In contrast, the foundations activities should be tied to business functions, and advance business interest through strategic alliances with key stakeholder groups. In return, the benefiting business units should support philanthropic activities with all their resources, thus producing initiatives that will benefit society as much as possible. The role of philanthropic activity as a part of corporate strategy is still evolving. While not all companies have fully integrated philanthropy into their overall corporate strategy most recognize its strategic importance (Smith 1994; Tokarski 1999). Environmental conditions such as downsizing, decreased domestic profit margins, and Wall Street’s short-term focus, have created an evolutionary shift from enlightened self interest to a similar but more strategic form of philanthropy that is designed to produce a specific, measurable benefit in an identifiable time period (Stendardi 1992; Mescon & Tilson 1987). Strategic corporate philanthropy is defined as a discretionary responsibility of a firm that involves choosing how it will voluntarily allocate its slack resources to charitable or social service activities in order to reach marketing and other business related objectives for which there are no clear social expectations as to how the firm should perform. There are a number of objectives that can be achieved through strategic corporate philanthropy including: increasing sales, enhancing corporate image, thwarting negative publicity, customer pacification, facilitating market entry, and increasing trade merchandising activity (Varadarajan & Menon 1988). Strategic corporate philanthropy explicitly links its philanthropic strategy to a corporate objective. Strategic corporate philanthropy comes in many forms beyond, and inclusive of, monetary gifts. Organizations with the goal of being viewed as a good corporate citizen are heavily promoting their gifts to make consumers aware that they are putting money back into the communities that support them. Other forms of strategic philanthropic activity help companies and their brands meet image and exposure objectives. These activities include: sponsoring local and national special events, sponsoring cultural and arts programs, and sports sponsorships (Mescon & Tilson 1987). Another form of philanthropic activity that has evolved from this more strategic view of philanthropy is cause-related marketing.
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发表于 2009-11-27 19:09:00
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