Corporate Philanthropic Giving Practices in U.S. School Education

While corporate philanthropic giving to education is a controversial topic, how much money corporate foundations (CFs) provide to U.S. primary and secondary education, what policy and geographic areas CFs fund, who makes grant decisions within CFs, and corporate philanthropists’ reported giving motivations are unknown. A quantitative survey was used to gather data on 49 Fortune 500 CFs giving to primary and secondary U.S. education. Survey findings indicate that (a) the amount of money that these 49 CFs provide to primary and secondary U.S. education is 0.10 % of the 2010 education budget; (b) CFs report funding across different policy areas, avoiding school choice; (c) CFs favor funding cities or districts, individual schools, and individual students over state and national level funding; (d) the foundation president is more likely to make grantmaking decisions than the company CEO; and (e) corporate philanthropists report giving to primary and secondary U.S. education to build a strong workforce and improve community relations. Findings provide insight into the role of corporate philanthropy in primary and secondary U.S. education and have implications for policy.