January 8, 2009
Local businesses give back to their community, study finds
Much is known about how large, national corporations practice corporate social responsibility, but there is little information about how business giving relates to the regional community. A study conducted by UW Tacoma Associate Professor Jill Purdy and former UWT Associate Professor Stern Neill (currently an instructor at Cal Poly) asked local businesses how they contribute to the community, where they volunteer time, what causes they give to, and at what levels they give. The study also sought to understand the reasons that they give.
Co-sponsored by UW Tacoma’s Center for Leadership and Social Responsibility in the University’s Milgard School of Business and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, Purdy and Neill designed the study to help them understand more about how businesses give back in South Puget Sound. They gathered data from 100 companies, representing a wide range of businesses from sole proprietorships to companies with 6,000 employees and in a number of different industries.
Among other findings, the study showed that the average local company donated more than 100 volunteer days to the community, and that two-thirds of their giving went to causes in the local community.
“Given the mutual bond between UW Tacoma and its community, we thought it would be valuable to understand how local businesses give back,” said Purdy. “Conversations with business owners suggested they are giving, but not always in the same ways as large multinationals we typically hear about.”
And on the other side of the philanthropy coin, Purdy said, nonprofit leaders are interested in understanding more about how and why local businesses support them.
“It’s hard to get a big picture of what the hot issues are, where the needs are greatest and who has various resources to share,” she explained. Although fragments of this information exist in various public and private entities, no over-arching compilation of information is available.
Purdy said she and Neill hope to repeat the study every two years to track changes.
“An underlying goal is to help businesses understand how to create the most impact and manage their giving effectively,” Purdy said, adding that nonprofit organizations can also learn about how best to approach businesses.
