Towards NPOs deeper understanding of the corporate giving manager\u27s role in meeting salient stakeholders needs

Understanding the motivation and stakeholder influences behind a for-profit corporations giving behaviour is vital for nonprofit organisations as there is growing evidence that large corporations prefer to support NPOs that they perceive are more closely aligned with the organisations values. Increasingly, NPO requests for assistance to large organisations are subject to formal processes and are being scrutinized more rigorously in terms of how they fit with the firms corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy. This screening and evaluation process is often performed by the giving manager, yet little research has been conducted into how the giving managers of large corporations actually perform their role and the effect of stakeholder influence on their final choice of NPO to support or recommend to senior management for support. Specifically, we draw on stakeholder-agency theory to examine the role of stakeholder management in corporate giving behaviour. We argue that that the organisational reality of the relationship between corporate giving managers and internal and external stakeholders are more effectively explained using stakeholder-agency theory which focuses on the pivotal role of managers when meeting stakeholder needs. Understanding the organizational influences and pressures that giving managers are subject to will assist NPOs in better marketing their value as an organization worthy of support