Abstract

This article summarizes a study of corporate community involvement in the San Francisco Bay Area conducted under the auspices of the Program in Business and Social Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. The study entailed research on 67 of the largest companies and subsidiaries based in the Bay Area and interviews with both managers responsible for community activities and CEOs. The study addressed corporate employee volunteer programs as well as philanthropic donations of cash, goods, and services. The older, larger companies, based primarily in San Francisco and Oakland, tend to devote more resources to community programs than do the newer firms, based primarily in the Silicon Valley counties. The philanthropic programs of the newer firms tend to be more closely related to their business activities. Also, the older firms tend to be more active in network organizations related to philanthropy and community involvement than the newer firms. The high-technology Silicon Valley firms, however, are active in local industry organizations, which do consider community issues.