“CORPORATE PHILANTROPY: SUPPORTING GOOD PRACTICE AND TRANSPARENCY”

With the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) has created a Global Development Alliance (GDA) which stimulates new investment and brings new practices that encourage the development of transparency in corporate philanthropy in Ukraine. ISC and its alliance partners -- the American Chamber of Commerce, NIKO Trade House, United Nations in Ukraine and the C.S. Mott Foundation, along with resource partners Avon Cosmetics Ukraine, Community Shares USA, Successful Communities Institute, Network for Good, European Business Association, International Chamber of Commerce of Ukraine, Public relations League of Ukraine-CSR Forum, Center for Ukrainian Reform Education (CURE), Ukrainian Grantmakers Forum, and Internews-Ukraine, all share a common commitment to philanthropy in support of building stronger and more successful communities – both communities of place and communities of interest.

The goal of the project is to make businesses more effective and more transparent in their philanthropic activities.

Activities are described according to the program’s three primary objectives:

1. Providing Tools for Giving
2. Promoting Innovation in Giving
3. Developing the Practice of Giving

Providing Tools for Giving
Recent studies and ISC’s own research have indicated that businesses are eager for information about the legal, tax, and public relations ramifications of giving. ISC works with its alliance and resource partners to develop and disseminate materials that provide businesses with the tools and techniques needed to make widespread, transparent, and effective corporate philanthropy a reality in Ukraine. Through research of existing information and with input from business leaders, ISC develops comprehensive materials targeting the business community that detail the benefits of engaging in philanthropy and the steps business can take to become responsible donors within the current legal and regulatory framework. In conjunction with providing corporations with the tools they need to engage in philanthropic activity, the project will also train CSOs to improve their ability to work with businesses and manage philanthropic relationships. Information is being disseminated through print and on-line sources, business roundtables and other business events.

Promoting Innovation in Giving
To expand the scope of Ukrainian philanthropy, ISC introduces Community Shares as an innovative approach workplace giving. ISC prepares information about the community shares model and legal mechanisms for workplace giving – e.g., donations through banks, to build the support needed by business to run these programs in the workplace. ISC also explores on-line giving opportunities for encouraging individual giving to good causes.

Developing the Practice of Giving
ISC is assisting business to further develop their corporate philanthropy activities through support in finding partners and workplace giving program. ISC jointly with SUAL Holding implements a regional program of development of corporate and individual philanthropy in Zaporizhzhya that provides local government, business and media with common understanding of social partnership, a role and an opportunities of each of these sectors in local community development, carries social projects competitions, and brings together various resources. ISC provides opportunities for businesses to participate in transparent giving programs and provides resources for businesses to develop their own charitable program based on sound grantmaking practices. ISC further develops the Foundation for Ukraine based on its partnership initiative with the American Chamber of Commerce, as a model for transparent and efficient independent grant making. Foundation for Ukraine will serve as a trusted intermediary organization connecting the causes that require funding with the businesses eager to fund them. The foundation represents a new kind of grant making organization in Ukraine - one focused on generating indigenous funds from multiple sources and one that maintains the highest standards of efficiency and transparency in the dispersal of corporate funding to worthy causes.

For more information, please, contact: UCAN office, phone (044) 494 45 97, Anna Prymakova, e-mail: anna@ucan-isc.org.ua