How is corporate philanthropy helping the planet in 2024?

Philanthropy has proven essential in driving progress across many critical areas, yet only 11% of this is represented by corporate philanthropy and only 5% of that is allocated to climate-related issues.

These are the stark stats of a new World Economic Forum white paper exploring the future role the corporate community can play, in partnership with other public and private stakeholders, in driving climate and nature action.

So why is this, when research shows it can benefit all parties involved? According to the MIT Sloan Management Review, "While corporate social responsibility is part of most companies’ business strategies, philanthropy often remains disconnected from core business objectives. This makes it challenging for leaders to discern what types of philanthropic engagement should be prioritized and why."

But momentum is growing, 'The Role of Corporate Philanthropy in Accelerating Climate and Nature Transitions' says, highlighting the work of GAEA, the Forum's "global clearinghouse" for scaling public, private and philanthropic partnerships to unlock financing for a net-zero, nature-positive future.

So how are businesses already involved, what do these partnerships yield and what more can be done to facilitate them in the future?

"Voluntary giving that builds on the company’s core competencies to achieve social impact while improving its competitive edge - resulting in a win-win situation." That's how the MIT Sloan Management review defines strategic corporate philanthropy.

Essentially, it "uniquely blends corporate resources with philanthropic strategies, leveraging both financial and non-financial support to maximize impact", the GAEA white paper says, potentially offering more agile and efficient support compared with traditional models.

Through collaboration, climate philanthropy can become the "nimble" tool that can speed climate solutions, according to Helen Mountford, CEO of ClimateWorks Foundation, a GAEA partner, which has leveraged over $1 billion for projects in more than 50 countries.

In 2022, global corporate philanthropy totalled approximately $71 billion, with almost half of this coming from US-based organizations, the report says. And, incentives vary country-by-country, depending on statutory requirements, tax incentives and other nationally-specific factors. Sourcing global data is therefore complicated and gaps remain, the authors point out.

But it is a growing practice. Global corporate philanthropic funding to nature and climate represents almost half of all corporate philanthropy and saw a 127% rise in dollar terms between 2018 and 2022.

Corporate philanthropy trends appear to be closely tied with current events, the report says. In the case of the climate crisis, Mountford appears to agree.

"Climate is complex. It covers everything. Now we are seeing the impacts around the world all the time, and we know we need radical transformation of all of our sectors to actually tackle the climate crisis," she explains.

"And of course, coming into this, all new funders say, well, where should I best invest? And that's where we and others in the community are trying to help them identify those opportunities."

The report includes a series of case studies that highlight a range of philanthropic work. These include a variety of funding and non-funding approaches, including grants, programme- and mission-related investments, employee matching/volunteer time, skills-based expertise and advisory services. Here are three from the list.

The Forum also outlines some of the most effective corporate philanthropic approaches to climate and nature, including: supporting early-stage initiatives; exploring intersections between climate/nature; leveraging corporate affiliates’ resources, skills and business activities (depending on jurisdiction); and bringing together multiple stakeholders to amplify impact.

Launched in 2024, GAEA's Corporate Philanthropy Challenge for People and Planet, is uniting partners from multiple sectors to mobilize $1 billion of smart, catalytic funding towards climate and nature interventions by 2030.

Public-private-philanthropic partnerships have the potential to deliver more strategic and impactful solutions for climate and nature, matching the scale of the challenges we face.