The Global Guide to What Counts

The Process Behind the Reports; Global Giving Survey Open
Aug 14, 2012 5:15 PM ET

How does a company know what counts as a charitable contribution when each country around the world classifies NGOs in differing ways?  Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) sought to answer that question and now provides clear, concise guidance through its Developing the Global Guide to What Counts: Expanding the Boundaries of Corporate Giving, which was developed with pro bono support from Deloitte. 

Developing the Global Guide details the extensive tax, finance, and legal research undertaken to develop this global guidance, covering 17 countries with the highest concentrations of Fortune Global 500 firms and a wide range of topics describing civil society, from legal structures to political activity. 

Developing the Global Guide is the companion research report to The Global Guide to What Counts: A Defining Moment in Corporate Giving.  The work done through these two reports enables a major shift away from corporations' reliance on various country tax codes to determine what counts as a charitable contribution - a reliance that has complicated the practice of tracking international giving. 

Given that 14% of total corporate giving in 2011 was international, on average, CECP will begin a process to further analyze global giving data, beyond what is currently done through CECP’s Corporate Giving Standard (CGS) survey (CECP, 2012). The criteria crafted through the Developing the Global Guide is the basis for this new benchmarking offering from CECP.  Global Fortune 500 companies are invited to participate in a brief global survey until September 19th, 2012.  Visit www.corporatephilanthropy.org/measurement/global-measurement to fill out the survey, access The Global Guide and Developing the Guide, and learn how your company can benefit from this work.