What are the benefits of corporate donations to charity?

Philanthropy may seem a relatively new concept in the world of business, but corporate charitable giving has actually been around for some time. In Ancient Rome, businesses were expected to pay taxes to fund military campaigns (that were believed to be for the good of the Roman populace). And by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, philanthropy was common amongst the growing number of wealthy middle-class, particularly the new industry owners as a result of industrialisation. A prime example is Thomas John Barnardo, who established hundreds of homes for children to alleviate them from poverty (and who is still a household name thanks to his charitable organisation Barnardos).

However, it wasn’t until the 20th century when community development and social responsibility was recognised as going hand in hand with business growth and success. George Cadbury, the founder of Cadbury, was one of those thought leaders, founding the Bournville Village Trust in 1900 to provide safe, comfortable living conditions for his workers. He certainly wasn’t alone in this thinking. Today, many companies