Over four in ten Britons believe that businesses with 50+ employees should be required to give a percentage of their annual profits to charity, new research from YouGov and the Greg Secker Foundation shows.
The Omnibus research, conducted among over 2,000 UK adults, reveals that of those who gave an opinion, 43% think it should be a lawful requirement for businesses to be giving a percentage of their profits to charity each year.
A figure ranging from 1% - 10% is deemed the most appropriate. A quarter (26%) believes businesses should be giving between 1-5%, 16% say 6-10%, and 12% think it should be more than 10%.
The results reveal that donating profits could have a transformative impact on brand reputation.
The study suggests that if consumers were aware that a business was giving at least 5% of its profits to charity, over four in ten (43%) would have a more positive opinion of the business, a fifth (20%) would use the company over competitors and 17% would recommend the company to friends and family.
Despite this, there are some who disagree, with almost half (46%) saying that they don’t think businesses should feel obliged to give any of their annual profits away.
Donating profits isn’t the only thing Brit’s want to see businesses doing to help. Over four in ten (41%) of those surveyed believe business should be doing other things to help charities as a whole, including offering services that map back to the companies specific area of expertise (25%), upskilling members of the community (21%), and volunteering for charity during work hours (19%).
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