TOP Corporate Philanthropist 2008
Socially responsible companies were recognized in the Czech Museum of Music in Prague on 11th November. TOP Corporate Philanthropist 2008 honoured companies for their financial support of good causes as well as for their own charitable projects.
Over the five years of existence of the index the participating companies have already invested over CZK 3 billion. This year the investments into charitable projects and socially responsible activities made by the 44 companies that had participated in the index reached almost CZK 750 million. Among these companies there are not only large companies, that are generally expected to contribute, but also smaller regional firms. There are two equally important categories measuring the largest donors. In the category measuring the absolute volume of distributed resources the ČEZ Group placed first and Česká spořitelna second. The pharmaceutical company Johnson&Johnson became clearly the most generous donor, i.e. the winner of the category measuring distributed resources vs. gross company profit. TOP Project award went to Škoda Auto for their project “One Tree Planted for Every New Car.” Microsoft ČR was awarded for the “Long Term Effect” of their project “Computers against Barriers” run in cooperation with Nadace Charty 77 foundation. Česká spořitelna was also recognized for their employee engagement project “A Day for Charity.” Oriflame received a special award for their project “Oriflame for Children” run in cooperation with Tereza Maxová Foundation and Vodafone received a special recognition for an innovative project presenting a new PC game GhettOut.
This year the TOP Corporate Philanthropist was held for the fifth time, over the five years of existence of the competition many changes have taken place. Companies were given an opportunity to submit their projects dealing with a socially appealing topic (such as bullying at schools, anti-drug prevention, environmental protection, etc.) presenting innovative and unique solutions of these issues. Also new this year was the award recognizing employee engagement. Czech Donors Forum evaluated this particular category in cooperation with the Czech Society for Human Resources Development. The quantitative categories measuring the absolute volume of distributed resources and the distributed resources vs. gross company profit were newly evaluated according to a methodology prepared by Czech Donors Forum in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers Česká republika, s.r.o.
