In short, corporations may appear eager to provide information on their charitable practices, but two years of evidence strongly indicates they are not. Even when the law required full disclosure of grantmaking activities, nearly three-fourth of corporations with foundations did not comply. The IRS fared no better in providing corporate grantmaking data. Researchers made 257 requests to the IRS for copies of corporate foundation tax returns. Of these 257 requests, only the IRS could respond positively to only 87 requests.
Timing is also a problem.
According to the Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility, shareholder resolutions regarding corporate grantmaking were among the five most common issues in non-management related stockholder resolutions. Stockholders clearly want to know who is receiving corporate contributions. However, of these 19, only eight provided actual data on their grantmaking activities and then only in summary and sample data. For example, according to its most recent 990PF, Nike Corporation, which uses its PLAY foundation as a major advertising focus, awarded absolutely no grants through the PLAY foundation. Recently, on the day Nike released a new athletic shoe, Chicago Police reported 22 violent crimes in connection with the shoe.