APPROVED DONATIONS
The charity receiving donations for this Imperative must be located in the country of either the final assembly or the source country for a major ingredient or component, and it must be a registered charity or 501©3 organization.
CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS
The recipient of a manufacturer’s donation must be a registered charity or 501©3. Manufacturers are encouraged to support organizations in the same local region as the manufacturing facility or facilities that are part of the certification scope, and may also split the donation as desired among multiple charities.
Manufacturers may donate to international charitable organizations that are based in a different country than the manufacturing facility or facilities, as long as the organization in question is active in the facility’s local region. If the selected organization has the option to designate funds by region, the manufacturer must designate its donation to the facilities’ respective regions.
EXISTING DONATIONS
Existing donations may be used to cover the Equitable Investment Imperative requirements, as long as they are given within the fiscal year prior to certification. To do so, the manufacturer must document which donations are being attributed to the sales of this product, and ensure that they are not being double counted for other LPC Certifications.
Calculation requirements are as follows:
- Monetary donations must all be converted to the same currency used to calculate the required donation.
- Product donations must be calculated using the list price of the product. Discounts may not be counted toward the donation, only the complete donation of product.
- Volunteer hours may be counted toward this Imperative. Manufacturers must use the US national average for hourly value of volunteer time, as calculated by Independent Sector in the Value of Volunteer Time tool to calculate the monetary value of the volunteer time donated.
Donations of money, time, or product must meet the following criteria:
- A minimum of 50% of the donation must be money
- Up to 50% of the donation may be contributed through volunteer hours
- Up to 25% of the donation may be made through product donations.
If the existing annual investments made by the manufacturer do not fully cover the required donation amounts for each product seeking certification, the remaining must be supplemented by additional efforts and documented accordingly.
DONATION TIMING
While the Imperative requires annual giving, timing of charitable contributions is flexible provided that the manufacturer issues the total calculated donation required for the 3-year certification period prior to the time of the product recertification. When budgeting for annual giving, manufacturers may use the performance period (i.e. the fiscal year prior to initial certification) to set predictions for annual giving, and at each annual check-in may “true up” to ensure that donations meet the requirement. Donations that had already been made during the performance period to qualifying charitable organizations may be counted toward the total calculated donation required.
Manufacturers that do not make a donation covering all 3 years by the time of certification must offset at minimum the donation amount calculated from the first year of sales, and calculate the donation amount required of the total 3-year certification period to demonstrate awareness and commitment to meeting these donation requirements per the Standard.
