Corporate Philanthropy
Corporate Care Funds | Corporate Charitable Fund Program | Corporate Scholarships | Cause Marketing | Disaster Response Funds
Call Belinda Dinwiddie, Director of Donor Education, to learn more or to establish a Corporate Care Fund today at 615-321-4939.
FOR MORE THAN FIFTEEN YEARS, The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has been working with corporations to create charitable solutions. Whether it is streamlining an annual charitable giving process, establishing a scholarship to support the children of employees, or finding a way to aid employees struck by tragedy or disaster, The Community Foundation can help enhance your company’s corporate social responsibility efforts. You bring the ideas, and we’ll apply our extensive experience facilitating charitable goals. Together we’ll create the corporate philanthropy program that works for you.
Corporate Care Funds
Corporations often want to support their employees during times of crisis, but aid provided to an individual is not tax deductible. Now, through a comprehensive program, The Community Foundation can help you help employees facing tragedy. Here’s how it works: The corporation sets up the corporate care fund within The Community Foundation. The corporation and/ or its employees continue to make tax deductible gifts to the fund over time. When individual employees face a crisis due to natural disaster, life threatening or serious injury, catastrophic circumstance, or death of an employee or an eligible dependent, they can apply for assistance from the fund to help pay for essential living expenses including medical, housing, utilities, food, clothing, and other basic expenses. The Community Foundation processes all applications, insulating the corporation from the decision process of helping employees in time of crisis.
Example: NewsChannel 5 Crisis Care Fund: Co-workers Helping Co-workers
The NewsChannel 5 Network established its Crisis Care Fund within The Community Foundation to provide short-term,
emergency financial support to employees of NewsChannel 5 facing financial hardship as a result of unforeseen and
unpreventable circumstances.
Corporate Charitable Fund Program
Using The Community Foundation’s Corporate Charitable Fund program can cut costs and increase the scope and efficiency of corporate giving. Instead of highly-compensated, busy corporate officers fielding and evaluating requests, you can “outsource” the administrative aspects to The Foundation.
Example: The Delek Fund for Hope
The Delek Corporation and its MAPCO stores have become ubiquitous throughout the community not only for excellent
business practices, but for The Delek Fund for Hope, a fund established within The Community Foundation to maximize
support for charities like The American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and The Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Corporate Scholarships
Corporations often look for ways to enhance the lives of their employees and their families. A scholarship at The Community Foundation can provide assistance to employees (or their children) furthering their education. The corporation develops the criteria for the scholarship, and The Community Foundation applies that criteria as its volunteers review the applications and distribute scholarship funding. Corporate leaders are insulated from the decision process and, thus, protected from the inevitable disappointments.
Example: DBI Scholarship Fund
In 2003, Ingram Entertainment Inc. and DBI Distributing Inc. established the DBI Scholarship within The Community
Foundation, which benefits the children of company employees planning to attend a college, university or junior college/
technical school by offsetting the cost of books, tuition and room and board.
Cause Marketing
The Community Foundation helps corporations help others by administering charitable funds benefiting a variety of causes. Studies show aligning a product with a charitable cause can enhance the corporation’s public image. Here’s one way it can work: The corporation chooses the cause and creates the campaign. The corporation creates a charitable fund at The Community Foundation with a portion of the product’s revenue invested in the fund. The corporation then recommends what charities to support. For example, Yoplait’s recent partnership with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation reportedly increased sales while also increasing breast cancer awareness.
Example: Genesco – Helping People Get Back on Their Feet Fund
The Genesco Corporation created the Helping People Get Back on Their Feet Fund within The Community Foundation
to provide a “hand up” to people in need. The beneficiaries include nonprofit programs which help people escape the
ravages of substance abuse, help people living on the streets find the shelter they deserve, help people return or retrain
to enter the workforce, and help people escape the horrors of domestic abuse.
Disaster Response Funds
Corporations want to respond when disaster strikes. A disaster response fund at The Community Foundation creates a way for employees to make gifts online or by check to a charitable fund to aid disaster relief. The corporation may choose to match gifts made to the fund. The Community Foundation tracks donations and makes grants to nonprofits the corporation recommends.
Example: HCA Haiti Relief Fund
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)
established the HCA Haiti Relief Fund within The Community Foundation to aid earthquake victims. Donations will
be distributed to agencies responding to the disaster. The company has pledged to match each gift made by an
employee and distribute grants expeditiously to respond to the crisis.
