthropy align with business goals?
Strategic corporate giving blends societal impact with business interests, enhancing reputation, employee satisfaction, and stakeholder trust.
🩺 What sectors benefit most from philanthropy?
Healthcare, education, poverty alleviation, and climate change often see the most transformative impacts from corporate giving.
💡 How does philanthropy create strategic value?
By addressing global challenges while boosting brand reputation, building trust, and fostering innovation aligned with corporate values.
⚖️ What are the challenges of philanthropy?
Balancing altruism with corporate goals, ensuring accountability, and avoiding the perception of using philanthropy as mere PR or greenwashing.
🧠 What is impact-driven giving?
Philanthropy with measurable outcomes—focusing on data, metrics, and long-term impact rather than surface-level donations.
🌱 How does philanthropy address global inequities?
It bridges gaps in healthcare, education, and infrastructure, creating pathways for sustainable growth and opportunity.
🤝 What’s the role of partnerships in philanthropy?
Collaborations with governments, NGOs, and communities amplify impact and ensure initiatives are grounded in local needs.
🏆 What are the benefits of corporate philanthropy?
Enhanced brand loyalty, stronger stakeholder relationships, increased employee engagement, and a lasting societal legacy.
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Key Stories, Symbols, and Archetypes:
1. The Infinite Gift (🎁): The Gates Foundation embodies how strategic philanthropy can continually give back, addressing problems on a global scale.
2. The Reputation Ladder (🪜): Philanthropy helps companies climb the ladder of public trust and brand loyalty while benefiting society.
3. The Ripple Effect (🌊): A single act of giving—like funding education—creates ripples that transform communities for generations.
4. The Double Helix (🧬): Aligning philanthropy with business goals intertwines corporate growth with social good, forming a mutually reinforcing system.
5. The Lighthouse (🗼): Philanthropic organizations serve as beacons, guiding society toward solutions for its biggest challenges.
These symbols illustrate how corporate philanthropy creates societal value while advancing strategic goals, making its impact more tangible and memorable.
What role do organizations play in society, and what impact can they have on society? This is what we're talking about in this video when speaking about corporate philanthropy.
In this video, we have three learning objectives. First, we want to explore the various types of corporate philanthropy and their impact on society. In a second step, we are analyzing the alignment of corporate giving with business objectives to create strategic value. In the last step, we want to understand the benefits and challenges of corporate philanthropy in different sectors and contexts.
First of all, let's take the advantage of looking at an example. Here we have the example of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This is one of the largest private philanthropic organizations in the world, perhaps even the largest. It was founded in 2000 by Bill Gates, who was a co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation, and his wife, Melinda Gates. They gave this organization a substantial amount of money, more than 50 billion US dollars. There was also an additional person who endowed this foundation with more money: Warren Buffett, who contributed a significant sum. The foundation aims at tackling big challenges of our society, engaging in a lot of areas to support social well-being, not only in the US but worldwide. The logic here, from its founders, is that they earned their money with a global corporation, active in international markets, and therefore they see that they might have a responsibility to give back to humankind, not only to US citizens.
The mission of the foundation is to reduce global inequalities and ensure that everybody has a chance to live a healthy and productive life. To do so, they tackle the big challenges of today's society: global health, education, economic development, and climate change, aiming to support well-being for everyone on this planet.
So, what is corporate philanthropy? Looking at the definition, corporate philanthropy can be defined as a strategic, voluntary corporate giving that builds on the company's core competencies to achieve social impact while improving its competitive edge, resulting in a win-win situation. This approach integrates philanthropic efforts with business objectives, ensuring that charitable activities align with the company's expertise and market position. When thinking about corporate philanthropy, it's about what the organization stands for, what market the organization is positioned in, and what expertise the organization has. The organization is then looking at where they can offer unique value through specialized knowledge, products, or services to address societal needs effectively. At the same time, the organization benefits from improved reputation, stakeholder trust, and market differentiation, creating a synergy that not only contributes to societal goods but also reinforces the company's strategic goals, reputation, and stakeholder trust.
Let's explore different types of corporate philanthropy and different forms it can take. One example is matching gifts. Companies match donations that their employees make to nonprofit organizations or social causes. Employees spend their own money, and then the company adds something to it, doubling or tripling the donation, creating a greater impact. For example, Microsoft has implemented the Employee Giving Program, which matches gifts.
A second example is volunteer grants. Companies provide monetary donations to nonprofit organizations based on the number of hours employees volunteer. This encourages employees to engage in community service and supports nonprofit organizations with both volunteer time and financial resources. A good example is Google's volunteer grants initiative.
Perhaps the most common form is corporate grants. Corporations provide monetary donations to nonprofit organizations, community programs, or projects that align with what the organization values or its strategic goals. Coca-Cola and many other companies do this.
Another form associated with nonprofit organizations is employee grant programs. Companies provide monetary grants to nonprofit organizations on behalf of employees, recognizing and supporting their charitable involvement, whether through volunteering, personal donations, or engagement in a specific cause. An example is ExxonMobil.
We also have an example from Warner Brothers, which uses payroll deduction programs. The company facilitates donations from employees to nonprofit organizations by deducting an amount from their paycheck and sending it directly to the chosen charity.
Moving away from purely monetary incentives, there are corporate volunteer programs. Organizations support their employees in volunteering their time and skills to nonprofit organizations or community projects, sometimes offering paid volunteer days or organizing companywide volunteering events. An example is the consulting company Deloitte, which offers companywide volunteering events.
In-kind donations are also common. Companies donate goods, services, or resources instead of cash. This could be products, office supplies, or other materials. Such donations are often used in disaster relief efforts, where companies supply necessary goods to organizations like the Red Cross.
Another example is scholarships. Organizations award scholarships to support students in pursuing education. These can be merit-based, need-based, or aimed at specific groups. Google scholarships are a prominent example.
Sponsorships are another type, where companies gain brand visibility by sponsoring events such as sports events, cultural festivals, or educational initiatives. Big brands like Nike or Adidas sponsor events like the Olympic Games, gaining marketing and promotional benefits.
We also have cause-related marketing, a strategic partnership between a company and a nonprofit organization to promote a cause while simultaneously driving business objectives. The company commits to donating a portion of its sales from specific products or services to the nonprofit. A prominent example is Toms Shoes, donating a portion of each sale to a charitable cause.
Annual giving is another approach, where companies provide recurring support to a specific nonprofit organization or initiative, giving money, products, or resources regularly.
Employee product donation programs empower employees to donate company-made products to nonprofit organizations, aligning company resources with employee interests. Microsoft is an example.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is another type, where organizations facilitate their employees or members to engage in fundraising for a social cause. Employees might act as fundraisers, motivating others to donate.
We have seen many different types of corporate philanthropy. Corporate philanthropy often generates a win-win situation. Now let's think about the reasons why organizations do this. One reason is tax benefits, as organizations can receive tax deductions for charitable contributions.
Engaging with social and environmental problems can also stimulate innovation and creativity. Addressing societal challenges can motivate employees to think creatively and out of the box.
Corporate philanthropy can increase brand loyalty, as customers are often more loyal to brands perceived as socially responsible. Over time, companies might see improved financial performance due to better stakeholder relationships, brand reputation, and customer loyalty. It can also improve community relations, fostering a favorable business environment, and it positively affects employee retention, job satisfaction, and a sense of purpose, making it easier to recruit and retain talent.
Overall, it enhances the company's public image and can help attract customers, employees, and investors who value social responsibility.
Looking at some numbers, for instance in Germany, there are more than 25,000 legally recognized foundations under German civil law, and over 90% of them have tax benefits. The number of foundations has steadily increased in recent years, and according to the German Parliament, all foundations in Germany had a total volume of more than 100 billion euros in 2021.
Most of these organizations support societal purposes—running hospitals, supporting education, culture, science, health, and sports. They promote initiatives that benefit the community.
However, corporate philanthropy also has darker sides and challenges. Misalignment of donations can cause disputes with core business goals and lead to accusations of "greenwashing" or "philanthropy-washing." Stakeholder skepticism or conflicts of interest may arise if shareholders or financial stakeholders question the extent of philanthropic investments. Measuring the return on investment for philanthropic activities can be difficult, and transparency is crucial to avoid risks of corruption or misuse of funds.
Two examples where corporate philanthropy went wrong: The Hay Festival faced criticism for accepting sponsorship from Baillie Gifford due to the firm's investments in fossil fuels, leading the festival to suspend the sponsorship. This highlighted the importance of alignment with environmental values. In another case, in the early 1990s, William Aramony, CEO of United Way of America, misused charitable funds for personal luxuries. He was convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison, damaging the organization's reputation.
In summary, corporate philanthropy encompasses diverse approaches, from matching gifts and in-kind donations to employee grant programs and sponsorships. These enable businesses to create social impact while aligning with strategic goals. Strategic philanthropy can address societal issues effectively and benefit businesses by enhancing reputation, fostering employee engagement, and building stronger community relations. However, challenges such as misaligned partnerships, reputational risk, and maintaining transparency also arise. Therefore, strategic alignment and accountability are crucial in corporate philanthropy.
Thank you very much for watching.
what role do organizations play insociety and what impact can they have onsociety this is what we're talking aboutin this video when speaking aboutcorporatephilanthropy so in this video we arehaving uh three learning objectivesfirst of all we want to explore thevarious types of corporate philanthropyand their impact on society and in asecond step we are analyzing thealignment of corporate giving withbusiness objectives to create strategicvaluein the last step we want to understandthe benefits and challenges of corporatephilanthropy in different sectors andcontext so first of all Let's uh takethe advantage of looking at an exampleand here we have the example of the Billand Melinda Gates Foundation and this isone of the largest private philanthropicorganizations in the world perhaps eventhe largest um it was founded in 2000 byBill Gates who was a co-founder of U themicrosof Microsoft Corporation and hiswife Melinda Gates so they found thisand gave this organization uhsubstantive amount of money um more thanuh 50 billion us and then there was alsoan additionalum uh person who also uh yeah endowedthis uh foundation with additional moneyso this was Warren Buffett who also gavequite a substantive uh sum of money tothis foundation and uh this Foundationyeah aims at tackling big big challengesof our society engag in a lot of areasum to support uh yeah social well-beingnot only in the US where it is foundedbut worldwide um the logic here uh fromits Founders is that uh they earnedtheir money with a global coroporationglobally uh active in internationalmarkets with my Microsoft and thereforeum they see that they might have aresponsibility to give back to uh yeahwhole human kind and not only perhaps UScitizens so uh the mission of thefoundation is to reduce Globalinequalities and ensuring that everybodyhas a chance to live a healthy andproductive life and to do so they reallytackle the the big challenges of our uhtoday's society they look at Globalhealth education economic developmentbut alsoum climate change and yeah have the goalto yeah support here and uh um increaseuh yeah well-being for everybody on thisplanet so about what is corporatephilanthrophy when we're looking at thedefinition corporate philanthrophy canbe defined as a strategic corporate umyeah philanthropy voluntary giving thatbuilds on the company's corecompetencies to achieve social impactwhile impr improving its CompetitiveEdge resulting in a win-win situationand this win-win situation this is quitealso the core of uh of the idea becausethe approach integrates philanthropicefforts with business objectives so ofcourse a business is also looking atwhat the the um organization is best atensuring that charitable activitiesalign with the company's expertise andMarket position so when thinking aboutcorporate philanthropy it's about theorganization what the organizationstands for and what Market theorganization is positioned and of coursewhat expertise the organization has soan organization is then looking at wherethey can offer unique value for examplethrough specialized knowledge productsor services and how with this value umso societal needs can be addressedeffectively and then of course and thenwe're coming back to the win-winsituation also benefiting from improvedreputation for the organizationstakeholder trust and Marketdifferentiation so this is then ofcourse a synergy not only contributingto societal Goods but also reinforcingum yeah the company strategic goals thecompany's position and as said forexample also reputation or um yeahstakeholdertrust so let's explore different typesof corporate philanthrophy so differentforms it can take and we'll start herewith our third example so that we canmatch gifts that mean um that companiesmatch donations that their employeesmade to some let's say nonprofitorganization or some social cause rightso employees might um yeah spend privatemoney their own money um but then thecompany adds something to this right andthis provides an incentive for employeesto contribute to some uh charitablecourses and uh then the company mightdouble it or triple it or whatever theydo um yeah and thereby have a greaterimpact of the donations of employees andone exampleuh would be that Microsoft hasimplemented what they call the employeegiving program which is such a programthat matchesgifts and second option is for examplethe volunteer grants so companiesprovide monetary donations to nonprofitorganizations based on the number ofhours the employees volunteer so theemployees are volunteering and then theorganizations are donating some moneyand this then at the end encourage uhencourages employees to engage incommunity services and supportsnonprofit organizations of course withboth time like from the employees andfinancial resources of the organizationand a good example here is for exampleGoogle volunteer grantsinitiative um yeah perhaps the mostcommon form or the form that most of ushave in mind when thinking aboutcorporate philanthrophy are corporategrants right corporates could providemoney donate money to nonprofitorganizations to some Community programsor just some projects that somehow alignwith what this organization Wants WhatIt values what it does or yeah with theStrategic goals that an organization hasand then uh yeah they use these grantsto support the Community Development orthe development of uh the society atlarge and one example here is Coca-Colabut we could name here a lot ofcompanies that do um corporategrants another form also um Associatedthen with nonprofit organizations is forfor example the employee Grant dependsso companies provide monetary grants tononprofit organizations on behalf of theemployees so then employees of uh thesenonprofit organizations are awarded as away to recognize and support thecharitable involvement of the employeeswhether through volunteering personaldonations or engagement in for example aspecific course that can be then umdefined by the organization ex anexample is Exxon Mobile we have anotherexample here from R Brothers and whatthey do is a what we call a payrolldeduction and this means that thecompany Warner Brothers here isfacilitating donations from employees tononprofit organizations by directly uhyeah taking an amount from theirpaycheck and not directing it to thebank account from the employee but to uhthe the charity organization nonprofitorganization that uh the employees havechosen and moving away a little bit morefrom the monetary incentives um anotherform would be corporate volunteerprograms for example if um organizationssupport their employees to volunteertheir time and skills to nonprofitorganization or Community projects sofor example it could be ranging fromoffering paid volunteer days toorganization uh to organizingcompanywide volunteering eventslong-term partnership with charitableorganizations and one example is um theconsulting company deid by for exampleum offer offering companywidevolunteering events where the employeesare then volunteering in a nonprofitorganization the next type is in kinddonations and this is also somethingthat is very very common so that umcompanies do not uh donate cash to anonprofit organization or some someinitiative but they donate GoodsServices some resources that they haveuh that they use in their operations andgive those to um yeah these nonprofitorganizations that uh they then can usein their operations and yeah as saidthis quite often includes productsoffice supplies but and also other formsum and quite often we see something likethis in disaster relief that companiesuh spend something that they produce orthat they have uh if a large disasterhappens and then disaster relieforganizations like the Red Cross or sodeliver these donations then into theseareasanother example is um like perhaps oneof the most common example scholarshipsso organizations can donate or awardscholarships um to support for examplestudents in pursuing their education andthese scholarships can uh based ondifferent dimensions typically Meritbased need based or AED at specificgroups like for example underrepresentedcommunities so that everybody has aequal um chance to do the education andum to have access to education and oneof the biggest scholarships um that areum yeah that are known are the Googlescholarships the next thing is reallywhere you see the win-win uh situationthat corporate philanthrophy bydefinition quite often generates rightum it's sponsorships and uh sponsorshipslet's say of uh sports events orsomething like this uh where companiesuh organizations gain visibility brandvisibility um by sponsoring uh yeahevents anduh this is quite often yeah uh havingalso a direct marketing effectpromotional effect for the company andyeah you can name any sports companyhere uh that that somehow sponsorsevents like the Olympic Games or theWorld Soccer Championship something likethis and yeah Nike Adidas uh you canname these companies each of them doesthis and another type of corporatephilanthrophy also related to the windwin um uh kind of definition is costrelated marketing so cost relatedmarketing what does it means it's astrategic partnership between a companyand a nonprofit organization to promotea cause while simultaneously drivingbusiness objectives and here's againthen this win-win situation so thecompany commits to donating a portion ofits sales profits from specific productsor services to the nonprofitorganization um or the cost that isstanding behind that and the Veryprominent example in recent years is Tomshoes like for every pair of shoe thatwill be um will be sold uh kind of um aportion of the sales is then going to anonprofitorganization the next type is an annualgiving um so far when when talking abouthere the most um types of uh yeahdonating money this was just uh yeah onestop right so they just um uh give somemoney to a specific course just once butuh companies quite often also havesomething like a re recurring uh supportto a specific nonprofit organization orsome initiative where they on an annualbasis or even uh in a in a closer rangethey support this and give uh in areoccurring form money or perhaps evenproducts or something like this to theseum organizations to these nonprofitorganizations or initiatives we alreadytalked about inant donations and anotherform of donations is the employeeproduct donation program as a form ofcorporate philanthropy and here it'sabout organizations empowering theemployees to donate company madeproducts to nonprofit organizations butwhat is specific here is that um yeahthese donations can directly beassociated with the cses the employeesare caring about so they can use theresources provided by the employer andthen support something that really theemployees are caring about and aprominent example isMicrosoft then another uh and our lasttype here is peer-to-peer fundraisingand here organizations might facilitatethat uh their uh employees ororganizational members um yeah that theyengage in fundraising for a social causeum using quite often some some onlinedonation websites or some campaigns sothey uh yeah they motivate their indivindviduals their uh members to actsomehow as a fundraiser as an advocatefor this initiative and uh yeah umyeah get donations for the initiativesomething where uh the company can alsosupport this is to make that part of thejob right so to say okay you can do thiswhere during your working hours or soand some we see here many differenttypes of uh yeah potential types of howa company could uh engage in corporatePhil philanthrophy and as we saw in thedefinition um this corporatephilanthropy is also about win-win so wesaw different ways of how umorganizations could do so but let's nowthink a little bit more about the why sowhat is also then at the end in for theorganization and first of all forexample we can talk about tax benefitsso organizations can receive taxbenefits for the charitablecontributions which then can help reducetheir tax liabilityengaging in in a greater course can alsolead to Innovation and creativity canmotivate people to think creativitycreativity and uh out of the box rightso if there are social and environmentalproblems that yeah everybody sees andeverybody acknowledges um then if thecompany engages in philanthropicactivities to overcome these issues Umthis can stimulate creativity canstimulate people and even motivate themum to yeah to to stay with the companybut also stay in problem solving andengage in Creative tasks and of courseit C can also increase brand loyalty socustomers are more likely to remainloyal to a brand that they perceive associally responsible and engage inphilantropic activities so and this iskind of an increasing Trend at themoment so the more a customer mightperceive a brand as being sociallyactive or like supporting the communitythe more also the brand loyalty mightincreaseon the long run companies U might evensee uh improved financial performance umas we have seen with brand loyalty ifcustomers stay uh with the firm um thisis a form of an improved uh stakeholderrelationship right with the with the umhere with the customers and with havinga positive brand reputation this can notonly increase loyalty of existingcustomers but also gain new customersand then on the long run may have uhfinancial implications for the companyand of course also improved communityrelations is a cause because by givingback to the community by like beingsocially active in a certain Communityorganizations can also improve theirrelationship with the local residentsand organizations and this then in turncan also help to create a more Fefavorable business environment of coursealso when it comes to employees andemployee attractiveness and we have seenuh that we that there are differentexternal stakeholders where we couldhave a potential positive effect butthis also holds through to our internalstakeholders our employees so um we canhave uh lower turnover rates higheremployee retention because they identifywith this organization that also is agood uh corporate citizen in our societyum because this might affect jobsatisfaction loyalty and givinguh people a sense of purpose and therebyit might may help them theseorganizations to retain people but alsoto recruit new employees uh employees sohaving a positive brand reputation uhwith not only customers but alsoemployees and then and this sums itquite up is also of course a positive umpublic image of an organization so whenan organization um yeah is involving incorporate philanthropy this can enhanceof course also the company's publicimage and reputation and this then inthe long term can also help to attractcustomers employees and investors whovalue then the social responsibility ofthe organization so let's look at somenumbers and examine the philanthrophymarket here for the case of Germany uhin Germany we have more than25,000 uh legally recognized F uhfoundations that follow uh the Germancivil law and more than 90% of them uhhave uh this tax B benefit that we sawon the last slide um the number ofFoundations has steadily increased inrecent years uh so we see that more andmore organizations somehow have aninterest and uh have true engagement inPhil philanthropy um according to theGerman Parliament um all foundations inGermany in 2021 had a total volume ofmore than 100 billion EUR so a quitesubstantial amount of money that hasbeen endowed to these uh foundations ifwe now look here at the right we see howthe different purposes that thesefoundations have and follow aredistributed and as we can see mostorganizations or the um the the mostamount of money in these organizationsfollows the purpose of yeah providingsomething for society and this means uhin in many cases that uh thesefoundations for instance uh runhospitals or um other organizations thatuh provide services to the society theysupport education or culture um manyfoundations also support science uh theypromote health and sports um by othermeasures than running a hospital thatwas included in the society uh categoryhere but by promoting Sports initiativesorpromoting um uh initiatives that forinstance go into kindergartens and theyPR mode that small kids uh brush theirteeth or something like this suchinitiatives are also sponsored by suchfoundations however when speaking aboutcorporate philanthrophy we of coursehave to also look at the darker sidesand the the challenges and risk thatmight be associated with corporatephilanthrophy so we can also say thatthe misalignment of donations forexample is a serious Challenge and riskbecause this can of course then um yeahkind of result in a dispute with thecore business goals or can also resultin cultural and ethical challenges sowhen the donations and the the purposeof the organization are misaligned sothis is then when the win-win situationis uh breaking up and this then can ofcourse also uh lead into accusations ofgreenwashing or we can also um call itphilanthropy washing like likesupporting a course that is notsupported by the core business of theorganization itself a second area ofchallenges are also risk is uhstakeholder skepticism or the conflictof interest because of course anorganization have to kind of balance allthese interest of the stakeholders andif they are balancing resources forphilanthropy with Core Businessoperations then of course for exampleshareholders or other Financialstakeholders might challenge theextensive philanthropic Investments ofan organization and might say like umthat they want to have the money spentin different ways of course when doingsomething for society it's always hardto measur so another challenge is themeasurement of return on investment ofthese um yeah initiatives thatorganizations might invest intocorporate philanthropy and of coursecorruption is always a big problem sothere is always the risk of seeming umyeah being corrupt or we have to underlythe high importance of transparency indecision processes when it comes tocorporate uhphilanthropy so let's have a look hereat two different examples wherecorporate philanthropy really went wrongand where the situation was for exampleexample in the first case that the hayFestival faced criticism for acceptingsponsorship from um Bailey gford due tothe firm's investment in fossil fuels sohere we kind of see the misalignment ofuh the donations and what was theoutcome the festival suspended thesponsorship and public back backlashhighlighted challenges in the alignmentcorporate partnership with environmentalvalues so clearly to um we can see herethe mismatch between the organizationalgoals and then the the sponsorship thatthey accepted or then at the end umsuspended a second um example is in theearly 1990s the Willian armony CEO ofoned way of um Americas was found tohave misused chargeable funds topersonal luxuries including extravaganttravels and gifts so here clearly wehave the problem of corruption and whatwas the outcome the outcome of coursewas that they convicted that were theywere convicted of Fraud and sentenc toprison and of course this significantlydamag the organization's reputation andimage and um can then also be of coursefirst of all uh being in the category ofcorruption and of course also what wecall like philanthrophy greenwashing attheend so what did we talk about in thisvideo in this video we talked aboutcorpet philanthrophy and that itencompasses diverse approaches such asmatching gifts in kind donation employeeground depend sponsor ships we talkedabout a lot of ways of how organizationscan interact with the society and thisthen enables businesses um to createsocial impact while of course win-winaligning with their strategic goals wealso talked about strategic philanthropythat is not only addressing societalissues effectively but also benefits thebusinesses itself so that they arereally um enhancing their reputationfostering Employee Engagement and buildstronger community relations but we alsotalked about the darker side ofphilanthropy and talked about um yeah orspoke about what's there beside thebenefits so that there are alsochallenges such as misalign Partnershipsreputational risk and maintainingtransparency in charitable um activitiesand we highlighted the importance ofstrategic alignment and accountabilitywhen thinking about corporatephilanthrophy thank you very much forwatching