Mathew Little
Giving by the FTSE 100 as a proportion of pre-tax profits is falling, according to a survey by The Guardian and Business in the Community.
The top companies on the London Stock Exchange gave 0.79 per cent of their pre-tax profits to fulfil social and environment responsibilities in 2006, compared with 0.87 per cent in 2005.
Giving represented 0.95 per cent of pre-tax profits in 2002. Profits have more than doubled since then.
The figures corroborate findings from the Charities Aid Foundation's Charity Trends publication, which reported that corporate donations rose by 15 per cent, while pre-tax profits rose by 31 per cent - the third consecutive annual decline relative to profits (Third sector, 5 July).
The most generous UK company was Sainsbury's, which gave away 7.02 per cent of its pre-tax profits. It replaced ITV, which dropped to second at 6.2 per cent. Northern Rock was third at 5.02 per cent. GlaxoSmithKline had the largest budget for CSR of £141.2m, but was only the sixth-largest giver in relative terms.
The top 25 companies in the FTSE 100 each give 1 per cent of their pre-tax profits or more. Only those in the top three give more than 5 per cent.
