California Management Review

Abstract

This article examines the rapidly expanding movement to professionalize the corporate contributions function, linking giving to special events in sports and the arts, and the pressures to reorient philanthropy into a bottom-line function. Philanthropy has become big business. Sponsorship of sports events, concerts, and festivals has become an $850 million industry with more than 1600 corporate participants. Corporate sponsorships of sporting events have tripled in the past two years alone. Additionally, businesses contribute more than $500 million annually to the arts, representing a four-fold increase in the past decade. The management of corporate philanthropy has become an integral component of the strategic-planning process.

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