Quanta Corporate Citizenship Let’s have a little thought experiment:
Imagine your company has an office in Colombia and an expat colleague posted out there has a close relative (a child or a spouse) kidnapped and your company is asked to pay a ransom of £20k, otherwise…
Would you pay? If you said yes, you overpaid by 1.5 times. In Colombia, the average ransom is around £13k per kidnapping. That's the price for saving the life of a loved one.
Now let’s make it slightly different. Let’s imagine your company’s ship has been hijacked in the east coast of Somalia, and a demand for a £20k ransom per crewmember has been made from your company, otherwise…
Would you pay? If you decided to pay, you are very much in the right ballpark. In March 2009, the cargo ship Blue Star was hijacked with 28 crewmembers on board and released (with the 6 thousand tons of fertilizer inside) for £685k (£24k/crewmember).
Let’s continue with our thought experiment. Your company has been approached to donate £20k to help to save a Gravy Zebra, one of the most endangered species on the planet. As a side effect of saving one of the few remaining animals left in the planet, your company will be known worldwide for helping to save this highly endangered species, your logo will probably be shown in a BBC documentary, a few zoos in America and Europe will have your logo somewhere, and around 100 very high net worth individuals will be exposed to your brand daily when they come to visit the local wildlife conservancy you are sponsoring in Africa.
Would you pay? If you paid, you should be aware that this time you overpaid by 7.5 times: with a budget of less than US$2 million, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy looks after 500 Gravy Zebras (25% of the remaining world population), as well as 50% of Kenya’s black rhinos and other slightly less endangered species, such as elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, white rhinos etc. As a side effect, it directly employees around 400 members of the local community and provides education and health for a few thousand children through a network of primary schools and clinics. All at £2.8k per zebra (and everything else).
Let’s evolve our thought experiment and imagine that, instead of endangered species, we are talking about a non-endangered species, for instance, their sibilings: horses or donkeys. And, instead of Kenya, they were based in the western Europe. And they approached your company to pay the same £20k to save one of their donkeys? Would you pay?
The Horse Trust, with an annual income of £2 million looks after 100 horses and donkeys. That is roughly £20k/horse per year. The Donkey Sanctuary, with a much larger scale, has an annual income of £22.6m, to look after 2,800 donkeys in the UK and Ireland. That is, roughly £9k/donkey per year.
If we compare these figures with the other ones above we can see how humans still do not act rationally when it comes to parting with their money. In Colombia, a human life can be saved with only £13k, even if you have little bargaining power. In Somalia, you can not only save human lives, but also regain control over tens of millions of tons of valuable chemicals by paying £24k per crew member. In Kenya, a highly endangered animal can be saved with only £2.8k and provide health, education, micro-credit and jobs for 30 thousand members of the local community. But in the UK, organisations dealing with the welfare of common animals raise up to £20k per animal to improve their living conditions. And that, contrary to the first two situations where human lives were put in danger by hijackers, these funds are almost entirely raised as voluntary income. Actually, while donations to the majority of charities fell by 11% in the UK last year, the Donkey Sanctuary’s raised by 20% (and expenses increased by 12%).
Corporate philanthropy is not just signing a check for local leaders who ask for money, but understanding the needs (yours and theirs), the gaps and what are the best ways to address them.
- Gus
Imagine your company has an office in Colombia and an expat colleague posted out there has a close relative (a child or a spouse) kidnapped and your company is asked to pay a ransom of £20k, otherwise…
Would you pay? If you said yes, you overpaid by 1.5 times. In Colombia, the average ransom is around £13k per kidnapping. That's the price for saving the life of a loved one.
Now let’s make it slightly different. Let’s imagine your company’s ship has been hijacked in the east coast of Somalia, and a demand for a £20k ransom per crewmember has been made from your company, otherwise…
Would you pay? If you decided to pay, you are very much in the right ballpark. In March 2009, the cargo ship Blue Star was hijacked with 28 crewmembers on board and released (with the 6 thousand tons of fertilizer inside) for £685k (£24k/crewmember).
Let’s continue with our thought experiment. Your company has been approached to donate £20k to help to save a Gravy Zebra, one of the most endangered species on the planet. As a side effect of saving one of the few remaining animals left in the planet, your company will be known worldwide for helping to save this highly endangered species, your logo will probably be shown in a BBC documentary, a few zoos in America and Europe will have your logo somewhere, and around 100 very high net worth individuals will be exposed to your brand daily when they come to visit the local wildlife conservancy you are sponsoring in Africa.
Would you pay? If you paid, you should be aware that this time you overpaid by 7.5 times: with a budget of less than US$2 million, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy looks after 500 Gravy Zebras (25% of the remaining world population), as well as 50% of Kenya’s black rhinos and other slightly less endangered species, such as elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, white rhinos etc. As a side effect, it directly employees around 400 members of the local community and provides education and health for a few thousand children through a network of primary schools and clinics. All at £2.8k per zebra (and everything else).
Let’s evolve our thought experiment and imagine that, instead of endangered species, we are talking about a non-endangered species, for instance, their sibilings: horses or donkeys. And, instead of Kenya, they were based in the western Europe. And they approached your company to pay the same £20k to save one of their donkeys? Would you pay?
The Horse Trust, with an annual income of £2 million looks after 100 horses and donkeys. That is roughly £20k/horse per year. The Donkey Sanctuary, with a much larger scale, has an annual income of £22.6m, to look after 2,800 donkeys in the UK and Ireland. That is, roughly £9k/donkey per year.
If we compare these figures with the other ones above we can see how humans still do not act rationally when it comes to parting with their money. In Colombia, a human life can be saved with only £13k, even if you have little bargaining power. In Somalia, you can not only save human lives, but also regain control over tens of millions of tons of valuable chemicals by paying £24k per crew member. In Kenya, a highly endangered animal can be saved with only £2.8k and provide health, education, micro-credit and jobs for 30 thousand members of the local community. But in the UK, organisations dealing with the welfare of common animals raise up to £20k per animal to improve their living conditions. And that, contrary to the first two situations where human lives were put in danger by hijackers, these funds are almost entirely raised as voluntary income. Actually, while donations to the majority of charities fell by 11% in the UK last year, the Donkey Sanctuary’s raised by 20% (and expenses increased by 12%).
Corporate philanthropy is not just signing a check for local leaders who ask for money, but understanding the needs (yours and theirs), the gaps and what are the best ways to address them.
- Gus
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