After a summertime gap in July, Philanthropy Posts is back at work analyzing the public records of giving throughout the Western Balkans.
We turn our focus this week (and over the next couple of weeks) on corporate giving during the month of June 2013. Corporate philanthropy took a variety of forms during June, including direct cash donations, provision of in-kind good or services, working together with their employees to achieve a common goal, and providing a platform for clients or customers to also participate in giving.
Recognizing the limits of our current data collection, which is so far focused solely on what has been publicly reported in the media throughout seven countries, I was still pleasantly surprised to find that cash donations from the business sector totaled more than 500,000 EUR during the month of June. It is important to note that this number does not reflect the significant amount of in-kind goods or services that were provided by companies, but for which a monetary value was not mentioned in media reports.
Furthermore, of the 108 instances of corporate giving reported by media during June, only 29 (27%) had a monetary value associated with it. So we can safely assume that as the media improve their reporting on the actual funds associated with corporate philanthropy and as we expand our data gathering efforts that we will eventually see a much higher monthly total associated with corporate giving.
The below country by country table provides statistics on both the number of instances of corporate giving as well as the prevalence of stories written about these instances. It is interesting to note the contrast between Albania where each instance was only reported by one media outlet, whereas in Macedonia the average instance garnered at least 10 stories.
;)
Some of the differences between countries in the above table can be explained both by the modalities of giving reported on in each country as well as the level of importance that the media gives to reporting on philanthropy in general. For example, there were a significant number of unvalued in-kind contributions given by companies in Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, which then result in a lower valuation for corporate giving compared to the number of instances. This is most apparent in Montenegro.
Next week, we will continue with a country by country analysis and provide some of the highlights of corporate giving during June. So stay tuned…
