What is Corporate Social Responsibility? - InnoTrain CSR

Strategic tools for CSR
4.10. Corporate non-profit foundations
In short
In recent years, the strategic corporate involvement of companies leads to the
establishment of a growing number of corporate non-profit foundations. The
advantages of a corporate foundation are the consistency and sustainability of
corporate sponsorship. However, a company with a corporate non-profit
foundation is also keeping one permanent leg in society. Therefore, the
founding company should organise the corporate foundation in such a way
that it is capable of being an independent actor in society. In contrast to
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the company, a corporate non-profit
foundation's purpose of sponsoring is independent of economic and profit
expectations because of the independent endowment funds. Numerous
important foundations have been established by companies. The closeness to
the founding company offers many opportunities for co-operation between
CSR in the company and non-profit foundation work, but it can also raise
critical questions.
Learning targets
� Get to know corporate non-profit foundations as a form of permanent
corporate sponsoring
CSR learning contents
With an endowment, a company provides the respective funds for the establishment
and resources for the operation of the non-profit organisation, if necessary. A
corporate non-profit foundation can establish the corporate social responsibility
(CSR) of companies permanently in an independent form of organisation and solidify
it accordingly based on the foundation's non-profit mission. CSR can be
professionalised with the organisational structure of a foundation. In addition,
corporate foundations often bear the name of the founding company. This has the
potential to achieve a permanent positive image transfer from the foundation to the
company.
Within a historical context, foundations have been sponsors of non-profit objectives
for more than 1000 years. Irrespective of the legal form and the content-related
design, foundations these days are characterised in that their assets are permanently
fixed and not touched. Consequently, the foundation's mission is not achieved with
The project "InnoTrain CSR" is organized by GILDE GmbH and has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 12/2010
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