November 10, 2008 - The Pontis Foundation is assisting companies to measure the full value and impact of their Corporate Community Investments, benchmarking their performance using an internationally accepted standard developed by Corporate Citizenship Company (UK) – London Benchmarking Group.
This year, the following companies utilized this standard for measuring their philantropic activities in Slovakia: KPMG Slovensko spol. s.r.o., Provident Financial, s.r.o, Telefónica O2 Slovakia, s.r.o., VÚB banka, a.s., Východoslovenská energetika, a.s., a Západoslovenská energetika, a.s. Altogether, the above mentioned companies invested more than SKK52.3 mil (EUR1.7 mil.) into the community.
Results of this year’s measurement revealed that 59% of the financial means for corporate community investments are spent for commercial initiatives such as sponsoring or cause-related marketing. The sum doubled when compared to last year, while the amount for charity donations decreased from 47% to present 28%. According to Lenka Surotchak, director of the Pontis Foundation, the reason is the legal framework in Slovakia. Slovak companies are not allowed to deduct donations from their tax bases, and they frequently feel that having assigned 2% of their income tax to an NGO, their obligations towards the community have been met.
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