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New Instruments in the Corporate Political Toolkit:
The Role of Political Philanthropy
Introduction and Theory Overview
Business interests are widely perceived by scholars, pundits, and the American public to
enjoy enormous advantages in the political arena. The conventional wisdom is that not only do
corporations have impressive financial and informational resources to deploy in politics, they
also benefit from a natural tendency among lawmakers to privilege business needs for fear of
rocking the economy. This paper argues that such accounts of corporate power overlook a key
source of that influence. Specifically, the things the business community does in the name of
corporate social responsibility (CSR) – the social, environmental, and philanthropic activities it
undertakes apart from its strictly economic and political activities – are politically relevant
enterprises that can help business advance its interests in the political process.
How? Three examples illustrate this hidden source of business political power. The first
features House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), who last spring led a
group of congressmen on a trip to an exclusive resort in Key Largo, Florida. The congressmen
were joined there by a handful of D.C. lobbyists for three days of golf, fishing, and R&R. In
order to send a representative, each lobbyist’s organization had made a $10,000 to $250,000
charitable donation to the DeLay Foundation for Kids, established by Rep. DeLay and his wife to
benefit foster care children. DeLay refused to disclose the names of the participants, but the vast
majority were likely not philanthropists with established commitments to helping needy kids.
Rather, they were lobbyists who represented organizations with interests before Congress. Most
were corporate lobbyists – very few citizen groups have the means to pay entrance fees that start
at $10,000. The fundraiser thus represented not only an opportunity for firms to build goodwill
with one of the most powerful politicians in the country, but also a chance for a handful of
corporate executives to mix and mingle, swim and sun, and drink and dine with Members of
Congress for several days in a private, luxurious setting.
A second case concerns New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who currently has
on his hands a long political to-do list, a $4 billion budget shortfall, and abysmal voter approval
ratings. His solution to the mismatch between city needs and city resources has been to appeal to
the private sector for help. He has asked companies to be good corporate citizens and do their
part to bail the city out, inviting them to underwrite basic public services like street cleaning,
Convention