NEWS worthy Clips (1/2)
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The Business of Giving
In business, it’s not just about making money, it’s about giving it away, too
While most company executives about ways to boost profits, Winona Edwards’ job is to give away some of Alcon’s earnings.
As director of humanitarian and community services for the company, Edwards and her staff arrange donations to needy hospital patients, medical missions, and an array of programs that prevent and .
The gifts amount to $123 million over the past three years, most of it in the form of free medicines to indigent patients here and abroad.
Evolution of giving
The strategy reflects the evolving role of corporate philanthropy, as many U.S. companies attempt to align their charity with their business interests.
“All look for companies who are well-rounded and doing the right thing,” Edwards said. “The philanthropic side is, I think, becoming increasingly important.”
Certainly, it’s increaseingly visible. Companies are steering donations to causes that line up with their business goals, tightly managing their contributions, donating their own products instead of cash, and rallying employees to volunteer, said Curt Weeden, chief executive of the Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals.
“People know companies make a lot of money. It’s pretty easy to cut a check,” Weeden said. “Maybe it ain’t so easy when you have to pull together a bunch of people and have them, on their own time, go out and improve the community.”
Weeden, whose organization represents 147 companies, provides training and other to the managers who oversee volunteering and other corporate philanthropy efforts.
Such training is especially helpful as corporate-giving programs become more complex and structured, Edwards said.
Alcon, for example, supports 1,100 medical missions annually. But as recently as the 1990s, the company provided medicine for just a few hundred overseas trips each year.
Vocabulary Focus
Well-rounded (adj) ---involving or having experience in a wide range of ideas or activites
steer (v) ---to cause something to go a certain way or in a particular direction
rally (v) ---to cause others to come together in order to provide support or make a shared effort
cut a check (v. phr) ---to fill out and sign a paper made by a bank for transfer of money
Specialized terms
indigent (adj)--- 非常贫困的；一贫如洗的 very poor
philanthropy (n)--- 慈善行为 the activity of helping poor people, especialy by giving them money