Holden Buckner provides an overview of the top charitable companies during 2015.

1. TOP 3 CHARITABLE
COMPANIES OF 2015
HOLDEN BUCKNER

2. Tallying around 4.8 billion in total funds,
companies in both finance and healthcare have
given away money to a long list of charitable
organizations and causes. The Chronicle of
Philanthropy reports that the corporate donation
output has increased two percent from the 2014
year, further indicating that this number will only
be expected to increase in the coming years.

3. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has paired heavy data with
public reporting to aggregate numbers to determine the
top charity giving companies within the last year.
This organization thoroughly analyzed the country’s 150
largest public companies/ fortune 500 companies within
the last year. During this data-driven process, the
Chronicle of Philanthropy reviewed public financial
documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service,
Securities and Exchange Commission and public reports
of the company’s outward finances. Its extensive
database consists of 68 companies in the 2015 year.

4. This comprehensive report includes data
aggregated from pretax income, total cash
giving, donated products, and grant making.
Amidst all these cases, there were only four
cases that pointed to a untracked donations.
These figures take domestic figures, along with
international giving patterns into account.

5. The top charitable giving company on the
Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list is Pfizer,who
gave 93.3 million in cash and the rest consisting
of services, products. It is clear that Pfizer was a
leading force in increasing the overall corporate
charitable output, with the company’s
philanthropic engagement rate raising forty-four
percent.

7. A close runner up to Pfizer is Gilead Sciences,
which is a biopharmaceutical company based
out of California. Gilead Sciences gave over 2.3
billion dollars, indicating a little over a hundred
percent increase over its charitable giving rate
of the previous year.

8. Merck & co., the well-known healthcare firm has
donated close to 2 billion last year, with 133
million in the form of cash. Similar to Pfizer, a
portion of the company’s donations was given in
cash, along with other givings. The data
compiled in this report points to product giving
at market value and areas such as volunteer or
fundraising is not included in this total amount.

10. Paying close attention to companies that
maintain solid corporate social responsibility
programs is also important when also thinking
about making a career related move. How a
company is aligned with their CSR programs
can also appeal to employees in the workforce
navigating the market.