Recommendations

Without question, border-based companies could do more to make a difference in the communities where they operate. Yet, the responsibility for increasing the level of corporate giving does not entirely lie with the individual companies operating along the border. A collaborative effort among individual companies, border area community foundations, and civil society, as well as the Mexican government is required in order to have a significant impact in increasing corporate philanthropy along the border and improving the living conditions of millions of low-income people.   Without greater collective action between government, the private sector and civil society, maquiladora oriented corporate giving along Mexico’s northen border will remain inconsequential.

The role of the Mexican government:
To create an environment that promotes and develops civil society and expands corporate philanthropy among companies operating maquiladoras, meaningful legislative reforms are necessary.

• The Mexico tax code (Ley del Impuesto Sobre la Renta - LISR) should allow maquiladoras to receive a charitable tax deduction for contributions they make to Mexican nonprofits, both in the border region, and throughout the country. Here, maquiladoras that qualify for tax deductibility should be those that have a minimum fiscal utility, calculated according to the rules of  “safe harbor[1] ”,or an operations utility estimated by any price transfer method that is defined in Article 215 of the LISR.
• Promote the development of a more efficient and encompassing procedure that can allow NGOs to receive charitable deductibility status. This specifically refers to the “Título III de la Ley de Impuesto sobre la Renta.” [2]
• Create a formal procedure within the Finance Ministry (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público) that allows a provisional registration status for nonprofits while they collect all the necessary information and carry out the appropriate changes required to receive legal registered status.[3]

The role of U.S. Corporate Foundations:
To provide support to border communities and the maquiladoras beyond their immediate borders, companies can do more by:

• Considering increasing their level of corporate giving commensurate with their level of employment in percentage terms along the border vis-à-vis their other operations globally.   One major U.S. multinational company surveyed, had 15% of its entire global workforce in Cd. Juarez and yet corporate giving, while much greater than their peers, was less than $100,000.  If this company’s giving, based on total annual contributions in 2003, was commensurate to employee distribution, giving to Cd. Juarez would exceed $4 million annually for that company alone.
• Explore expanded cross-border giving options via corporate foundations by reaching out to U.S. intermediary organizations capable of assisting with grants into Mexico.
• Providing not only cash and in-kind contributions but technical and training support to local nonprofits.
• Encouraging local plant managers to become more actively engaged in their local communities.

The role of Mexican border area community foundations and NGOs:
To acquire the necessary training that will allow them to develop an efficient management fundraising and marketing strategy that will increase their possibilities in acquiring funding from U.S.-based maquiladoras.

• In addition to requesting financial support from a corporation, NGOs, particularly grassroots organizations, should focus on seeking technical and capacity training assistance that will help them better achieve their nonprofit’s overarching goals and objectives.
• Border corporate giving lags, in part, because there is little alignment between nonprofit needs and maquiladoras corporate goals and objectives. “Doing the right thing” is no longer a sufficient rationale for corporate charitable giving. Hence, border area nonprofits, and community foundations, need to do a better job of educating and informing companies; NGOs need to demonstrate that by investing in border communities, they will enhance the bottom line through higher employee retention and lower employee absenteeism.
• NGOs should promote greater transparency and accountability within the nonprofit sector.
• NGOs need to assist individual companies to align their corporate goals and objectives with the programs of specific border area nonprofits;
• NGOs must facilitate greater corporate participation in the boards of worthy border area nonprofits.
• Border area community foundations (including those based on the US side of the border) can do more to expand corporate giving along the border by making it easier for companies to give. This can be facilitated by providing the necessary information, contacts and knowledge critical to assisting companies towards improving their available options for charitable giving in the border region.