Corporate Charities The Right and Wrong Ways for Big Business to Give B

Corporate Charities The Right and Wrong Ways for Big Business to Give Back to the Community Introduction Why do people who have money feel inclined to give it away? Throughout history, reasons for philanthropy have ranged from guilt to concern for personal image, from religious principles to simple generosity. America is awash with corporate CEO’s who have so much money that they could never spend it in a lifetime. What is pocket change to them could save thousands of lives in a third-world country. And yet only some of them choose to give their money away. Even then some of the ones who do are not charitable out of the goodness of their heart but do it purely to make themselves look better in the eyes of the public. In this paper I seek to demonstrate a spectrum of corporate charities. Through four case studies – namely, Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Ted Turner – I show what four companies/company founders have done in the realm on philanthropy and attempt to distinguish between those that do what they do only to hike up their public i mage between those whose intentions are wholeheartedly altruistic. The low end of the spectrum – Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the United States, as well as the largest importer and purchaser of manufactured goods, and largest groceries outlet. The discount store was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton in a small town in Arkansas. Walton hoped that he could construct a chain of his stores in small communities throughout Arkansas and the surrounding states and by the 80’s this is just what he did. By 1990, Wal-Mart had become one of the largest competitors with Kmart and Target and had opened over 1400 stores in 28 different states. To... ...f/about_us/case_series/a07990014.pdf 3. http://www.fact-index.com/w/wa/wal_mart.html 4. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030511/biz.htm 5. http://worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/ 6. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030924/world.htm 7. http://www.walmartfoundation.org 8. http://www.cnn.com/US/9709/18/turner.gift/ 9. http://www.tedturner.com/philanthropies.html 10. http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/hd_052504f.html 11. http://www.cisco.com/gov/markets/e_government.html 12. www.cnnfn.com/2003/08/05/ markets/markets_newyork/ 13. http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/080303/bus_080303083.shtml 14. http://www.positivenation.co.uk/issue90/regulars/worldnews/wnews90.htm 15. http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2001-11-29-ted-turner.htm 16. http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/index.cfm Corporate Charities The Right and Wrong Ways for Big Business to Give B Corporate Charities The Right and Wrong Ways for Big Business to Give Back to the Community Introduction Why do people who have money feel inclined to give it away? Throughout history, reasons for philanthropy have ranged from guilt to concern for personal image, from religious principles to simple generosity. America is awash with corporate CEO’s who have so much money that they could never spend it in a lifetime. What is pocket change to them could save thousands of lives in a third-world country. And yet only some of them choose to give their money away. Even then some of the ones who do are not charitable out of the goodness of their heart but do it purely to make themselves look better in the eyes of the public. In this paper I seek to demonstrate a spectrum of corporate charities. Through four case studies – namely, Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Ted Turner – I show what four companies/company founders have done in the realm on philanthropy and attempt to distinguish between those that do what they do only to hike up their public i mage between those whose intentions are wholeheartedly altruistic. The low end of the spectrum – Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the United States, as well as the largest importer and purchaser of manufactured goods, and largest groceries outlet. The discount store was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton in a small town in Arkansas. Walton hoped that he could construct a chain of his stores in small communities throughout Arkansas and the surrounding states and by the 80’s this is just what he did. By 1990, Wal-Mart had become one of the largest competitors with Kmart and Target and had opened over 1400 stores in 28 different states. To... ...f/about_us/case_series/a07990014.pdf 3. http://www.fact-index.com/w/wa/wal_mart.html 4. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030511/biz.htm 5. http://worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/ 6. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030924/world.htm 7. http://www.walmartfoundation.org 8. http://www.cnn.com/US/9709/18/turner.gift/ 9. http://www.tedturner.com/philanthropies.html 10. http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/hd_052504f.html 11. http://www.cisco.com/gov/markets/e_government.html 12. www.cnnfn.com/2003/08/05/ markets/markets_newyork/ 13. http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/080303/bus_080303083.shtml 14. http://www.positivenation.co.uk/issue90/regulars/worldnews/wnews90.htm 15. http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2001-11-29-ted-turner.htm 16. http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/index.cfm