The state of charitable giving by FTSE 100 firms

The UK’s largest listed companies donated the same amount to charity in 2022 as they did in 2016 despite almost trebling their pre-tax profits, according to new research by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

The organisation’s Corporate Giving by the FTSE 100 report* found that FTSE 100 firms gave £1.85bn to charities last year. This matches the amount donated in 2016 and is significantly less than the £2.51 billion they gave a decade ago.

Taking increases in inflation into account, this represents a decline of 17% in real terms.

If the FTSE 100 companies had continued to donate the same proportion of pre-tax profits as they did in 2016, the charity sector would have received an additional £3.74 billion of funding.

Having endured a pandemic, cost-of-living, and energy crises, as well as rising inflation, this is a significant amount of funding charities have missed out on.

The good news

Donations may be down, but it’s not all doom and gloom. There were some positive findings from the report. For instance:

• 42 of the 100 companies increased their donations, resulting in £542.4m in the charity pot. This represents an average increase of £12.9m per company.

• The number of FTSE 100 brands that continued to donate while making pre-tax losses climbed from six to 10 between 2016 and 2022.

• The figures suggest that a culture of corporate giving is embedded more widely across the FTSE 100 than ever before, with the top 10 corporate donors accounting for the smallest ever proportion of the overall sum given. In 2022, the ‘top ten’ accounted for 62.5% of the £1.85 billion gifted, compared to 68.3% in 2016.

Giving by sector

So, which sectors are leading the way in corporate giving?

Despite accounting for just five of the FTSE 100 companies, the healthcare sector provided £409.9m (22.2%) of total corporate giving - considerably more than any other sector.

The basic materials and consumer staples sectors, including mining firms Rio Tinto, Glencore, and high street brands such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Unilever, were also among the most generous, contributing an average of 1.76% of pre-tax profits.

At the other end of the scale, the Consumer Discretionary and Industrials sectors, which includes brands such as B&M European Value Retail, JD Sports, and Smiths Group, provided just 9.3% of all giving.

‘More should be done’

Neil Heslop OBE, Chief Executive of the Charities Aid Foundation said of the findings: “The role of FTSE 100 businesses in leading a purposeful corporate culture is vital. More can and should be done, especially now as household incomes are squeezed, and charity finances are strained due to the cost-of-living crisis.

A resilient civil society requires charities, the private sector and government to all play a role.”

According to the report, the call for more to be done is echoed by consumers, with more than two-thirds (69%) believing businesses have an obligation to support the local communities in which they operate.

*The CAF report looks at global support given to charities by FTSE 100 companies in the form of voluntary cash and in-kind donations, matched employee funding, employee volunteering and management costs incurred.

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