Final Paper: Philanthropy And Social Responsibility The issue of organizational philanthropy can be controversial and often raises skepticism about whether corporate giving is simply a marketing and...

Running Head: PHILANTHROPY
PHILANTHROPY 2
PHILANTHROPY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The company that is considered for carrying out this task is Wells Fargo.
a. The company’s history in terms of philanthropy
It can be stated that Wells Fargo Philanthropic Services tends to provide a full array of services to the family as well as the private foundations across the country consisting of grant-making support. For these particular foundations, this company also tends to act as a co-trustee, sole trustee, or even agent. In general, their philanthropic approach consists of mixing the corporate donations that are directed by the Wells Fargo Foundation, along with the non-profit donations that are driven by the local market businesses and teams. It is the model that gives the people who live and also work in the communities that they mainly serve the ability for building relationships with the community-based companies and also support the local opportunities at the same time while enabling the firm to marshal resources for addressing complicated global problems. However, when they look ahead then it is observed by them that some of the greatest opportunities for them revolve around the fact of identifying how philanthropy can help move the needle their three CSR priorities such as advancing social inclusion as well as diversity, strengthening economic opportunities and self-sufficiency and also accelerating the transformation toward a lower-carbon economy. In the year 2016, the company started to more purposefully align its corporate donations and also initiatives to the above-mentioned three areas (Mainwaring, 2019). On the other hand, continuously providing flexibility to the local team members for supporting the local non-profits as well as the challenges. However, Wells Fargo also believes this more balanced approach to philanthropy which will consist of a mixture of the local and also corporate donations that also represent half of their charitable giving will also allow them for making the biggest difference in the lives of the people. Furthermore, their other philanthropic efforts during 2017 showcase this company’s new Holiday Food Bank Campaign which included holidays for sorting out the donations, delivering meals, and also fighting with hunger. On the contrary, Wells Fargo’s corporate philanthropy and also other community initiative tends to reflect their commitment to addressing economic, pressing, social and environmental problems consisting in times of urgent need. For instance, during a time of various catastrophic events in 2017, Wells Fargo gave $10.6 million to the American Red Cross and neighbourhood charities to help calamity alleviation and recuperation endeavours, including $6.5 million to the WE Care Fund for 4,714 awards to help its colleagues affected by the three storms, boundless California fire blazes, and other monetary difficulties (Campbell, 2019). Some of the major examples that highlight the efforts of Wells Fargo from the philanthropic decision that consists of the following:
· $28.3 million in help to veterans, military assistance, their relatives through monetary, schooling, professional progress, and lodging drives.
· $45 million in initial investment help awards and homebuyer schooling in a joint effort with NeighborWorks America through its NeighborhoodLIFT program, which made 2,820 mortgage holders during the year.
· $2 million toward the eight non-for-profits—producing $11.6 million in coordinating with assets from grantees—for the Resilient Communities Program to assist urban areas with ensuring regular territories and plan for, withstand, and recuperate from catastrophic events related to changing ocean levels, water amount and quality problems, as well as longer fire seasons.
Throwing light on the above-mentioned discussion it can be stated that Philanthropy plays one of the most vital roles in their efforts as well as in recent times they are also one of the top corporate cash donors among the U.S. firms as they have donated more than $281.3 million to approximately 16,300 non-profits last year only. However, the company is also working to evolve their approach toward philanthropy aligning the majority of their national philanthropic giving with their three priorities while at the same time retaining flexibility for their businesses and also local team for supporting local opportunities and needs. Furthermore, this firm also aims to deliver a focused approach toward philanthropy as well as volunteerism for yielding greater impact in terms of serving the team members, communities, and also consumers. At present, the firm is stabilizing the local neighbourhoods and economies via philanthropy, affordable housing as well as community development investments (Wells Fargo, 2020).
It is needless to say that the critics and supporters say that Well Fargo’s philanthropic activities are appreciated to a great extent. They said that philanthropy is the support system of Wells Fargo. It was published in Forbes that Wells Fargo is leveraging the purpose for building its reputation. It is also said by the supporters that if the firm wants to elevate an issue then they build a proper perspective for delivering the greatest impact. It simply highlights the fact that they look toward the broad segment concerning the housing challenges as well as building teams around some of the things such as transitional, homelessness, and also rental housing. On the other hand, the critics even said that the company only tends to help the people to understand their issues. The firm with the help of their philanthropic approach also tends to showcase to individuals how well the company will be a part of the solutions that they tend to work. Hence, this directly appeals to the emotions and thinking of the individual around the housing (Wells Fargo, 2021).
Some ethical theories tend to reflect the corporate giving philosophy of the company. Utilitarianism can be applied to this company in terms of their giving philosophy as they always tend to predict the consequences their actions will have. For example, with the help of their philanthropic approach, they are serving society so they are quite aware of the fact that how their donations (actions) will be impacting society as a whole. However, there are two types of utilitarianism for instance the rule utilitarianism and also act utilitarianism. However, it is quite evident that Wells Fargo uses act utilitarianism as well as rule utilitarianism. In terms of act utilitarianism, they perform the acts that will directly benefit most of the people despite their feelings or any type of societal constraints for instance laws. On the other hand, rule utilitarianism takes into account the law as well as it is concerned with fairness. This particular method is applicable when Wells Fargo tends to benefit a huge amount of people but only with the help of the fairest and the justness means that are available. Hence, the added benefits of this method are that it tends to value justice and also includes beneficence at the same time.
b. The ways by which Wells Fargo have developed their philanthropic priorities
It can be said that Wells Fargo always observed the three significant problems that are affecting families, individuals, and underserved communities across the U.S. so they developed their philanthropic priorities accordingly. For instance, Housing affordability, financial health, and also the growth of the small business (Wells Fargo, 2020). From the year 2019 also the firm is targeting 2% of its after-tax profits, focusing on the funding programs and also problem-solving programs for the above-mentioned philanthropic priorities. On the other hand, it is stated by the firm that will continue its local giving in the communities in which it tends to operate consisting of the strategic market priorities such as arts, education, and also culture. Additionally, the firm also developed its philanthropic priorities by thinking about the following as their values and beliefs that will be a part of the philanthropic policy, the things that the firm is accountable for, the ways by which they will be working with the grantees, etc.
The mission of this company revolves around satisfying all of the financial needs of the consumers and their primary mission is assisting the consumers as much as possible for their financial needs and satisfying their financial needs. Furthermore, the above-mentioned aims are mainly achieved via a variety of services. However, the core values of the firm consist of providing what is right for the consumers, people as a competitive advantage, diversity, ethics, leadership as...