Corporate foundation
A grantmaking body funded by a company. Where it is a separate foundation it files like one and its giving is visible; where it is a giving programme inside the company, there is no filing and the money is largely invisible from the outside.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Company foundation · Corporate giving programme
In detail
The two structures behave differently. A corporate foundation is insulated from a bad quarter and files a return; an internal giving programme can be cut in a budget round and publishes only what it chooses to.
Corporate giving is frequently tied to where a company operates, which makes its geography narrower and more predictable than its stated mission suggests.
Against a sponsorship
A grant funds work. A sponsorship buys visibility and is a marketing transaction with different rules and different money. Organisations approach corporate funders for one and are offered the other regularly. We hold grants; a sponsorship offer is not something a grant record would ever describe.
How GrantTrove stores it
- Funder records name the entity that publishes, with `website` and `source_url` pointing at its own pages and `last_verified_at` dating the check.
- Where a corporate giving programme files nothing, we hold no financial figures for it and the profile says so rather than implying we simply have not looked.
Common questions
Why is there no giving data for some corporate funders?
Because an internal giving programme files no return. There is nothing public to read.
Is a sponsorship a grant?
No. Different money, different rules, usually a different department.
Do corporate funders fund nationally?
Frequently only where they operate. Their geography is narrower than their mission statement.