2021

Corporate
Philanthropy
in Pakistan
This report has been reviewed by Ms. Javeria Younas from Department of Economics at SESS, Institute of

2021
Business Administration (IBA) Karachi and by Dr. G.M. Arif, Former Joint Director, Pakistan Institute of
Development Economics (PIDE) Islamabad. All comments and suggestions are well taken and have been
sufficiently addressed in the study.

Layout and Design:

Arsalan Kashfi
Aqsa Tahir
Muhammad Shahbaz Siddiqui

Printed by:
Reflections on Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
Published in January 2023 in the COVID-19 Pandemic
 F
The corporate sector can play an effective role in supporting
social investments in the country, given the limited financial
resources and small tax base of the government to provide

OREWORD
adequate social services to the growing population. The
evidence shows that the corporate sector in Pakistan has
Lorem ipsum increasingly shown its involvement in social responsibility
initiatives, contributing to making a difference in societal
betterment. In this context, the Pakistan Centre for
Philanthropy (PCP) has documented annual corporate
philanthropy survey reports since the year 2005, highlighting the total volume of donations, charting out trends,
patterns and best giving practices of the corporate sector in Pakistan. The series of surveys are meant to advocate the
huge potential resource of corporate philanthropy as a supplement to promote social development activities. These
survey reports also generate knowledge and recognize the significant contributions of the business sector towards
social good, and identify how to encourage and incentivize corporations to spend more on areas of social and economic
priority. The lessons learnt might help shaping public policy for a more enabling environment for corporate giving in
Pakistan.

This year’s report on ‘Corporate Philanthropy in Pakistan-2021’ covers the sample of three types of business companies
including Public Listed, Public Unlisted and Private Limited companies, presenting their philanthropic contributions to
various social causes. The unprecedented spread of corona virus (COVID-19), posing serious challenges for the economy
and the business sector in the past year has also been taken into account to assess how corporations have responded and
participated in social responsibility activities to provide relief to those in need and mitigate the adverse effects of the
widespread pandemic. Despite the enormous economic crunch that the majority of businesses have faced during COVID
crisis, it is laudable that Pakistan’s corporate sector demonstrated resilience and commitment to redress economic
adversity.

Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), with its mandate to highlight the philanthropic giving and its effectiveness
conducts each year corporate philanthro py survey of business companies. The series of surveys are meant to advocate
the huge potential and contribution of corporate philanthropy as a supplement to national resources for social
development activities. The annual survey generates knowledge on the various dynamics and means of corporate
philanthropy. This year, to extend the comprehension of corporate giving, new dimensions have also been examined that
include a segregated and comparative analysis of small, medium and large companies’ philanthropic giving and the
changing trends in corporate philanthropy in relation to fluctuating economic growth trends over time.

The report reveals a steadily rising trend in the overall volume of corporate giving over the past two decades, estimated
at an amount of PKR 13.32 billion in the year 2020. However, a slight drop in this volume observed during the past one
year appears to be the effect of slowing down of the economy and the business activity due to the COVID crisis. It is
noteworthy that Public Listed Companies (PLCs) that constitute only 0.4% of the entire business sectors contribute a
substantially higher amount (79 %) of total giving. Also encouraging is to see that the contribution of PLCs as a
percentage of their profit before tax has increased from 0.6 to 0.9 over the years, which is quite close to the globally
accepted level of 1 percent.

It is expected that this report will add to the existing knowledge about the discourse of corporate philanthropy in
Pakistan, underscoring their significant CSR spending on various relief activities for people in need in the wake of COVID
pandemic. PCP envisions that the findings of this report will be useful for the corporate sector and other stakeholders,
providing the basis to share their ideas and suggestions to enhance the analysis and scope of the study for improving its
quality and content.

Zaffar A. Khan, S.I.

Chairman, Board of Directors
Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy
 A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Corporate Philanthropy Survey-2021 is seventeenth in the series of reports produced by the Pakistan Centre for
Philanthropy. The year brought unexpected global pandemic that slowed down or even halted economic activity in the
business sector in Pakistan. PCP also faced challenges in keeping up with the pace of work from home strategy to avoid
delay in completion of this report. PCP staff acted responsibly and put in all efforts for the timely completion of its annual
work plan activities and CPS report- 2021.
This report is the outcome of the collective efforts of PCP research team in the collection and compilation of data, its
analysis and write up of the draft as well as the support provided by relevant organizations and companies. I would
sincerely like to acknowledge the contributions of all collaborators and facilitators in completing this annual report
successfully. First of all, our heartfelt gratitude is due to the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Zaffar A. Khan and all other
members of PCP Board of Directors for their encouragement and continuous support, especially Dr. Attiya Inayatullah,
Chair PCP Research Committee, for her valuable insights and feedback all along.
We gratefully acknowledge the persistent and unwavering cooperation from Securities and Exchange Commission of
Pakistan (SECP) for facilitation in providing data, specifically on Public Unlisted and Private Limited companies in
Pakistan. Special gratitude is offered to the management of the companies who responded to our requests and shared the
requisite data on their philanthropic activities during COVID crisis. We look forward to their support and cooperation in
the ensuing years as well.
The current report is importantly the result of meticulous efforts by the PCP research team, particularly Ms. Aneela
Sajjad and Mr. Muhammad Tahir for collection of data, its analysis and laying out tables and graphs for presentation of
findings, as well as Dr. Zainab Salim for her input in the qualitative analysis and report writing. The constant supervision
and guidance provided by Dr. Naushin Mahmood for the completion of this report and ensuring sufficiently suitable
write-up and analysis has been valuable. PCP appreciates and acknowledges the excellent work done by the whole
research team in the completion of this study. Special thanks are due to other PCP staff members for their support and
assistance in the completion and dissemination of this report.
Finally, the Centre is grateful to all the stakeholders who have utilized the successive reports of the corporate
philanthropy survey and appreciated this effort. We hope that the current volume will be as edifying and useful as in the
past years. We also envision that the contents and findings of this report will inspire our business sector to optimize their
philanthropic efforts through building productive partnerships with government’s ambitious agenda of reducing poverty
and social inequality in the country. We would fully appreciate any comments and suggestions for improvement of this
report.
Shazia Maqsood Amjad
Executive Director
Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy
E
X E C U T i V E S U M M A RY
The scope and understanding of philanthropy have expanded over the years with new evolving strategies to improve the
efficacy of philanthropic giving. The recent expansion of market economies in developing countries has placed greater
responsibility on national and international businesses to contribute to augmenting social investments in the country. In
case of Pakistan, businesses have adapted the concept of Corporate Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) in their giving practices to contribute towards societal development. Many large, medium and small enterprises in
Pakistan have developed their CSR departments for making effective contributions to support various government
programs such as providing educational scholarships, shelters, medical aids, food and clothing to the underprivileged
and needy people. Companies are cognizant of the fact that how corporate giving can bring prosperity to the citizens and
in turn, boost the company’s revenues.
The unprecedented challenge of Covid-19 in recent year has shaken the global economy. Almost every country
experienced an economic meltdown and slowing down of business and Pakistan is no exception. Notwithstanding the
negative impact of Covid-19 on businesses, the corporate sector in Pakistan has remained steadfast in maintaining their
spirit of giving to reach out to those in need. In such difficult situations, individuals, corporations and nonprofit
institutions responded responsibly to the government’s call for support to combat the Covid-19 crisis and a large
number of companies donated generously to the cause. The activities undertaken in response to Covid crisis include
distribution of protective equipment, i.e., masks, and sanitizers to staff and allowing them to work from home as a
preventive measure. In addition, awareness campaigns for the staff and the general public, free or low-cost medical
camps with the facility of Covid-test for needy and underprivileged were also arranged by many companies.
The annual CPS reports provide the estimates of the total volume of corporate giving and also highlight the role and
contributions of the business sector towards various social causes. The distinguishing feature of the current report is an
enhanced analysis of corporate philanthropy, primarily addressing the questions whether giving practices of companies
vary by its size and type, and what lessons need to be learnt to engage the business sector for more effective giving.
This year, the corporate philanthropy survey aims to:
Document the magnitude and the best practices of public listed, public unlisted and private Ltd. companies in the
business sector;
Analyze individual as well as collective contributions by business organizations towards various sectors of social
development;
Examine the CSR contributions of business companies during Covid-19 and the type of support provided to combat
the crisis in the country.
Of the total 518 PLCs listed with the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), 491 comprise the sample; the remaining 27 PLCs
are not a part of the sample due to various reasons, i.e., suspension, delisted, merged, non-functional, etc. For PUCs and
PvLCs, a sample of companies having a paid-up capital of PKR 100 million or more is selected for which the financial data
is accessible. Based on this criterion, 278 PUCs and 513 PvLCs have been selected for data collection and analysis.
Based on the data collected for the year 2020, the total volume of donations is estimated at PKR 13.32 billion, of which
the largest share of PKR. 9.64 billion is given by PLCs, followed by PKR 1.89 billion by PUCs and PKR 1.79 billion by
PvLCs . This amount is encouraging in view of the adversity and challenges of COVID-19 on businesses in the country.
The volume of donations by PLCs has steadily increased from PKR 0.23 billion in base year 2000 to PKR 9.64 in 2020¹,
indicating about 42 times increase during the last two decades. However, the rising trend in the volume of giving by PLCs
is interrupted in the recent year, indicating a decreased amount of PLCs donations from PKR 11.35 billion in 2019 to
PKR 9.64 billion in 2020. This may be attributable to the effect of the COVID-19 crisis resulting in a reduction of PKR
1.72 billion in total giving from the previous year. This year’s decline in the total volume of giving corresponds well with
the fact that the number of giving PLCs has also reduced from 255 (53 %) to 227 (46 %) during the past year. Overall, it
appears that the volume of giving by PLCs has stagnated around PKR 9 billion during recent two years, reflecting an
effect of COVID on the economy and the business sector.
¹ The data is gathered from corporate financial statements for the fiscal year of July 2019– June 2020.
 A
Some key findings of the survey are as under:

The total philanthropic giving of PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs is estimated at PKR 13.32 billion in the year 2020;

CRONYMS
PLCs donated PKR 9.64 million in 2020, showing a slight drop from previous year, and about 42 times since base
year 2000;
Around 46 percent of the total PLCs are involved/reported philanthropic giving;
PLCs have contributed 0.9 percent of PBT as donations in 2020, quite close to the threshold level;
The share of top 10 giving PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs is PKR 8.4 billion, 63 percent of the total giving;
Total donations of PUCs (137/278) are estimated as PKR 1.9 billion in 2020;
PvLCs (144/513) have contributed around PKR 1.8 billion in the same year;
Oil and Gas Exploration sub-sector ranks the highest in volume of donations with an average annual contribution
of PKR 3,527 million;
CP Corporate Philanthropy
Fertilizer is the only industry practicing philanthropy universally, where all companies in the sub-sector make
donations;
9 out of 12 participant companies -in qualitative survey- invested approximately PKR 907 million on Covid-19 CPS Corporate Philanthropy Survey
related CSR activities in 2020;
83.3% reported that their company had a CSR policy with a clear vision and mission; CS Corporate Sustainability
About 75% of the participants responded that CSR related decisions were made either by the Board of Directors
(BOD), the CEO of their company, both the CEO and the BOD, and the Directors of the HR and CSR departments.
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
In contrast, nearly 17% of the participants stated that CSR decision-making was made as per their company’s CSR
policies;
Corporate sector’s CSR contributions to Covid-19 have been quite positive, as 92% participant companies gave a CSV Creating Shared Value
favourable response to the call for help during 2020;
About 50% reported that they gave donations in the form of cash only, 17% reported giving in-kind donations only, GDP Gross Domestic Product
whereas about 25% of the respondent companies stated that they used all forms including cash, in-kind, and
volunteering time for containing the spread of the pandemic, protecting the health of the underprivileged and
HBL Habib Bank Limited
supporting their economic needs during Covid-19;
25% of the companies reported giving donations to the Education sector to support the continuation of education
services for students from underprivileged backgrounds, while 9% of the companies contributed to the Nutrition NCOC National Command and Operational Centre
sector, initiating distribution of food supplies to the needy, especially the daily wage earners and their families
affected by the pandemic. PBT Profit before Tax

PCP Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy

PKR Pakistan Rupee

PLC Public Listed Company

PSX Pakistan Stock Exchange

PUC Public Unlisted Company

PvLC Private Limited Company

SDGs Sustainable Development Goals

SECP Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan

SMCs Small Medium Companies

UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization

UNOCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

C
LiST OF TABLES

ONTENTS Table 1: Composition of Corporate Sector in Pakistan

Table 2: Size Description of companies as per SECP Companies Act, 2017
07
08
Table 3: The Sample Size of PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs: 2020 08
Table 4: Total Volume of Donations by PLCs, PUCs, and PvLCs: 2020 10
Table 5: Volume of Giving by PLCs as a Percentage of PBT 2000-2020 13

The Context 01
Table 6 : Volume of Donations by Top 25 PLCs, 2000-2020 15
Table 7: Top 10 giving companies by volume of donations: 2020 18

Corporate Table 8: Top 10 giving companies donations as a percentage of PBT: 2020 20

Philanthropy Table 9: Volume of Donations by City-wise Distribution of Companies 2020 22

in Pakistan 04 Table 10: Total Donations of Companies by the Number of Employees, 2020 23
Corporate Table 11: Involvement of sector-wise Public Listed Companies in giving: 2020 24
Philanthropy Table 12: Sector wise percentage of giving Public Unlisted Companies: 2020 25
Survey 07 Table 13: Sector wise percentage of giving Private Limited Companies: 2020 26

Volume of
Corporate Giving
during 2020 10
LiST OF FiGURES
Trends in Figure 1: Carroll Model of CSR 02
Corporate Giving: Figure 2: Geographic Location of Giving PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs, 2020 10
2000 - 2020 11
Figure 3: Trends in Volume of Giving by PLCs 2000-2020 11
Enhanced Analysis Figure 4: Trends in Volume of Giving - PUCs and PvLCs, 2015-20 12
of Corporate Giving: Figure 5: Percentage change in total giving during the years 2000-2020 13
2020 18 Figure 6: Number of Public Listed Companies by Spread of Donations: 2015 & 2020 14

Sector-wise Figure 7: Corporate Philanthropy (Real Value) VS. Growth in GDP: 2000-2020 16

Volume of Giving 24
Figure 8a: Average Daily Shares of PLCs: 2018-21 16
Figure 8b: Total Volume Traded by PLCs: 2018-21 17
Corporate Figure 9: Total Capital of PLCs during 2018-21 17
Philanthropy during Figure 10: Amount: Giving by Large, Medium and Small Size Companies 2020 21
COVID-19 27 Figure 11: Percentage: Giving by Large, Medium and Small Size Companies 2020 22
Figure 12: Volume of Donations in Response to Covid-19, 2020 29
30
Conclusion 33
Figure 13: Companies having a CSR policy with an explicit vision/mission
Figure 14: Type of Contributions by Companies during COVID? 30

10
Figure 15: Areas of Support during COVID Crisis 31
32
References 35
Figure 16: What was the motivation or incentive behind donating more during 2020
 1
THE CONTEXT
The first-ever study on corporate philanthropy in Pakistan conducted by Aga Khan Development
Network revealed that the top 120 business companies, about 93 percent of the top 120 business
companies contributed their donations to one of the social causes (AKDN, 2000). The article on
The persistence of poverty and social inequality around the world is a matter of great Philanthropy in Pakistan published in Stanford Innovation Review specifies that charitable giving in the
concern as evident from over a billion human beings still surviving on income of country is over one per cent of GDP, compared to the wealthier nations such as Canada (1.2 %), United
approximately U.S $ 1.25²a day. A majority of the underprivileged live in the developing Kingdom (1.3 %) and almost double of what India estimates on giving (Shazia Amjad, 2018). Further
countries of the world like Pakistan. The primary responsibility for human development rests evidence shows that generous companies are more likely to have customers and employees who will
with national governments and their administrations, but given the huge task at hand, the promote the company’s repute; and shareholders who will continue to invest and recommend the firm’s
governments alone with insufficient resources cannot resolve all issues. The combined initiatives to others.
efforts of national governments, business, civil society and international community are
crucial to attain sustainable solution to issues of human development. This requires
private-public partnerships and support from other stakeholders to accelerate the pace of
CORPORATE SOCiAL RESPONSiBiLiTY (CSR)
development activities (ADB, 2000). In this context, the concept of philanthropy and
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a progressive concept in the business world,
corporate social responsibility has gained much attention as a potential source of funding
generally understood as the way in which a company attains a steadiness or integration of economic,
stream to support development initiatives and strengthen civil society organizations. In
social and environmental concerns in philanthropic giving, whilst at the same time addresses the
modern world today, the existence of correlation between business and society and between
expectations and interests of its shareholders. CSR is a self-regulatory mechanism of private companies
corporate values/goals and societal achievements is well recognized (Madueno et al., 2015).
to contribute to public good and some charitable causes that benefit the society, at large. It is a global
phenomenon which connects the corporate sector with the social sector and is an umbrella term used for
The scope and understanding of philanthropy have expanded over the years with new
recognizing that business needs to develop its relationship with wider society, whether for reasons of
evolving strategies to improve the efficacy of philanthropic giving. The recent expansion of
commercial viability or to add values to societal betterment. CSR should neither be understood simply as
market economies in developing countries has placed greater responsibility on national and
corporate giving nor as compliance with laws and regulations or externally imposed buyer-codes. It is
international businesses to contribute to augmenting social investments in the country. In
generally seen as the corporate sector’s contribution to sustainable development that is in agreement not
this regards, the importance of engaging the corporate sector in the attainment of Social
only with the best corporate practices but is also an embodiment of mandatory focus on equity and social
Development Goals (SDGs) has gained much relevance. The concept of Corporate
responsibility.
Philanthropy (CP) under the umbrella of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now part of
the SDGs agenda indicating building partnerships with the government and other businesses
In fact, Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) refers to the idea that companies play an active role in
to support development activities. Previously, CSR was practiced as an extension of
facilitating social reform by giving back to the community, participating in social causes, and providing
charitable interests of the owners, but today an increasing number of companies are geared
positive social value. Hence, the concept of CSR extends beyond charitable giving and encompasses ideas
towards incorporating philanthropic giving in their strategic business models. Hence,
of social justice, altruism, compassion and giving back to society. Such concepts reflect the moral and
Corporate Philanthropy refers to the act of corporations and business companies donating a
spiritual value attached to the use of wealth, property and resources, by making voluntary effort for the
portion of their profit to various charitable causes.
welfare of needy individuals and communities. Moreover, corporate donations have been viewed as a
critical instrument to improve corporate image in a highly competitive business environment.
In case of Pakistan, businesses have adapted the concept of Corporate Philanthropy and CSR
in their giving practices to contribute towards societal development. Many large, medium
and small enterprises in Pakistan have developed their CSR departments for making Figure 1: Carroll Model of CSR
In 1991, Carroll presented CSR as a multi-layered concept
effective contributions to support various government programs such as providing
that consists of four interrelated aspects, i.e., economic,
educational scholarships, shelters, medical aids, food and clothing to the underprivileged and
legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities (Carroll,
needy people. It may be noted that companies donating to education, health and other
1991). It proposed a pyramid that analyses the four
sectors of government-led programs are allowed a tax credit equivalent to 20% of their
dimensions of CSR, starting with economic
taxable income to encourage and motivate the private sector to contribute to advancing Phil.
responsibilities where companies are created to provide
social development.
goods and services to the public to make a profit. This is
the foundation upon which the other three Ethical
The corporate and business sector in Pakistan, starting with a limited and fragile industrial
responsibilities rest. The second layer consists of the legal
base and infrastructure has attained good progress and development in industry and trade
responsibilities of a company and third is the ethical
over the years. Evidence shows that the corporate sector has made great contributions to
responsibility and practices that have not been codified Legal
societal benefit initiatives, especially in times of emergencies and disasters (PCP, 2015). As
into the law. Societal members expect a company to do
such, philanthropy in Pakistan has moved beyond the big names such as Edhi, Sindh Institute
what is right and fair. Lastly, at the top of the pyramid,
of Urology and Transplantation, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hopital, Indus Hospital, Chippa, Economic
companies have a philanthropic responsibility. Business
The Citizen Foundation, etc., and most families and corporations reach out to the deprived
organizations are expected to be good corporate citizens Required by Society
ones in their own capacity. Business groups such as Memons, Agha Khanis, Bohris, Dehli
who must contribute to improve the quality of life and
Saudagaran, etc run multiple philanthropic projects for their communities to improve their Expected by Society
social-wellbeing of people in the community.
livelihoods. Equally important are Corporations like Pepsi, Coca- Cola, Engro Corporation,
Pakistan State Oil, Nestle, Nishat and an extensive list of other reputed foundations which
Companies manifesting social responsibility are considered leading in making the world a better place.
contribute significantly to support philanthropic work. However, there is limited evidence
Few examples around the world that best fit the CSR practices are: (i) TOMS Business Model which
and documentation of CSR contributions of the corporate and business sector in Pakistan.
specifies that on each sale of a pair of shoes, the company gives a second pair free of cost to some person
in need. They also provide help in restoring vision of visually impaired individuals along with the provision

² UNDP- Goal 1 No Poverty

01 02
 2
of clean drinking water, building business opportunities in developing countries. On the other hand,
General Electric Foundation contributed $ 88 million to educational and community programs in 2016,
whereas Starbucks has pledged to be a socially responsible company by hiring 25,000 veterans before the
year 2025 (OpenStax, 2012). In Pakistan, the multinational company Coca Cola collaborated with the
Edhi Foundation in two successive years- 2017 and 2018, espousing the slogan of ‘Bottle of Change’ and
‘Eidi for Edhi’ for running fundraising campaigns across the country and collected a generous amount of
PKR 25 million to support various philanthropic activities carried out by Edhi Foundation (News, 2018).
When companies integrate CSR policies in their daily activities and framework, they acquire a sense of
responsibility for the social and economic wellbeing of society. It also allows them the strategic advantage
of creating a positive ethical image of their brand, improving their relationship with stakeholders,
enhancing employee morale, and attracting new consumers who are committed to social responsibility.
CSR can involve a broad scope of approaches and initiatives encompassing sustainable practices and
community engagement. These may range from initiating humanitarian projects aimed at poverty
alleviation, advocating social welfare movements, empowering individuals, donating money to
non-profits, constructing roads, or implementing environmentally friendly policies in the workplace.
Research on CSR practices in the Pakistani context is limited but the available evidence suggests that CSR
is an evolving trend in the corporate sector as many companies contribute towards social causes, yet most
of those companies have not adopted a formal CSR policy (Sarah, 2017).
CSR
03
CORPORATE PHiLANTHROPY
iN PAKiSTAN
DOiNG BUSiNESS WiTH SOCiAL RESPONSiBiLiTY
The corporate philanthropy, considered as an extrapolation of corporate social
responsibility, generally refers to an activity of business companies and corporations
donating a portion of their profit to various charitable causes. Companies are cognizant of
the fact that how corporate giving can bring prosperity to the citizens and in turn, boost the
company’s revenues. It is well recognized that corporations themselves benefit from
corporate giving through increased customer trust, and thereby yield increased sales and
revenue in addition to the tax incentives. Thus, a new concept of ‘Strategic Corporate
Philanthropy’ has emerged where businesses see their giving not as charity, but as an
investment with a view to ensure sustained and maximized social returns. In this sense, a
company donates resources to social issues not directly related to the company’s
functions, but would like to help the society tackle the problem, and at the same time
benefit in terms of improved brand image, enhanced sales and recognition of their
contributions to social good.
Research evidence shows that while the overall scale and significance of corporate giving
has grown remarkably in past few years, little is investigated about how companies
allocate their resources to different focus areas and its impact on social well-being.
However, the WINGS Global Philanthropy Report notes that corporate giving in different
parts of the globe is diverse, complex and multifaceted in terms of its definition, giving
practices, giving trends, and its socio-cultural and economic impacts (WINGS, 2018).
Following the universal philanthropic impulse to help others, most corporations are
inclined to give more, and bring an impact of their investment on social development.
However, the corporate giving landscape is likely to be subject to changes in global
economy, disruption in supply chains, natural disasters and pandemics, among others
(Johnson, 2018).
Corporate Philanthropy in Pakistan has constantly shown a progressive change in terms of
improved quality, quantity, and diversity of their work. Despite the universal profit motive,
Pakistan’s business sector has adopted modern management ideas about using corporate
philanthropy channels. New brands are being introduced in the market with innovation,
while old brands are revamped with cause-related marketing. Corporate philanthropy is
also inspired by altruism and a sense of socio-religious obligation, and motivated by a
desire to extend a helping hand to the government, civil society and non-profit sector in
charitable pursuits and social development. It is, therefore, recognized that Pakistan’s
business relation with society has continued to evolve, and that there is tremendous
potential and opportunity to tap this resource for advancing social development. A
company chooses different ways to give; it may donate directly to target beneficiaries, use
an intermediary channel of a non-profit organization, or setup its own foundation/trust to
make donations. The most common form of corporate philanthropy is cash donations,
however, other ways of giving may include in-kind donations and volunteer time of
company employees, use of company’s equipment, etc.
Pakistan is surfacing in corporate giving and its relationship with the public and non-profit
sector is getting recognition in public policy as well. The motivation or rationale behind
philanthropic contributions is basically to address poverty and social inequality issues. This
is important in terms of making strategies for effective use of limited resources and
maximizing social outcome. Prior evidence shows that CSR activities among Pakistani
companies focus on health, education and other community development programs
04
 including provision of medicines to hospitals, scholarships to deserving students, and relief activities
during natural calamities and disasters such as floods, earthquakes, etc. The government has recognized
WHAT iS NEW iN THiS REPORT?
the challenge and underpins the significance of the business sector for increased participation in
This report brings out the essence of the CSR contributions of companies during 2020 and presents an
philanthropic giving to support social development initiatives.
enhanced and disaggregated analysis of the trends and patterns of corporate philanthropy in Pakistan
based on information available on public listed, public unlisted and private companies. It has generally
It may be noted here that Corporate Philanthropy Awards ceremony is held every year by Pakistan Centre
been observed that large companies with much higher paid-up capital comprise the major share of total
for Philanthropy (PCP) to acknowledge and recognize the contributions of top giving companies engaged
corporate giving with greater volume of donations, overshadowing the contributions made by small and
in supporting various social causes. This ceremony is attended by eminent members of the civil and
medium-sized companies. The small companies, despite facing challenges of liquidity constraints and less
corporate sector, policy experts, public and private entities, and media to raise awareness about the best
consumer demand also donate substantial amounts as a percentage of their profit, but remain less visible
practices and giving patterns of the business leaders.
when compared with large sized companies in terms of their volume of donations.

GiViNG BACK TO SOCiETY iN THE COViD-19 PANDEMiC
The unprecedented challenge of Covid-19 in recent year has shaken the global economy. Almost every
country experienced an economic meltdown and slowing down of business and Pakistan is no exception.
Evidence shows that a temporary halt in business operations as a result of lockdowns affected the
businesses and daily wage workers adversely. Considering the critical economic hardships across globe
due to COVID-19, the importance of corporate giving has even increased. As a consequence of reduced
revenue and economic uncertainty during the pandemic, a slight decline in corporate giving has been
reported globally (AFP, 2020).
Notwithstanding the negative impact of covid-19 on businesses, the corporate sector in Pakistan has
remained steadfast in maintaining their spirit of giving to reach out to those in need. In such difficult
situations, individuals, corporations and nonprofit institutions responded responsibly to the
government’s call for support to combat the covid-19 crisis and a large number of companies donated
generously to the cause. The activities undertaken in response to COVID crisis include distribution of
protective equipment, i.e., masks, and sanitizers to staff and allowing them to work from home as a
preventive measure. In addition, food items and other basic needs were distributed among those who
stayed home during the lockdown and faced loss of jobs and financial hardships. Moreover, awareness
campaigns for the staff and the general public, free or low-cost medical camps with the facility of
COVID-test for needy and underprivileged were also arranged by many companies. However, some small
scale businesses were compelled to close their work either temporarily or permanently and most
common issues reported by the majority were reduced consumer demand and low access to finances. This
shows that small and medium-sized businesses endured more difficulties in terms of less finances than
large-sized companies. The 2021 report of Overseas Investors of Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(OICCI) reveals that about half of their investor members collectively spent around PKR 7.8 billion to
support the health and economic needs of those affected by COVID pandemic (OICCI, 2020).
Considering that the type and size of companies in making philanthropic donations is equally important, a
disaggregated analysis of data on corporate giving is carried out to elucidate the underlying trends and
patterns being followed by different categories of companies in different regions of Pakistan. Examining
the corporate giving with a new perspective has provided useful information to discover the variance in
the giving patterns of small, medium and large companies. Moreover, corporate giving in relation to
economic growth trends in the country is analyzed. In this context, the role of the corporate sector in
providing support and assistance to people in need during the COVID-19 crisis is examined using
available evidence and qualitative information collected from a small sample of companies.
Hence, this report, primarily addresses the questions whether giving practices of companies vary by its
size and type, and what lessons need to be learnt to engage the business sector for more effective giving.
The enhanced analysis in this report covers the following:
Segregated and comparative analysis of companies’ philanthropic giving to capture the difference in
the pattern and giving practices among small, medium and large sized entities.
Philanthropic spending of companies in different sub-sectors with the changes in earning/PBT to
see how corporate giving co-variates with income or profit earned.
Changing trends in corporate philanthropy in relation to fluctuating economic growth over time.
A qualitative analysis of a small group of companies to examine how much they have contributed to
support the COVID-19 crisis in various types of relief activities.

In view of the current scenario, it is worthwhile to see how the business community has expanded their
CSR contributions to respond to health and economic needs of the under-privileged during the Covid-19
crisis. This question has been addressed and elaborated later in the qualitative component of this report.

WHAT DOES CPS MEASURE?

Studying Corporate Philanthropy has been a key feature of PCP’s research programme since the year
2005. Using available data and financial reports on the CSR contributions of business companies, a
Corporate Philanthropy Survey report is documented each year, charting out the trends, patterns and
variations in corporate giving in Pakistan. These annual reports provide not only the estimates of the total
volume of corporate giving, but also highlight the role and contributions of the business sector towards
various social causes. This year, the corporate philanthropy survey aims to:
Document the magnitude and the best practices of public listed, public unlisted and private Ltd.
companies in the business sector;
Analyze individual as well as collective contributions by business organizations towards various
sectors of social development;
Examine the CSR contributions of business companies during Covid-19 and the type of support
provided to combat the crisis in the country.
05 06
 3
CORPORATE PHiLANTHROPY
information on company’s geographical location, volume of sales, number of employees, and the size as
defined in Company’s Act-2017 has been collected from the listed profile of companies as described in

SURVEY
Table 2 below.

Table 2: Size Description of Companies as per SECP Companies Act, 2017

SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
Small-Size Company Medium-Size Company Large-Size Company
The universe of the business sector is large in Pakistan comprising of different types of
companies, i.e., public listed, public unlisted or private limited varied by size and type of work. i) Paid-up capital of i) Paid up capital ranging i) Paid up capital of
The number of large companies with relatively large assets and turn-over are mostly public PKR. 10 million between PKR. 10 million PKR. 200 million or more
listed and easily identifiable, but the small and medium companies with a majority operating -- PKR. 250 million
as public unlisted and private limited businesses are unverifiable in our largely
ii) Turnover not exceeding ii) Turnover between ii) Turnover of
undocumented economy. To obtain precise information about the business sector in PKR. 100 million PKR. 100 million PKR. 1 billion or more
Pakistan, the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Pakistan Stock -- PKR. one billion
Exchange are the major sources of obtaining the profiles and the financial records of different
types of companies. According to the latest annual SECP report, there are as many as iii) Employees not more iii) Employees more than iii) Employees more than 750.
120,395 companies as of June 30th, 2020 (Table 1). The classification of the business than 250. 250 but not less than 750
companies as shown in Table 1 reveals that number of private Limited companies is the
largest (101,026) in Pakistan, followed by the small medium companies (13,059). Compared Source: Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan
to this, the number of PLCs (518) and PUCs (2,678) is much less in the overall composition of
the business sector in Pakistan. However, the values, culture and organizational structure of The process of data collection for PUCs and PvLCs is different than that of PLCs. The data on PLCs is
these companies varies, and most remain unlisted in the public domain. readily accessible on Pakistan Stock Exchange, which mostly operate as large businesses. On the other
hand, there is large diversity in the size and type of businesses of PUCs and PvLCs and limited access to
Table 1: Composition of the Business Sector in Pakistan their annual financial reports makes it difficult to gather the required information as these companies are
not bound to public this information. The list of companies that reported their financial statements for
Type of Companies Number the year 2020 to SECP was taken as a universe to select the sample.

Public Listed Companies (PLCs) 518

THE SAMPLE
Public Unlisted Companies (PUCs) 2,678

Private Limited Companies (PvLCs) 101,026 Of the total 518 PLCs listed with the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) in the year 2020³, 491 comprise the
sample covering about 95 % of companies, but representing a small segment of the entire business sector.
Small medium Companies (SMCs) 13,059 The remaining 27 PLCs are not a part of the sample due to various reasons, i.e., suspension, delisted,
merged, non-functional, etc. For PUCs and PvLCs, a sample of companies having a paid-up capital of PKR
Associations not-for-profit u/s 42 933
100 million or more is selected for which the financial data is accessible. Based on this criterion, 278 PUCs
Companies limited by guarantee u/s 43 72 and 513 PvLCs have been selected for data collection and analysis. Although the selected sample
represents a very small segment of the entire corporate sector, this report is largely based on publicly
Trade organizations 316
available data covering majority of PLCs- a small but more organized and well documented subset of the
Foreign companies 1,054 business sector. The selected sample of the three types of companies is shown in Table 3 below.

Public & private companies with 2

unlimited liability
Table 3: The Sample Size of PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs: 2020
Companies under section 505(1)-(d) 3
Type of Company Total Companies Selected Sample % of total
Limited Liability Partnership 734
Public Listed 518 419 94.78%
Total 120,395 Companies (PLCs)
Source: Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Annual Report: 2020-21 Public Unlisted 2,678 278 10.38%
Companies (PUCs)
DATA COLLECTiON AND VALiDATiON Private Limited 101,026 513 0.51%
Companies (PvLCs)
The primary source of data collection for Public Listed Companies (PLCs) is Pakistan Stock
Exchange (PSX) and websites of those companies, whereas data on Public Unlisted
Total 104,222 1,282 1.23%
Companies (PUCs) and Private Limited Companies (PvLCs) is obtained from the Securities
and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). Data on the volume of donations, and Profit Source: Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan
before Tax (PBT) is collected from the financial statements of companies, whereas additional
3
The data is gathered from corporate financial statements for the fiscal year of July 2019– June 2020.
07 08
 4
VOLUME OF CORPORATE
It may be noted here that the corporate philanthropy survey (CPS) reports published earlier by PCP
focused only on Public Listed Companies (PLCs) due to lack of access to information on other types of

GiViNG DURiNG 2020

companies. In 2015, efforts made to obtain data on Public Unlisted Companies (PUCs) and Private
Limited Companies (PvLCs), and data on a small segment of these companies is obtained for the current
report.
For the present sample, information about company’s size, geographical location, profit-before tax (PBT),
volume of donations, sales, and number of employees has been drawn from the annual report of the
respective company for further analysis.
There are, however, some limitations of the data collected from the above mentioned sources.
The survey covers only a small segment of the overall corporate sector, especially for PUCs and
PvLCs which may not be fully representative of the two major segments of the business sector in
Pakistan.
The collected data pertains to volume of cash donations only, missing out information on in-kind or
time volunteered by company’s employees.
The financial statements of companies provide information only about CSR budgets with no details
on how and on which projects that money is spent, thereby, limiting the possibility of assessing the
contribution and impact of corporate giving on social sector and the community well-being. Lack of
information about the donations spent in specific geographic or thematic areas limits the possibility
of measuring the effectiveness of corporate philanthropy for gainful social outcomes.
This section provides an overall estimate of the volume of corporate donations by three
types of companies, i.e. PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs. It may be noted here that PCP has collected
data on CSR donations by PLCs since the year 2000, whereas information for PUCs and
PvLCs is available for a small sample from PCP survey reports since the year 2015. Based on
the data collected for the year 2020, the total volume of donations is estimated at PKR
13.32 billion, of which the largest share of PKR 9.64 billion comes from PLCs, followed by
PKR 1.89 billion from PUCs and PKR 1.79 billion from PvLCs (Table 4). This amount is
significant in view of the adversity and challenges of COVID-19 on businesses in the country
in recent years. However, these estimates show that not all companies in the selected
sample are involved in giving. For PLCs, about 46 percent have reported giving, compared to
49 percent of PUCs and only 28 percent of PvLCs. This means that the proportion of
non-giving companies is the largest among PvLCs (72%) as compared to about 50 percent
for other types of companies. It may therefore, be speculated that corporate philanthropy in
Pakistan would be much greater if the non-giving companies also participate in giving. This
situation calls for a further analysis and understanding of the underlying reasons behind the
non-giving behavior of about 60 percent of business companies.
Table 4: Total Volume of Donations by PLCs, PUCs, and PvLCs: 2020

Type of No. of Giving Total Donations

Total Sample Percentage
Company Companies (PKR billion)

PLCs 491 228 46% 9.64

PULCs 278 137 49% 1.89
PvLCs 513 144 28% 1.79

Total 1282 509 40% 13.32

Source: Calculated from data collected on profiles of business companies

Looking at the geographical location of giving companies, we find that a majority of these
companies are in Sindh province (57%), most probably in Karachi city, followed by Punjab
(33%). Only 7 percent of giving companies are in Federal capital area, whereas the
proportion is as low as 3 percent in KP and 1% in Balochistan (Figure 2). This is as expected
because Karachi in Sindh province is the hub of business activity and shares the major part
of corporate giving.

Figure 2: Geographic Location of Giving PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs, 2020

57%
60
50
40 33%
30
20
7%
10 3% 1%
0
Sindh Punjab ICT KPK Baluchistan
Source: Calculated from compiled data set

09 10
5
TRENDS iN CORPORATE Figure 4: Trends in Volume of Giving - PUCs and PvLCs, 2015-20

GiViNG: 2000-2020 3.0 PUC’s

PVLC’s
3.0

A trend analysis of corporate philanthropy during the past two decades shows interesting 2.5

PKR Billions
results, especially in case of public listed companies which have better coverage and 2.0 1.9
2.1 1.89
accessibility of data on CSR donations than the public unlisted and private limited companies. 1.79
1.5 1.28 1.33 1.8
Figure 3 shows that the volume of donations by PLCs has steadily increased from PKR 0.23
billion in year 2000 to PKR 9.64 in 2020, indicating about 42 times increase during the last 1.0
two decades. Starting with a slow increase in donations during 2000-2004, the volume of 0.86
0.5
giving jumped to PKR 2.33 billion in 2006, registering almost three times increase in just two 0.47
years. This may be attributed to the generous response of the business community to the 0.0
disastrous floods in the country in 2005 to provide relief to those in need. Since then, the 2014 2016 2018 2019 2020
rising trend of philanthropic donations by public listed companies has been fast and
Source: Calculated from compiled data set
consistent reaching to an estimate of PKR 9.64 billion in 2020 (Figure 3).

It may be noted that much lower amount of donations by PUCs and PvLCS than the PLCs is due to their
Figure 3: Trends in Volume of Giving by PLCs 2000-2020 smaller sample size and being either small or medium sized with the capacity to donate relatively lesser
amounts. However, the limited information and analysis of PUCs and PvLCs provides the basis to assess
12 11.35
the extent of their participation in philanthropic activities and gives direction to draw lessons for
9.64 addressing data gaps and improving coverage and effectiveness of corporate philanthropy in Pakistan.
10 9.07

7.31
8
5.86 PUBLiC LiSTED COMPANiES: 2000-2020
PKR Billions

6
4.11
4 3.27
2.33 2.24
2 0.65
0.23 0.34
0
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2019 2020
Years
Source: Calculated from compiled data set
However, it is worth noting that the rising trend in the volume of giving by PLCs is interrupted
in the past year, indicating a decreased amount of PLCs donations from PKR 11.35 billion in
2019 to PKR 9.64 billion in 2020. This may be attributable to the effect of the COVID-19
crisis resulting in a reduction of PKR 1.72 billion in total giving from the previous year. This
year’s decline in the total volume of giving corresponds well with the fact that the number of
giving PLCs has also reduced from 255 (53 %) to 227 (46 %) during the past year. Overall, it
appears that the volume of giving by PLCs has stagnated around PKR 9 billion during past
two years, reflecting an effect of COVID on the economy and the business sector.
As described earlier, public unlisted and private limited companies constitute a significant
proportion of the corporate sector, making it highly relevant to examine their share in
corporate giving. Using the information available from SECP database, the requisite
information on the volume of donations by public unlisted and private Ltd. companies is
available from CPS reports since the year 2015 for a small sample with a paid-up capital of
PKR 100,000 and above. Based on the available information, trends of giving by PUCs and
PvLCS are presented in Figure 4, which shows that the increase in the volume of donations
has been small and gradual during the past five years. For example, for PUCs the amount
donated increased from PKR. 0.47 billion to PKR 1.89 billion during the years 2015-16 to
1920-21, whereas for PvLCs, it increased from PKR 1.28 billion to PKR 1.79 billion during the
same period.
This section provides further details of the trends and patterns of giving by only Public Listed Companies
for which data is available for the period covering 2000 – 2020. The changing pattern of giving by PLCs is
assessed on the basis of two measures:
volume of donation;
giving as a percentage of profit before tax (PBT) - a refined measure to examine variations in how
much is given from the total profit earned.
These measures reveal the generosity of all companies, irrespective of their size and income earned,
especially the donation as per percentage of profit before tax helps to assess the genuine commitment of
a company if it gives away a significant proportion of its income even making lesser profit than some large
size companies.
Table 5 shows that the total volume of donations has continued to grow from PKR 228 million in the year
2000 to PKR 9,640 million in 2020, indicating a 41 times increase in two decades. It is also encouraging
to note that despite a slight decline in PLCs’ total donations and PBT in the past year, there has been a
consistent increase in giving as a percentage of PBT from 0.6 in 2000 to 0.9 in 2020. CSR is considered to
be a voluntary activity with no universal standard to determine what proportion of profit a company
should give for philanthropic purposes. However, evidence shows that giving at least 1% of PBT is
generally acceptable at global level with an exception of India which has made it mandatory through its
Companies Act 2013 to spend 2 % of their three-year average net profit on CSR activities. In case of
Pakistan, it is encouraging and appreciable to note that contributing at least 1 % of pretax profit as social
dividend is regarded as an acceptable international trend and standard of global philanthropy. Pakistan’s
corporate sector appears to be quite close to that threshold level at being 0.9 % in 2020. However, the
ongoing challenge of Covid-19, uncertain economic conditions and decline in GDP growth rate could be
the probable reasons of a slight drop in the volume of corporate total giving in the past year (Table 5).

11 12
 Table 5: Volume of Giving by PLCs as a Percentage of PBT 2000-2020 WHO GiVES HOW MUCH?
THE SPREAD OF DONATiONS
Volume of Donations Total PBT
Year % of PBT
(PKR. Million) (PKR. Million)
As discussed earlier, volume of giving, to some extent, is positively related with the earnings or the profit
of a company. However, the statistical evidence reveals that the pattern of giving by PLCs is uneven as all
2000 228 36,477 0.6%
companies are not engaged in philanthropy, whereas the giving companies do not donate equally. There
2002 236 150,349 0.2% are some big companies who donate generously both in terms of absolute amount and as a percentage of
2004 653 227,256 0.3% PBT, while some others donate big amounts but only a small part of their pre-tax income. In contrast,
some companies with small profits or even with losses donate substantial amounts as a percentage of
2006 2,330 362,968 0.6%
their profit.
2008 2,239 350,807 0.6%
2010 3,269 411,051 0.8% Figure 6 presents the number of PLCs by their spread of donations for the years 2015 and 2020. The
figure shows that the number of companies donating an amount of PKR 10 million and less remains the
2012 4,106 593,244 0.7% highest, but this number has decreased from 201 to 147 during 2015-2020. On the other hand, number
2014 5,859 841,865 0.7% of donating big amounts of PKR 50 million and above has increased from 24 to 33 during the same period.
However, giving by companies in the range of PKR 10 million to 50 million has not changed much. This
2016 7,307 1,120,429 0.7%
reflects that the spread of donations is shifting towards giving larger amounts, although the number of
2018 9,067 1,061,076 0.8% such companies is smaller than other categories of giving (Figure 6).
2019 11,349 1,176,745 0.9%
2020 9,640 1,103,231 0.9% Figure 6: Number of Public Listed Companies by Spread of Donations: 2015 and 2020

Source: Calculated from compiled data set

250 2015
201 2020
Another way to examine the changing trend and pattern of corporate giving is to look at the percentage 200

Number of PLCs
increase or decrease from previous year (Figure 5). It is observed from Figure 4 that the highest
147
percentage change in PLCs’ giving has been in the years 2004 (94%), 2006 (257%), and 2010 (46%), which 150
could be related to specific events in those years, i.e. floods and earthquake in Pakistan in respective
years. This trend reflects the humanitarian and national interest of the corporate sector in times of 100
disaster and displacement of people, reinforcing the notion that philanthropic impulse of the wealthy and
50 38 39 33
affluent corporate sector is at peak and crucial for providing relief to the people in times of need, showing 24
their commitment and generosity for the social good. 11 08
0
Less than 10m 10m - 30m 31m - 50m Above 50m
Figure 5: Percentage Change in Total Giving during the Years 2000-2020
Volume of Donation (PKR Million)
Source: Calculated from compiled data set
300
Percentage Change (%)

257
250 TOP 25 GiViNG PLCS: 2000-2020
200
150 Given the fact that corporate giving has tremendously increased during the past two decades, it is
94 worthwhile to look at the major contributors. The data shows that the top 25 giving PLCs have continued
100
47 46 their support and involvement in philanthropic donations over the years. Based on the same criterion of
50 21 43
26 25 24 25 the volume of donations and giving as a percentage of profit before tax, Table 6 shows the trends and
4 -15
0 patterns of giving by top 25 PLCs.
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2019 2020
-50
Years
Source: Calculated from compiled data set

13 14
 Table 6 : Volume of Donations by Top 25 PLCs, 2000-2020 Figure 7: Corporate Philanthropy (Real Value) vs. Growth in GDP: 2000-2020

Top 25 Giving % of Total Real (Billions PKR)

Year Total Donations 8 3.5
Companies Donations GDP Growth Rate (%)
7 3.0
2000 228 158 69.3% 6 2.5
2002 336 236 70.2% 5
2.0
4
2004 653 482 73.8% 1.5
3
2006 2,330 1,710 73.4% 2 1.0
2008 2,239 1,875 83.7% 1 0.5
2010 3,269 2,608 79.8% 0 0.0

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20
2012 4,106 3,232 78.7%
2014 5,859 4,731 80.7%
2016 7,307 5,992 82.0% Years
Source: Own Calculations
2018 9,067 7,095 78.3%
It is further observed that in the year 2020, a slight decline in CSR donations is observed in real terms,
2020 9,640 7,872 81.7% probably due to the effect of economic crunch on corporate giving. Nevertheless, in recent years the
government’s timely strategies and policies to deal with COVID pandemic prevented Pakistan from the
Source: Calculated from compiled data set worst economic crisis even though it has affected the GDP growth rate that hit to the lowest-ever during
2018-20. Yet, it is encouraging to note that despite all economic challenges, corporate sector has
The results in Table 6 indicate that the largest chunk of donations comes from top 25 giving companies, contributed a huge amount for societal benefit and has remained committed to support various social
showing an increase from 69 percent in 2000 to about 82 percent of the total donations in year 2020. It causes.
may be noted from Table 6 that the share of top 25 giving companies is more than 80 % of total donations
in the years 2008, 2014, 2016 and 2020 as compared to little over 70 % for other years. This reflects that Another angle to examine the correlation between economic trends and corporate giving is to look at the
the percentage share of top giving companies has increased in recent years from 78.3 % in 2018 to 81.7 % growth of public listed companies in times of economic crisis in the country. For this purpose, data on few
in the year 2020, despite having tight economic conditions for business and the economy. This pattern indicators of PLCs was obtained from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the years 2017-2020 that
makes it evident that the corporate sector’s commitment to support social causes is not affected by the included the newly established PLCs, their average volume of shares, total volume traded, and overall
economic crisis faced by the country. In fact, some big companies have come forward to give helping hand market capitalization. It may be noted that the average daily shares indicating a decrease in initial years of
to the government and other organizations in combating the COVID-19 crisis which shall be elaborated 2017-19 have increased from a low level of PKR 164 million in 2019 to PKR 324 million in 2020, with a
and discussed in the qualitative component of this report. corresponding increase in the overall volume traded in current year (Figures 8a and 8b). Amidst all
economic challenges faced by the business sector during the recent years, the economy has witnessed a
ECONOMiC TRENDS AND PLCS’ GiViNG V-shaped recovery without compromising for any internal and external stability (GOP, 2021). During the
years 2017-21, these data indicate that 14 PLCS were newly established. Correspondingly, the
performance indicators of PLCs shows that their total capital increased from PKR 1.277 billion in 2017 to
To further examine the correlation with economic growth trends and corporate philanthropy, it is PKR 1,421 billion in 2020 (Figure 9). This means that PLCs’ performance in terms of capital generation
worthwhile to see how corporate sector has reacted to the fluctuating GDP growth rate and the and volume of trade sustained and revived during economic crisis of 2019-20.
economic challenges faced by the country over the years.

Figure 7 presents the trends in GDP growth rate and corporate giving during the past two decades, Figure 8a: Average Daily Shares of PLCs: 2018-21
indicating a fluctuating pattern of growth rate with corresponding changes in the volume of donations.

Average Shares Daily (PKR Millions)

As we can see, in years 2004 and 2006 when GDP growth rate increased, a rise in corporate giving is also
350 324
observed. Likewise, this correlation is also evident in the year 2008-09 when both GDP rate and volume
of corporate giving reduced simultaneously. In later years, however, despite fluctuations in GDP growth 300
249
rate, volume of corporate giving kept increasing. For example, in 2018-20 when GDP growth rate plunged 250
to a low level of 1 percent or less, corporate philanthropy recorded an increase of over 15 % in real terms. 194
200 164
150
100
50
0
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
Years
Source: Pakistan Stock Exchange

15 16
 6
Figure 8b: Total Volume Traded by PLCs: 2018-21
ENHANCED ANALYSiS OF
Total Volume Trade (PKR Billions)
120 108
CORPORATE GiViNG: 2020
100
80 74 AN UNEVEN DiViDE iN GENEROSiTY
62 58
60 This section provides an analysis of the patterns and variations of major giving companies among all
40 categories including PLCs, PUCs, and PvLCs for the year 2020. As observed earlier, more than 80
percent of total donations have been contributed by the top 25 giving PLCS over the years (PCP,
20 2015). For the current CPS report 2020, Table 7 presents the philanthropic donations of top 10
0 giving companies of all types. The estimates show that the share of top 10 giving companies is PKR
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 8.4 billion out of the total volume of donations of PKR 13.32 billion which is about two-thirds of the
total. A further disaggregation of this amount shows that about PKR 6 billion (71 %) is contributed by
Years
PLCs, about PKR 1.1 billion (10 %) by PUCs and PKR 1.4 billion (12 %) is donated by PvLCs (Table 7).
Source: Pakistan Stock Exchange

Table 7: Top 10 giving companies by volume of donations: 2020

Public Listed Companies Public Unlisted Companies Private Limited Companies

Name of Donations Name of Donations Name of Donations

Company (PKR million) Company (PKR million) Company (PKR million)

Oil & Gas Barrett

Development Yunus Textile Hodgson
1447 287 654
Company Mills Ltd Pakistan
Ltd (Pvt.) Ltd
Pakistan U.S. Denim
Y. B. Pakistan
Petroleum 1252 219 Mills (Pvt.) 226
Ltd
Ltd Ltd

Fatima Kassim
Novatex
Fertilizer 812 119 Textiles 123
Ltd
Company (Pvt.) Ltd
Ltd

Mari Lucky
M. N.
Petroleum Textile
592 96 Textiles 95
Company Mills
(Pvt.) Ltd
Ltd Ltd

Figure 9: Total Capital of PLCs during 2018-21

Albaraka
Habib K & N'S
bank
Bank 528 77 Foods 74
(Pakistan)
1450 Ltd (Pvt.) Ltd
Total Capital (PKR Billions)

Ltd

1400 1,421
1,387 Engro Dalda Deharki
1350 Corporation 388 Foods 75 Sugar Mills 73
1,323 Ltd Ltd (Pvt.) Ltd
1300
1,277
Naveena
1250 United Bank Klash (Pvt.)
342 Exports 69 35
Ltd Ltd
Ltd
1200
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
Dawood
Fast Gumcorp
Years Hercules
249 Cables 65 (Pvt.) 32
Corporation
Source: Pakistan Stock Exchange Ltd Ltd
Ltd

17 18
 Royal Table 8: Top 10 giving companies donations as a percentage of PBT: 2020
International
Ghani Glass Liberty Power
234 52 Exchange 30 Public Listed Companies Public Unlisted Companies Private Limited Companies
Ltd Tech Ltd
Company
(Pvt.) Ltd Name of Name of Name of
% of PBT % of PBT % of PBT
Company Company Company
Indus Motor
Fatima Sugar Izhar steel Khyber
Company 190 51 29 Y. B. Pakistan Aba Ali Habib
Mills Ltd (Pvt.) Ltd Tobacco 43.8 87.2 50.3
Ltd Ltd Securities Ltd
Company
Average Pak Datacom Asian Food Altaf Adam
Amount 60 - 11 - 14 27.5 61.4 48.3
Ltd Ind. Ltd Securities
of Donations
Reliance Cargill Pakistan
Total 6,034 Total 1,112 Total 1,369 Resham
Weaving 22.4 58.4 Agri Foods 43.0
Textile Ltd
Mills Ltd (Pvt.) Ltd
Source: Calculated from compiled data set
Zafar
Looking at the variations in the volume of giving, Table 7 shows that companies donating huge amounts of Ghani Value Al-Nasr
17.9 51.1 Securities 28.6
more than PKR one billion are Public Listed Companies, i.e., Oil and Gas Development Ltd (PKR. 1447 m) Glass Ltd Textiles Ltd
(Pvt.) Ltd
and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PKR. 1252 m), closely followed by Fatima Fertilizer Ltd. with a donation of
PKR 812 million. Compared to this, the highest volume of donations among Public Unlited Companies is Al-Riaz
TPL Sitara Fabrics
PKR 287 million by Yunus Textile Mills, and about PKR 219 million and Y.B. Pakistan Ltd. Among Private 16.3 42.9 Agencies 25.7
Insurance Ltd Ltd
Limited Companies, Barrett Hodgson Pakistan Ltd and U.S. Denim Mills Ltd are the two top giving (Pvt.) Ltd
companies with total donations of PKR 654 million and PKR 226 million, respectively. These results
U.S. Denim
corroborate well with the earlier trend of much higher donations by PLCs than the unlisted and private Ghani Fast
14.6 26.2 Mills 25.5
companies probably due to their large size and greater value of assets compared to other types of Glass Cables Ltd
(Pvt.) Ltd
companies. Ltd

Another way to gauge variations in giving is to look at the donation amount as a percentage of profit Ittehad
Agriauto Ind. Izhar Steel
before tax (PBT)—a relatively refined measure to assess the intrinsic value of generosity by the Chemicals 13.9 24.7 20.7
Ltd (Pvt.) Ltd
Ltd
companies under study. Table 8 presents the top 10 PLCs, PUCs, and PvLCs on the basis of this criterion.
It may be noted that the ranking of companies on the basis of giving as a percentage of PBT has changed
compared to their position as per volume of donations shown in the previous table. For example, among Shahtaj MRA
Shaukat &
public listed companies, the top three giving companies are Khyber Tobacco Company, Pak Datacom Ltd. Sugar 10.2 Securities 11.3 20.3
Raza
and Reliance Weaving Mills Ltd. donating between 22 to 44 percent of their profit for charitable causes. Mills Ltd Ltd
(Pvt.) Ltd
Another noteworthy finding is that among PUCs, some companies have reported donating more than 50
percent of its profit, i.e. Asian Food Ind. Ltd and Resham textile Ltd., Al-Nasr Textile Ltd., and the exception DJM
Ghani Global Gumcorp
is Y.B. Pakistan Ltd. donating about 87 percent (PKR 219 million) of their earnings and topping the list of 9.7 Securities 10.8 16.8
Holdings Ltd (Pvt.) Ltd
giving comapnies. Among PvLCs, the top three companies donating around 50 percent of their profit are Ltd
Aba Ali Habib Securities Ltd., Altaf Adam Securities Ltd. and Arshad Corporation Ltd. The generosity of
these companies is worth appreciation and is well reflective of their commitment to support social causes Sitara Deharki
Masood
and stay ahead in giving back to society (Table 8). Chemical 8.6 8.3 Sugar 16.7
Fabrics Ltd
Ind. Ltd Mills Ltd
The fact that some companies have reported donating more than 50 percent of their profit before tax
(PBT) raises questions about how plausible and sustainable this standard of donations would be. One
Source: Calculated from compiled data set
clarification and explanation about these unusual large donations as a percentage of PBT is that these
companies receive tax exemptions with a compensation and tax credit of about 20% on their donations
It may, however be noted that companies in the ranking list of percentage of PBT keep changing except a
for charitable causes, which acts as a motivating factor for donating so generously. However this
few which retain their top position. Among PLCs, TPL Insurance Ltd. dropped to 5th rank this year from
explanation needs to be explored further with access to tax credit data and the companies involved in
top ranked company in previous year-2019. In case of PUCs, Resham Textile Ltd. is ranked as 3rd this year
availing this compensatory benefit for their donations.
from its previous first position, and Fast Cables Ltd. is at 6th position this year compared to 2nd ranking
in the previous year. Interestingly, in category of PvLCs, the top 3 companies are all new entrants when
compared with last year’s ranking list (Table 8).

19 20
 VOLUME OF GiViNG BY SiZE OF COMPANY Figure 11: Percentage Giving by Large, Medium and Small Size Companies 2020

As discussed earlier, size of the company is defined as per SECP Companies Act, 2017 in terms of its 78% 76%
80
paid-up capital, annual turnover and number of employees (see Table 2) and is considered a major
70 65%
determinant of the volume of giving. Generally, the pattern observed is that large-sized companies donate
60

Percentage
relatively higher than small and medium sized companies because of the benefits of higher economies of
scale. Looking at the volume of donations by size of the company, Figure 10 shows wide variations in 50
giving among PLCs (PKR 7,521 million), PUCs (PKR 1,455 million), and PvLCs (PKR 334 million) in 2020. 40
For medium size companies, volume of donations by PvLCs is the highest (PKR 952 million) compared to 30 23% 21%
other two types of companies. 20 12%
6% 9%
10 3%
0
Figure 10: Amount of Giving by Large, Medium and Small Size Companies 2020 Large Medium Small
PLCs PUCs PVLCs
8000 7,521
Size of Companies
7000 Source: Calculated from compiled data set
6000
PKR Millions

5000
4000 VOLUME OF GiViNG AND COMPANY’S GEOGRAPHiC
3000
1,455
LOCATiON
2000
952 924
1000 334 563 389 186
51
0 The city–wise distribution of giving companies as shown in Table 9 reveals interesting results. It may be
Large Medium Small noted that majority of PLCs are located in two big cities of Karachi and Lahore, whereas 17 are based in an
expanding and emerging city of Islamabad. As expected, Karachi city stands out in philanthropic giving
PLCs PUCs PVLCs among all types of companies with a major contribution of PKR. 3,789 million by 124 PLCs, compared to
Source: Calculated from compiled data set PKR 1,204 million by 70 PUCs, and PKR 1,237 million by 89 PvLCs. It is worth noting that 17 PLCs from
Islamabad donated PKR. 3,125 million, which is nearly double the amount contributed by 56 PLCs located
in Lahore (PKR 1,825 million). However, PLCs from Rawalpindi and Faisalabad also donated PKR 340
Figure 10 reveals that the amount donated by small sized PUCs and PvLCs companies is much lower than
million and PKR 91 million, respectively.
large and medium sized companies. For PLCS, it may be noted that even small size companies have
donated higher amount (PKR 924 million) than other type of companies (PKR 51 million for PUCs and
PKR 186 million for PvLCs). This is probably because of the smaller sample size for public unlisted and Table 9: Volume of Donations by City-wise Distribution of Companies 2020
private limited companies - 10 and 17, respectively against 57 public listed companies.
Public Listed Public Unlisted Private Limited
Companies Companies Companies
City
Donations Donations Donations
Number Number Number
(PKR Million) (PKR Million) (PKR Million)

Karachi 124 3,789 70 1,204 89 1,273

Lahore 56 1,825 38 417 31 459
Islamabad 17 3,125 15 83 9 7.4
A further look at the pattern of giving among different companies is shown in Figure 11 indicating that the
share of large sized companies in total donations is 78 percent for PLCs and 76 percent for PUCs. Peshawar 3 13 2 6 - -
Compared to this, among PvLCs, the medium sized companies comprise the highest share of total Multan 4 97 4 47 6 11
donations- 65 % as against 21 % of PUCs and only 6 % of PLCs. As expected, small-sized companies’
contribution to total donations is the lowest (less than 10 %) for all three types of companies. This analysis Faisalabad 4 196 2 16 9 49
reveals that a majority of large sized PLCs and PUCs make CSR contributions, whereas most of the PvLCs Rawalpindi 4 340 - - - -
making donations are medium sized. In contrast, the proportion of giving companies is the lowest for
Quetta - - 3 121 - -
small sized entities estimated as 9 % for PLCs, only 3 % for PUCs and 12 % for PvLCs4 (Figure 11). This
pattern can be explained in terms of the rationale that large companies make more profit and have large
economies of scale; hence they can afford to spend more on philanthropic pursuits and have greater Source: Calculated from compiled data set
responsibility to contribute to societal benefit.

4
Public Listed Companies that do not meet complete definition of any size are categorized as others and their share in total giving is 6%
21 (PKRs 632 million).
22
 7
VOLUME OF DONATiONS BY NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
SECTOR-WiSE VOLUME OF
For analyzing giving from a new angle, the relationship between the number of employees and donations
by companies is examined. Generally, companies with larger set-up and paid-up capital make more profit
GiViNG
with greater staff strength. On the basis of number of employees, companies are divided into three
categories, i.e., companies having employees less than 250; between 250-750, and more than 750. Table PUBLiC LiSTED COMPANiES
10 shows that there is a clear positive relation between volume of giving and the number of employees of
a company. For example, PLCs having employees greater than 750 donate the highest amount (PKR 7,368 It is generally observed that some companies whose operations potentially carry risks for
million) compared to those with smaller number of employees. the environment (chemical, oil and gas, tobacco sub-sectors) spend more on CSR projects to
compensate for the hazards inherent in their activities. Earlier evidence reveals that
companies from fertilizer, glass and ceramics, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas sectors have
Table 10: Total Donations of Companies by the Number of Employees, 2020
always remained among top giving entities either due to government’s policy requirements
to compensate for the potential hazards or the company’s own concern about the
Public Listed Public Unlisted Private Limited environmental risks for people in the community. Table 11 presents volume of giving by
Number of Companies Companies Companies
companies in 30 sub-sectors of PLCs identified from the available data for the year 2020.
Employees The results show that Oil and Gas exploration sub-sector tops the list with a volume of
No. of Donations No. of Donations No. of Donations donations of PKR 357 million, showing 6 out of total 9 companies (67 %) involved in giving in
PLCs (PKR Million) PUCs (PKR Million) PvLCs (PKR Million) the year 2020. The second highest contributors are Commercial Banks with volume of
donations of PKR 1,517 million, showing 11 out of 12 banks (92 %) involved in giving. It may
Less than 250 60 1,186 52 488 68 210.6 be noted from Table 11 that the three top giving sectors have donated more than PKR one
billion in the year 2020, and this amount is nearly three times larger for only 6 giving
250-750 66 1,086 22 345 30 125.5
companies in the oil and gas sector. The volume of donations for other sub-sectors is much
750 and more 101 7,368 60 1,063 46 1,463 lower indicating an amount of PKR 376 for Cement, PKR 367 for Textile companies and
even lesser amounts for other sectors. Overall, the estimates indicate that about 50 % of
Source: Calculated from compiled data set companies in majority of sub-sectors participate in philanthropic giving, whereas this
percentage is even higher in other businesses (Table 11).
For PUCs and PvLCs, similar pattern is observed indicating higher volume of donations for those with
greater staff strength than those with lesser employees. This is as expected because companies with Table 11: Sector-wise Giving by Public Listed Companies, 2020
larger number of employees are likely to be large scale businesses and have higher earnings and the
Volume of
propensity to donate more. As PUCs and PvLCs largely have medium or small size businesses and the No. of Giving % Giving
Sectors Giving
selected sample is also small, their donations by the number of employees are much lower than PLCs, but Companies Companies Companies
(PKR Million)
show a positive trend as observed in case of PLCs (Table 10).
Oil And Gas
9 6 67% 3,527
Exploration
Commercial
12 11 92% 1,517
Banks
Fertilizer and
6 6 100% 1,377
Tobacco
Cement 18 14 78% 376
Textile
36 19 53% 367
Composite
Glass And
7 6 86% 294
Ceramics
Inv Banks/
22 9 41% 277
Securites Cos.
Chemical 20 13 65% 253
Automobile
Parts/ 7 3 43% 239
Accessories
Food/Personal
21 16 76% 231
Care Product
Automobile
11 6 55% 214
Assembler
Technology/
12 8 67% 145
Communication

23 24
 Financial Institutes 6 4 67% 20
Sugar And Allied
28 14 50% 127 Thermal 2 2 100% 10
Industries
Power Generation/ Beverages 3 2 67% 4
13 7 54% 134 Asset Management
Distribution 4 3 75% 1
Companies
Tobacco 3 3 100% 114
Pharmaceuticals 12 10 83% 97 Source: Calculated from compiled data set
Insurance 21 11 52% 69
Leather And PRiVATE LiMiTED COMPANiES
4 2 50% 55
Tanneries
Transport 4 2 50% 56 For Private Limited Companies (PvLCs), 20 sectors out of the total 40 are included in this analysis. Table
Textile Spinning 48 23 48% 53 13 shows that among PvLCs, the volume of donations is lower than other types of companies, however,
pharmaceuticals and Textile subsectors are major contributors with donations of PKR 658 million and
Engineering 13 7 54% 44 PKR 602 million, respectively in the year 2020. However, the percentage of companies involved in giving
Paper and Board 7 5 71% 26 is only 28 % and 40 %. On the other hand, more than 80 % of companies in the garments and construction
sectors are involved in giving, but the volume of donations is as small as PKR 53 million and PKR 8 million,
Synthetic and
6 2 33% 12 respectively. For the remaining sectors, less than 50 % of companies are involved in philanthropic giving,
Rayon
making small donations between PKR 1-40 million in 2020 (Table 13).
Cable and
6 4 67% 11
Electric Goods The sector-wise analysis confirm the earlier results that the public unlisted and private limited
Leasing Companies 5 2 40% 10 companies’ contribution and involvement in philanthropic donations remains much lower than the public
listed companies in the year 2020. This calls for further analysis and research on exploring and identifying
Miscellaneous* 53 25 47% 14
reasons for their limited participation in philanthropy and chart out measures to motivate and involve
Source: Calculated from compiled data set them in welfare activities for increasing social investments in the country.
* Refinery, Modarbas, Vanaspati and Allied Industries, and Textile Weaving donating less than PKR 5 million.

Table 13: Sector-wise Giving by Private Limited Companies: 2020

PUBLiC UNLiSTED COMPANiES
Volume of
Giving
Sectors No. of Companies % Giving Giving
Companies
Table 12 presents the sector-wise percentage involvement of PUCs in philanthropic donations. Out of (PKR Million)
total 40 sectors, 20 top giving sectors are included in this analysis. The highest volume of donations of
PKR 681 million is from Textile sector with 53 % of companies involved in giving, followed by Services Pharmaceutical 18 5 28% 658
sector donating PKR 443 million, and power generation sector giving PKR 182 million in the year 2020. Textile 53 21 40% 602
However, it may be noted that a majority of PUCs in various sectors have donated less than PKR 100 Food and Agriculture 42 9 21% 109
million and those are likely to be mostly medium or small size having less than 10 companies in each Poultry 6 3 50% 75
sub-sector (Table 12).
Garments 6 5 83% 53
Import / Export 15 8 53% 120
Table 12: Sector-wise Giving by Public Unlisted Companies: 2020
Money Exchange
15 7 47% 44
Volume of Companies
Giving % Giving
Sectors No. of Companies Giving Trading 11 3 27% 39
Companies Companies
(PKR Million) Automobile 20 6 30% 20
Textile 57 30 53% 681 Information
7 2 29% 19
Technology
Services 7 5 71% 443
Brokerage Houses 54 14 26% 17
Power Generation 34 17 50% 182
Services 33 10 27% 13
Chemicals 4 3 75% 121 Construction 8 7 88% 8
Sugar and Allied 6 5 83% 115 Chemical 14 3 21% 4
Cables 4 3 75% 75 Oil and Gas
24 3 13% 4
Food 9 5 56% 67 Marketing
Brokerage Houses 16 9 56% 59 Engineering 8 3 38% 3
Real Estate
Oil and Gas 10 6 60% 44 10 1 10% 1
Development
Cement 4 2 50% 38 Fertilizer 1 1 100% 1
Synthetic and Rayon 8 5 63% 29
Source: Calculated from compiled data set

25 26
8
CORPORATE PHiLANTHROPY
DURiNG COVID-19 PANDEMiC
QUALiTATiVE ANALYSiS
The emergence of Covid-19 as a global pandemic has proved to be one of the main challenges
in recent decade. What started off as a health calamity in early 2020 quickly evolved into a
global economic crisis of great magnitude (IFC, 2021). During the first coronavirus outbreak
in January 2020, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) described
the pandemic as “not just a public health crisis” but “a crisis that will touch every sector.
Hence, every sector and every individual must be involved in the fight” (Ghebreyesus, 2020).
The WHO’s prediction proved correct as the dramatic spread of Covid-19 caused an
unprecedented global health and socio-economic crisis, disrupting lives, livelihoods, and
economies in the ensuing months. While the pandemic’s immediate, short-term impact was
reflected in “the human tragedy of lost lives, disrupted families, and scarred communities”
(Hea & Harris, 2020), it has had far-reaching social, economic, cultural and psychological
consequences for individuals, families, communities, and businesses (Hongwei He, 2020).
IMPACT OF COViD-19 ON PAKiSTAN’S
CORPORATE SECTOR
The limited research on the impact of Covid-19 on Pakistan’s economy indicates that the
pandemic has posed challenges for the business sector, particularly small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). Border closures, widespread lockdown and extensive social distancing
measures drastically reduced consumption, investment, international trade and drying up
supplies for small businesses and entrepreneurs which negatively impacted primary,
secondary, and tertiary economic sectors including agriculture, industry, transportation,
education, and healthcare. According to UNIDO’s ‘Impact Assessment Study of Covid-19 on
Pakistan’s Manufacturing Firms’ Report (UNIDO, 2021), the severity of the impact of
Covid-19 varied across sectors and sub-sectors in Pakistan. The report’s findings revealed
that the service sector recorded losses of 50-70% in revenues followed by the manufacturing
sector with estimated losses of 30-50%. The agricultural sector experienced relatively fewer
revenue losses of roughly 10-20%. Overall, 90% of companies in Pakistan reported an
adverse impact of Covid-19 on their revenues, citing a decrease in consumer demand as one
of their biggest challenges. Amidst earlier waves of the pandemic, several textile
consignments were returned to the producers owing to border closures and an increasing
risk of the spread of coronavirus.
27
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics also conducted a survey to assess the impact of Covid-19 on people’s
lives (PBS, 2020). The survey findings revealed that 27.3 million of the working population was affected
by the pandemic, and 6.7 million people faced salary cuts due to financial constraints. As a result, the
Government of Pakistan (GOP) took measures to mitigate the socio-economic repercussions of the
pandemic by offering an economic stimulus relief package for the public. Additionally, the State Bank of
Pakistan announced many relief initiatives for the public being supported by the corporate sector.
In the wake of Covid-19 outbreak, most business companies in Pakistan are reviewing, revising and
expanding their CSR strategies to support civil society and the government’s initiatives to mitigate the
adversity of the COVID crisis. In this regard, the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(OICCI) Report on CSR related contributions of its member companies found that 80 % of its 200 major
international investor-member companies gave charitable donations in Pakistan to meet Covid-19
challenge, half of these members donated roughly PKR 7.8 billion to support disadvantaged community
members during the pandemic (OICCI, 2020).
Given the above, it is worthwhile to examine the corporations’ response to the economic challenges in
terms of shifting their focus towards more authentic and sustainable social responsibility practices that
foster gainful social outcome. This section examines and reviews the contributions of the corporate
sector of Pakistan in terms of CSR practices during the Covid-19 pandemic. An attempt is made to
understand and analyse the spirit and ability of corporations to participate in CSR activities, and their
decisions and motivations behind philanthropic giving during this critical time. For this purpose, a
qualitative survey approach has been used to study the CSR contributions of different business
companies during past one year of the COVID pandemic.
QUALiTATiVE APPROACH
For this purpose stated above, a short survey questionnaire was designed to seek information on various
initiatives of business companies to support its key stakeholders such as employees, communities, and
society through CSR initiatives and philanthropic contributions during past one year. The survey
comprised two parts. Part 1 included general questions on the profile of the company including the name
and designation of the respondent, and the name and type of company, i.e. public listed, public unlisted or
private limited. Part 2 comprised a short survey including 10 closed-ended and open-ended questions
about CSR policy and giving practices during COVID-19, the motivations behind giving, and the expected
impact of corporations’ giving on the community and the people.
PCP launched this survey online during December 2021 to January 2022, uploading it as an online Google
document and circulating amongst approximately 678 randomly selected large-sized, medium-sized, and
small-sized corporations nationwide. However, the response rate to the survey questionnaire was
extremely poor, estimated around 1%, despite repeated follow-ups and phone calls with the
representatives of these corporations. As a result, only 12 corporations responded and sent back the
filled-in form. Of these, 10 participants belonged to Public Listed Companies (PLCs), and 2 belonged to
Public Unlisted Companies (PUCs). None of the Private Limited Companies (PvLCs) responded to this
exercise. The 12 respondent companies are mostly large-sized, working in different sectors which include
Tata Textile Mills Limited, Engro Corporation, Bestway Cement Limited, Crescent Steel and Allied
Products Limited, Habib Bank Limited, Yunus Textile, National Foods Limited, House of Habib, Packages
Limited, Pakistan State Oil Company Limited, and Pakistan Petroleum Limited. Only one participating
company, that is Otsuka Pakistan Limited, is categorised as a medium-sized corporation, while no
small-sized companies participated in the survey.
Based on the information collected from 12 companies who participated in the qualitative survey, some
interesting results are worth mentioning to exhibit their support for different relief activities during
COVID crisis. It may be noted that amongt the 12 respondent companies, 9 reported spending
approximately PKR 907 m.illion on Covid-19 related activities in 2020. Figure 12 shows that Engro
Corporation remained at the forefront in its efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic compared to
other corporations. This company contributed PKR 370 million both in cash and in-kind towards
health-care related services. These included provision of necessary medical supplies, equipment, and
28
 infrastructure to hospitals to ensure sustained facilities for Covid-19 patients, and bolster livelihoods,
sustenance, and long-term rehabilitation of the underserved segments of society through the
government’s Ehsaas Amdan Programme.
The second biggest contributor was Habib Bank Limited with its financial donation of PKR 240 million.
HBL is a socially responsible corporation with its commitment to serving society for various social causes.
In 2009, it set up the HBL Foundation with a view to promoting the welfare of Pakistanis by making annual
donations to accomplish its CSR goals and objectives. During the Covid-19 pandemic, HBL reported
giving donations to benefit both its employees and communities by providing medical expense support for
hospitalization, vaccinations, and Online Doctor services (Figure 12).
Figure 12: Volume of Donations during Covid-19 Crisis: 2020
400 370
Amount PKR Million
COVID crisis. This situation corroborates well with the fact that information and data on large and public
listed companies is shared and readily accessible, whereas medium and small sized companies, especially
private limited companies are hesitant and unwilling to share information on their giving practices—a
large gap identified in the quantitative analysis of this study.
Beyond getting numbers on the generous donations of the business companies during to Covid-19, the
online survey sought information on some CSR related questions, areas of support, and the motivations
behind contributing to the relief activities during the pandemic. In response to the question whether the
respective company had a concrete Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy in place, a majority of
companies (83%) reported that their company had a CSR policy with a clear vision and mission to support
social causes (Figure 13).
Figure 13: Companies having a CSR Policy with an Explicit Vision/Mission: 2020

350
300
240
250
200 17%
150
100 85
100
50
40 35 30
6.3 0.5
0
Engro Habib Bank Bestway Pakistan State House of Packages Pakistan Tata Textiles Otsuka
Corporation Ltd Cement Oil Company Habib Ltd Petroleum Mills Ltd Pakistan
Ltd Ltd Ltd Ltd
Source: Pakistan Stock Exchange

Among various activities, HBL also supported the Government’s Ehsaas Kafaalat programme serving 83%
more than 3 million deserving Pakistani women during Covid-19 induced lockdowns, and distributed
ration bags to over 100,000 families across Pakistan through their staff volunteers and branch network.
Moreover, HBL collaborated with a leading hotel chain to provide 30,000 meal-boxes to frontline health
workers across seven cities during a one month period. It also donated 50,000 face masks to the National
Yes No
Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as part of its relief efforts. During 2019, the bank increased its
CSR commitment by 5% by donating PKR 135 million, both through HBL Foundation and directly, to the Source: Survey Results
deserving people.
This result, however, calls for a deeper analysis of the question about how aware other companies are
The third largest contribution during the Covid pandemic came from Bestway Cement Limited which about the importance of having a CSR policy and incorporating its principles and guidelines in their giving
donated around PKR 100 million for various relief causes, followed by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) with a practices, especially about how decisions are made about dispensing with the CSR commitment and who
donation of PKR 85 million and House of Habib giving PKR 40 million during 2020 (Figure 12). owns and manages this responsibility.
Reportedly, CSR is one of PSO’s core values and an integral part of its overall mission to support
healthcare, education, community development, environment conservation, and national disaster relief The participant companies were also asked in which form (money, time, or in-kind) they contributed
through PSO TRUST initiatives and activities5. Moreover, PSO supported generously to different towards relief activities during Covid-19 in the year 2020. About 50% reported that they gave donations
initiatives of the Government of Pakistan, non-profit organisations and hospitals in areas of food in the form of cash only, 17% reported giving in-kind donations, whereas about 33% stated that they
distribution to the needy, provision of different types of medical and healthcare facilities. Among other contributed in all forms including cash, in-kind, and volunteering time for relief activities of the pandemic,
things, it is pertinent to mention that PSO successfully administered 202,133 doses of Covid-19 vaccines i.e., supporting health care and economic needs of the underserved people (Figure 14).
to have Pakistanis during August - December 2021. In recognition of PSO’s efforts to have Corona-free
Pakistan, it received an award from the National Command and Operational Centre (NCOC) as well as
from the UN office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) for initiating the vaccination
drive across Pakistan. Among other respondent companies in the survey, Packages Limited, Pakistan
Petroleum Limited, Tata textile and Atsuka are worth mentioning with donations of PKR 0.5 to 35 million
for Covid relief activities (Figure 12). However, It is important to note here that the two companies such
as The Crescent Steel and Allied Products Ltd. and Yunus Textile Ltd. did not disclose the amount it
contributed during Covid-19, despite repeated follow ups by PCP. Similarly, National Foods Ltd.
mentioned that it donated more than PKR 20 million in the previous year; but did not quote an exact
amount of donations for various activities.

Thus, the responses of a very small subset of the corporate sector of Pakistan are not representative
enough to generalize the results and do not present a realistic picture of corporate philanthropy during

29 5
https://psopk.com/en/csr
30
 About the motivations behind giving during the Covid-19 pandemic, the results show that the impulse to
Figure 14: Type of Contributions by Companies during COVID: 2020 help the poor and the needy was the key driving factor for CSR activities as reported by 42 % of the
respondent companies, whereas 25 % stated the desire to give back to society as a reason for their CSR
contribution during 2020. The remaining 33% cited both reasons as a motivation of their giving,
supporting the earlier evidence of companies’ socially responsible behaviour of helping the
17% underprivileged sections of society.

33%
Figure 16: The Motivation/Incentive behind Donating during COVID: 2020

50% 33%
42%

In-cash In-kind cash, kind and time

Source: Survey Results

As expected, the health and education sectors received the maximum amount of donations from
25%
corporations as against other sectors. This includes providing support to key welfare and health
institutions in the form of offering essential health equipment, such as masks and Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) kits for frontline health workers (doctors, paramedics and support staff) and
communities; distributing syringe and infusion pumps to hospitals; initiating vaccination drives for local
To give back to society To help underpriviliged All of the above
communities; donating sanitisation tunnels; providing Covid-19 testing kits and services in far flung
areas, and facilitating access to online physical and mental health services. Furthermore, other support Source: Survey Results
measures to combat COVID effects included enforcing social distancing, setting up sanitisation gates, use
of masks and gloves, assisting employees and their families in getting vaccinated, permitting flexible work
The foregoing analysis, based on a small subset of business companies, provide the basis to reassure that
hours with full payments, and allowing work from home routine when necessary.
Pakistan’s corporate sector’s contributions to societal benefits remain significant during times of crisis.
This pattern corroborates well with the previous trend analysis of corporate giving where PLCs’
Additionally, when companies were asked which sector did they contribute more for Covid relief
donations reached the peak after flood and earthquake disasters in the country. Nevertheless
activities, the results show that 60 % provided support to health care and nutrition related services to
representation of diversity is particularly important in qualitative research, participation of only a small
reduce the effects of the pandemic, whereas 33 % of companies reported giving more donations to
subset of Public Listed Companies (PLCs) limits the scope and purpose of this analysis and cannot be
support continuation of education services for poor and underserved areas (Figure 15). These findings
generalized and broadly applied to SMEs or Private Limited Companies (PvLC). Therefore, there is a
reinforce the earlier practices of companies’ socially responsible behaviour for supporting the health,
pressing need to use larger and more diversified samples in future studies to holistically examine the
education, and economic needs of their communities during times of crisis.
corporate sector’s CSR activities and reflect on the impact of these activities during and after the
pandemic in the Pakistani context.
Figure 15: Areas of Support during COVID: 2020

7%

33%

60%

Educational/Vocational Training Health/Nutrition other

Source: Survey Results
31 32
 9
CONCLUSiON
In the business world today, the strong connection between corporate giving and social good
is well recognized. It is envisioned that corporate sector can play a bigger and effective role in
the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially through increased
social sector investments. As such, an increasing number of companies are geared towards
incorporating corporate social responsibility in their strategic business models and
sustainability reporting processes. While the overall scale and significance of corporate
giving has increased remarkably over the years, little is precisely known and documented
about how companies allocate their resources to different focus areas and its impact on
social well-being.
In Pakistan, the corporate sector’s philanthropic giving has immensely grown in the past
years, and its relationship with the public and non-profit sector is getting recognition in
public policy as well. The government, being cognizant of its socio-economic challenges,
underpins the significance of the business sector for increased participation in philanthropic
giving to support social development initiatives. Prior evidence shows that CSR activities
among Pakistani companies primarily focus on health, education and other community
development programs including provision of medicines to hospitals, scholarships to
deserving students, and relief activities during natural calamities and disasters such as
floods, earthquakes, etc. This kind of philanthropic support is manifested mostly by large
sized public listed companies, whereas a large pool of companies labeled as public unlisted
and privately-run enterprises remain unrecognized due to absence of documentation and
reporting of their revenue, and CSR donations. This needs to be accounted for to get a more
realistic picture of corporate giving in Pakistan.
This report brings out the essence of the CSR contributions by the business companies
during the past two decades and presents a detailed and disaggregated analysis of the trends
and patterns of corporate philanthropy in Pakistan. The data analysis reveals that in the year
2020, the total volume of donations is PKR 13.32 billion, of which the share of Public Listed
Companies (PLCs) is the largest at PKR. 9.64 billion, the share of PUCs and PvLCs is PKR 1.89
billion and PKR 1.79 billion, respectively. These PUCs and PvLCs are smaller in size than the
PLCs, but constitute much larger segment of the corporate sector with limited
documentation and reporting of their financial statements. As such, measuring and defining
corporate philanthropy outside the public listed domain is quite challenging and problematic
due to absence of the required information for a large majority of business companies.
contributing around 80 percent of total CSR donations. Moreover, a majority of these companies focus on
education and health as their preferred area of support, which certainly are priority areas, but there is a
need to direct their resources to other areas that are in dire need of intervention. One possible approach
to attain greater impact of corporate donations would be to align their CSR budgets and programmes with
national development agenda with guidance from the government and other organizations in identifying
priority sectors or areas where mostly needed to achieve better social outcomes.
The support and assistance of the corporate sector during the COVID-19 crisis as assessed from the
qualitative information collected from a sub-sample of companies reveals that about PKR 907 million
were spent largely by large PLCs on various relief activities during 2020. Despite the adversity and
challenges of this crisis on businesses, the amount of donations made gives a positive signal about the
commitment and concern of the corporate sector for helping people in times of need. However, a weak
response from small, medium-sized and Private Limited Companies (PvLC) reinforce the notion that the
implementation of CSR strategies during the crisis is apparently more challenging for these companies.
This situation corroborates well with the earlier described pattern that that large enterprises tend to
focus more on strategic CSR (Lee et al., 2017; Grimstad et al., 2020), whereas small and medium sized
companies have CSR-related initiatives as informal, unstructured, and unsystematic (Russo and Tencati,
2009; Grimstad et al., 2020). Moreover, small companies with their limited size, resources and capacity
lack the ability to adapt to market disruptions and respond effectively to challenges, particularly of the
scale and magnitude of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We may infer from the minimal participation of small and medium sized enterprises in this study that
well-established, larger corporations have the strategic know-how, resources, and capacity to absorb the
demand and supply shocks, reduced consumer demand, supply chain disruptions, and resultant revenue
losses (IFC, 2021). It is likely that due to low earnings and profits, small companies may not have the
financial capacity to earmark sufficient funds to support Covid-19 related relief and recovery efforts in a
structured and strategic manner. In contrast, larger corporations’ access to finance and digital
connectivity gives them a competitive edge in local and international markets, enabling them to respond
more effectively to economic challenges (Paul et al., 2017). The present study therefore, predominantly
covers the CSR activities of large-sized corporations, calling for the need to use larger and more
diversified sample in future studies to holistically examine the corporate sector’s CSR activities and the
impact of these activities during and after any crisis in the Pakistani context.

The findings show a rising trend in the volume of donations by business companies from PKR
0.23 billion in base year 2000 to PKR 13.32 billion in 2020. The amount donated during the
past year is primarily due to the contributions of 228 PLCs (46 percent of total), pointing out
the fact that more than 50 percent of the PLCs reportedly remain non-giving. This means that
the volume of corporate philanthropy would be much higher if non-giving PLCs also
participate or report their CSR donations. This requires a further investigation of the
non-giving behavior of most of the PLCs and how these companies need to be motivated and
encouraged to participate in CSR activities, either in partnership with the government or
nonprofit organizations. However, an encouraging fact to note is that PLCs’ donations as a
percentage of profit before tax (PBT) have steadily increased from an average of 0.6 to 0.9
over the years, which is quite close to the international threshold of 1.0 percent.

Considering that the type and size of companies are important in determining the volume of
donations, the analysis reveals that large companies with much higher paid-up capital
comprise the major share of total corporate giving with greater volume of donations,
overshadowing the contributions made by small and medium-sized companies. The small
sized companies, despite facing challenges of liquidity, limited financial capacity and less
consumer demand also donate substantial amount, especially when assessed in terms of
percentage of their profit before tax. However, the analysis reveals that the major chunk of
donations comes from few large sized entities ranked as top 10 giving companies.
33 34
10
REFERENCES
ADB. (2000). Public Private Partnership in the Social Sector. Policy Paper Series 1.

AFP. (2020). Nonprofits Hit by 6% Decline in Giving Due to COVID-19. Retrieved from
www.afpfep.org.

AKDN. (2000). The Dimension of Individual Giving in Philanthropy in Pakistan: A report of the
initiative on Indigenous Philanthropy. Aga Khan Development Network.

Carroll, A. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral
management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 39-48.

Ghebreyesus, T. A. (2020). WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing

on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020.

GOP. (2021). Economic Survey of Pakistan.

Hongwei He, L. H. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on corporate social

responsibility and marketing philosophy. Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection.

IFC. (2021). Meeting the Moment: Annual Report.

JesúsHerrera Madueno, M. L.-M. (2015). Relationship between Corporate Social

Responsibility and Competitive Performance in Spanish Smes: Empirical Evidence from a
Stakeholders’ Perspective. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 55-72.

Johnson, P. (2018). Global Philanthropy Report: Perspectives on the Global Foundation Sector.
Cambridge: Harvard Kennedy School.

Madueno et al. (2015). Relationship between corporate social responsibility and competitive
performance in Spanish SMEs: Empirical evidence from a stakeholders’ perspective.

News. (2018). Coca Cola Parterners with Edhi Foundation again for Ramazan fundraising.
OICCI. (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2019-20.

OpenStax. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility. In OpenStax, Principles of Management.

PBS. (2020). Special survey for evaluating the socio-economic impact of covid-19 on well-being of
people.

PCP. (2015). Corporate Philanthropy. Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy.

Sarah, S. K. (2017). True Concept of CSR: Pakistan Context. International Review of

Management and Business Research.

Shazia Amjad, M. A. (2018). Philanthropy in Pakistan. Stanford Social Innovation Review.

UNIDO. (2021). Impact assesment of covid-19 on Pakistan's manufacturing firms.

WINGS. (2018). The Global Landscape of Philanthropy.

35