A private sector member askes:

I would like to know how much capital publicly-traded companies in Canada allocate for corporate giving initiatives, and how the amount is determined. For example, is it a percentage of after-tax net income for the prior year, or some other measure. I would also greatly appreciate any examples of charitable giving or donations policies.

Medium Publicly Traded Company

Many companies in Canada use the "1% guideline" which refers to allocating 1% of pre-tax profit to their charitable giving/ community investment program. This guideline is used in Canada and the U.K. In Canada the 1% guideline was proposed and monitored by Imagine and companies will publicly state their commitment to the 1%. You can check with Imagine for more detail. In terms of donations policies etc., please click here, under Community Investment has details of our focus areas and exclusions. If you would like more specific information in this regard, feel free to contact our Manager of Community Investment and she would be happy to speak with you.

On a related note, EPCOR was a founding member of the London Benchmarking Group in Canada, which is a member based organization that benchmarks data annually on corporate community investment among members. It provides a confidential, apples-to-apples comparison of data from companies across Canada which is benchmarked. Joanne can speak to you more on LBG and the LBG Canada website is: www.lbg-canada.ca 

Large Credit Union

Our organization is proud to have been deemed by Imagine Canada one of only 120 companies in 2007 who donate a minimum of 1% of their pre-tax profits to community organizations. In 2007 we donated $5 million to charities and organizations in the communities in which we serve. We are very proud of this legacy of giving and service to the community.