Examples of foundations that you may know of are the Prince's Trust , the Diana Fund, and the Ireland Funds. Many companies have independent foundations . The endowment is provided by the company along with guidelines about which field grants are to be made in. After that it is up to the foundation to mange the endowment and to award the grants. The C.S. Mott Foundation is a good example.
Some companies have corporate foundations.
They receive an annual donation from the company and are included as part of the corporate strategy. Grants and programmes will be carefully considered by the corporate as well as the foundation. The Levi Strauss Foundation is good example. These are the programmes run by the company itself such as Coca-Cola's environment programme. In addition to making grants and operating their own programmes they often provide support through sponsorship, training, gifts of equipment or supplies, employee volunteering, matching employee donations and employee secondment.