Study Reviews Corporate Giving in Adult Litearcy

A recent study conducted by the Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy shows that corporations play an instrumental role in adult literacy, funding innovation and other activities for which no other funding is available at both the national and local levels.

The nine month study found that national corporations give about $30 million a year total to adult literacy efforts.   The Verizon Foundation is the largest corporate funder, accounting for as much as a third of all national donations.  Other large funders include Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Wal-Mart, IBM, UPS, and Starbucks.  These funders provide between 70% and 80% of all corporate giving in adult literacy the study found.

More than two thirds of corporate funds go to local literacy organizations, with grants averaging between $5,000 and $15,000.  Although corporate foundations support all kinds of local programs, most of their funding is directed at groups whose literacy services are not sustained primarily by pubic funds.

Corporations donate to adult literacy programs for several reasons, including;

Altruism: Many corporations feel an obligation to be good corporate citizens xen in support of a worthy causes such as literacy.  Companies that donate to public causes usually want to maintain sufficient control of the use of funds to ensure that they are achieving goals approved my senior management and stockholders.

Image marketing. The business-related aspect of corporate giving is base on a belief that philanthropy can help companies achieve their commercial goals by being associated with good causes The study identified literacy as being an appealing issue> literacy which received a good deal of public attention between the mi=d 1980s through the mid 1990s, raised awareness that America has a literacy problem,.  Literacy caries virtually no negative associations and is easily linked, as a root cause or solution, to many national problems.

The study seeks to provide a framework and baseline of information for understanding corporate philanthropy in this field as well as a basis for increased dialogue among corporate donors and literacy leaders.

To download a copy of the study goes to http://www.caalusa.org/corporategiving.pdf