|
AN
economic crunch in the US and its trade partners like
the Philippines has forced most companies to refocus
corporate giving, American professor Bradley Googins
said.
Speaking
at a conference on corporate social responsibility in
Makati City Wednesday, Googins said many companies in
the US are trying to veer away from philanthropy and
refocus the resources allotted for charity into creating
and developing markets.
“When
they, and these are mostly multinational companies, look
at developing countries like the Philippines, for
example, they tend to measure its size as a market and
its potentials,” the Boston College Center for Corporate
Citizenship executive director said. “The whole CSR
concept is in a flux,” he added.
Robert
Calingo of Team Energy Foundation Inc. said that this is
also the case in the Philippines.
Calingo
noted that the economic crunch experienced in the US and
in the Philippines is partly the cause for that flux.
“In times of crisis, naturally these companies would cut
costs and the first thing they do is cut what they give
to charity,” he said.
However,
these companies also undergo refocusing and putting more
money into CSR initiatives that are closer to their core
businesses.
“We also
noticed that in bad times, more companies are
collectively pooling resources together to make
efficient their corporate giving,” Calingo said.
He noted
that from 1997 to 2007, the private sector investment
has reached P26 billion, 77 percent of which was for
education.
“I
believe that’s going to increase as the crunch
continues,” Calingo added. |
