Cooperative philanthropy appears particularly promising as a means of advancing the cooperative model, despite the limited research currently available on the subject. By comparing the differences between corporate and cooperative philanthropic practices, it may be possible to identify distinctive characteristics specific to large cooperatives, thereby enabling managers to adopt a reflective approach to their practices.

In September 2023, an exploratory research was initiated to compare corporate and cooperative philanthropy based on public reports published in 2022 by a dozen large Canadian organizations in the finance and agri-food sectors. Several findings and underlying hypotheses informed the project. Are philanthropic strategies and their organizational modalities similar between corporations and cooperatives? Are the decision-making processes and criteria for donations the same? What about the amounts and nature of funding? Several more specific research questions were identified and led to two ongoing projects:

• Exploration of the philosophies underlying philanthropic activity in order to arrive at an initial definition of “cooperative philanthropy” based on the following hypothesis: cooperatives tend to support communities through their donations, using a bottom-up approach, while corporations tend to address general causes, using a top-down.

• Comparative analysis of discourse on the philanthropic concepts and practices of Canadian cooperatives and financial companies in 2023, based on a discourse analysis of public data on philanthropy available on PortailCoop.