logo logo
Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Social Justice
    • Racial Justice
    • Climate Justice
    • Disability Justice
    • Economic Justice
    • Health Justice
    • Immigration
    • LGBTQ+
  • Civic News
  • Nonprofit Leadership
    • Board Governance
    • Equity-Centered Management
    • Finances
    • Fundraising
    • Human Resources
    • Organizational Culture
    • Philanthropy
    • Power Dynamics
    • Strategic Planning
    • Technology
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Leading Edge Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Webinars

Will Corporate Strategic Charity Pay Off? A Case Study in Motion

Steve Dubb
August 16, 2018
“Oxycodone Prescription Bottle with Pills Spilling Out,” Cindy Shebley

August 10, 2018; Philadelphia Inquirer

Earlier this month in NPQ, we noted that many firms named in opioid lawsuits have turned “strategically charitable.” Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Catherine Dunn profiles one of these firms, AmerisourceBergen. The firm, Dunn explains, “constitutes one of the ‘Big Three’ wholesale distributors—along with McKesson and Cardinal Health.” Since 2011, its annual revenue has nearly doubled, from $80.2 billion to $153.1 billion. The company’s market capitalization is presently $18.3 billion (down from a 2015 peak of over $25 billion).

Opioids are a big issue in Pennsylvania, Dunn notes. “Last year, just in Philadelphia, 1,217 people died from a drug overdose, and the city found opioids present in 88 percent of those deaths,” she adds. As reported in the Washington Post, national preliminary figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 49,060 people died in the US from opioid-related overdoses in 2017; following only West Virginia and the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania has the nation’s third-highest level of opioid deaths at 44.1 per 100,000. (The 49,060 figure, by the way, is a new record, an increase over 2016’s record level of 42,249 deaths.)

AmerisourceBergen established the AmerisourceBergen Foundation as a public charity in 2014. In 2018, it has made $807,000 in donations for opioid-misuse and opioid-recovery initiatives.

As Dunn shows, sometimes the correlation between lawsuit filed and grant disbursed is uncanny. For example, in January, the North Carolina county of Gaston filed suit against companies in the opioid supply chain, including AmerisourceBergen. In February, Dunn writes, “Officials in the county’s town of Stanley got word—from their U.S. congressman—about a grant to help citizens dispose of opioids from their medicine cabinets. The offer was from the charity run by one of the same distributors named in the lawsuit: Chesterbrook-based AmerisourceBergen Corp.”

“Recipients, from police officers to nonprofit groups,” writes Dunn, “have welcomed the resources as a benefit to their communities and their programming. At the same time, foundation grants have set the stage for press events, social media posts, and rosy PR material with members of Congress, including those who have received contributions from the company’s political action committee, or lobbyists.”

Corporate foundation giving and corporate political donations to candidates can also be linked. Extending the Stanley case further, Dunn writes:

On April 2, a press event at Stanley’s fire department drew US Rep. Patrick McHenry, (R-NC), along with AmerisourceBergen executives. On April 16, McHenry touted the company’s “collaboration” with local communities in an AmerisourceBergen press release.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

That same day, filings show, AmerisourceBergen’s PAC donated $2,500 to McHenry, who as chief deputy whip holds the highest-appointed position for House Republicans. That was on top of a $2,500 donation on April 10. Outside lobbyists for AmerisourceBergen donated $9,000 to several McHenry political committees between April and June, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

McHenry is a Republican, but Democrats, such as Rep. Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia, have also accepted AmerisourceBergen PAC donations.

Meanwhile, lawsuits pile up. Last April, we wrote in NPQ that more than 200 lawsuits had been filed nationally against opioid producers, manufacturers and distributors. Now, Dunn reports that in Cleveland, federal Judge Dan Aaron Polster has consolidated “more than 1,000 suits from municipal governments, Native American tribes, and other entities.” In addition, there are “More than 800 complaints are lodged in local courts…state attorneys general have filed their own lawsuits against Big Pharma, and a group of 41 state attorneys general, among them Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, announced a joint investigation last year.”

Earlier this month, AmerisourceBergen disclosed that “its legal bills for opioid-related lawsuits and investigations grew by $39 million last quarter, jumping to $49.5 million for the previous three quarters combined,” writes Dunn. Last year, while denying guilt, the firm “reached a $16 million settlement with West Virginia over claims that the company profited from sending excessive amounts of painkillers into the state and failed to report suspicious orders,” Dunn adds.

Greg Williams, executive vice president of the nonprofit Facing Addiction with NCADD [National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence], notes that his organization chose not to apply for AmerisourceBergen foundation funds, despite being encouraged to do so. Indeed, less than two months ago, on June 25th, Williams received an email from the foundation that, Dunn writes, “commended his group’s work and outlined a program for grants up to $100,000.”

But the organization has taken a different tack: This past spring, it joined the Fed Up! Coalition to participate in an advocacy campaign called “Billions Not Millions.” As the name suggests, the coalition’s goal is to achieve a multi-billion court settlement to address the costs generated from a national epidemic that killed 42,000 in 2016.

Williams acknowledges that turning down $100,000 is not easy: “Some of these resources might even help people and save lives.… I don’t want to dismiss the intent. What we would like to say is, no matter how much corporate citizenship they try to do at this point, if it’s not tens of billions of dollars, it’s not enough.”—Steve Dubb

About the author
Steve Dubb

Steve Dubb is senior editor of economic justice at NPQ, where he writes articles (including NPQ’s Economy Remix column), moderates Remaking the Economy webinars, and works to cultivate voices from the field and help them reach a broader audience. Prior to coming to NPQ in 2017, Steve worked with cooperatives and nonprofits for over two decades, including twelve years at The Democracy Collaborative and three years as executive director of NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation). In his work, Steve has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous reports; participated in and facilitated learning cohorts; designed community building strategies; and helped build the field of community wealth building. Steve is the lead author of Building Wealth: The Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems (Aspen 2005) and coauthor (with Rita Hodges) of The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads, published by MSU Press in 2012. In 2016, Steve curated and authored Conversations on Community Wealth Building, a collection of interviews of community builders that Steve had conducted over the previous decade.

More about: Corporate Social ResponsibilityNonprofit NewsPhilanthropy

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
“Unrig the Game”: Learning from Women of Color in Leadership and Social Movements
Holly Jonas
New Study Shines a Light on the Impact of Donor-Advised Funds
Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery
Report Uplifts New and Old Challenges Facing Nonprofits
Rebekah Barber
Shifting the Balance: Centering Local Leadership in Global Nonprofit Partnerships
Jennifer Johnson
Beyond Grant Capital: What the Buen Vivir Fund Experience Teaches Us
Gaithiri Siva and Joanna Levitt Cea
Merging Missions: Starting with Relationships and Shared Authority
Hoang Murphy

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
June 26th, 2:00 pm ET

From Performance Management to Mutual Commitment

Fostering a Culture of Joyful Accountability

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
July 24th, 2:00 pm ET

Organizing in Divided Times

The Relational Infrastructure We Need to Protect Democracy

Register

    
You might also like
Mural of a woman that reads “POWER & EQUALITY.”
“Unrig the Game”: Learning from Women of Color in...
Holly Jonas
A ray of sunshine breaks through the clouds and shines a light on the beach and a large rock formation.
New Study Shines a Light on the Impact of Donor-Advised...
Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery
A thoughtful young Asian woman sits at her table, appearing concerned as she navigates challenges on her laptop at home.
Report Uplifts New and Old Challenges Facing Nonprofits
Rebekah Barber

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders
  • Submissions

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.