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Of the various forms that corporate sponsorship can take, the very recent endowment fund is one of the least well known. Still, there is no shortage of benefits.
A FLEXIBLE SOLUTION, SUITABLE FOR ALL
The endowment fund is a new legal form of patronage. It allows either to manage sponsorship actions directly within the endowment fund, or to receive money and then redistribute it towards sponsorship or general interest activities. These activities can be social, cultural, humanitarian or sporting. The endowment fund allows companies, even very small ones, to manage their sponsorship actions themselves and to act at a very local level.
SIMPLIFIED CREATION
To create an endowment fund, all you have to do is write the articles of association to determine its purpose. This fund can be created by one or more companies, with which natural persons can join. These statutes are deposited at the prefecture of the place of the registered office. It is a simple statement, without prior authorization. The declaration must then be published in the Official Journal.
TAX ADVANTAGES
The endowment fund entitles the patronage to a direct corporate tax reduction of 60% of the amount donated. On the other hand, the endowment fund does not entitle individuals to the reduction of wealth tax .
NB
As for corporate sponsorship, it is useful to ask questions about its financial flows, ie where the money goes. Patronage is now a strategy in its own right: companies do not leave the choice of their beneficiaries to chance. Indeed, 2/3 of companies support projects that they have selected on their own initiative (by soliciting the project leader themselves), via employees or through calls for projects.
Companies give preference to support lasting approximately one year, and leave room for a majority of new projects each year.
Good news for associations that are still reluctant to solicit companies: the beneficiary projects are constantly being renewed!
The typical beneficiary is a medium-sized French association that carries out local action for a variety of budgets and projects. Large companies support an average of 11 to 50 projects per year, with an average budget for supporting a project mostly above €10,000. For SMEs / VSEs, the average is 1 or 2 projects per year, with an average budget per project between €1,000 and €5,000.
“Contributing to the general interest, showing solidarity” is the primary motivation of corporate sponsors. Companies also want to “bring together / retain employees”, “give meaning to the profession” and “build relationships with local actors / stakeholders” through their sponsorship policy. The counterparties that companies can benefit from are not decisive: 3/4 of companies do not take them into consideration when choosing a project.
Nearly 2/3 of companies use tax deductions linked to corporate sponsorship, and almost all of them are familiar with this system. Tax deductions, if they do not appear in the motivations of companies (for which, it is important to remember, sponsorship remains an expense), therefore have a real role for the beneficiaries: they allow the company to give more.
DAMY Law Firm , Nice, Corporate Taxation-Sponsorship, Update 2022
