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Develop a giving program or a foundation through your company. If you are the owner of a family business or an officer of a corporation, there are at least two vehicles for charitable giving by the company for you to consider. They can help support your company’s mission, build employee and customer loyalty, and even enhance your bottom line. Many businesses have an annual giving program to make grants, funded as part of each year’s operating budget. Owners can blend the family business with family philanthropy by channeling support through their family corporation. This kind of program has no independent endowment, and corporate staff, directed by the CEO or an advisory committee of management staff members, administers its budget. A business giving program is not subject to the rules and regulations governing private foundations. However, many corporate leaders have chosen to take the next step by creating a corporate foundation as an independent, tax-exempt, private foundation or by creating a fund at a community foundation. Advantages of this option that may appeal to you include the ability to preserve the company’s charitable giving during lean economic times and the company’s name in an era of mergers and acquisitions. The corporate foundation is usually started with a single gift that can become the endowment, which may be added to on an annual basis or when, and if, profits allow. The foundation’s officers are usually the company owners and key executives, although leaders from corporate headquarter communities also may be included. At some companies, committees of employees make recommendations about projects they believe are worthy of support. The corporate foundation is subject to the same rules and regulations applicable to other private foundations. For owners of Sub-Chapter S Corporations (S Corps), it is possible for such companies to give, and private and community foundations to own, S Corporation stock. There are limitations that accompany ownership of such stock, and the recipient organization(s) should be encouraged to consult their counsel prior to accepting such a gift from you. In addition to grant programs that enhance the corporation’s strategic business interests, corporate foundations and giving programs often offer to match employee gifts of cash and volunteer time to nonprofit organizations. Companies may also make “in-kind” gifts of products to charities and/or organize workplace volunteer efforts for the good of the community
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