A lot of people here are arguing the emotional moral reason for donating, but businesses don't have emotions. The functionalist view of donating to charity is y

A lot of people here are arguing the emotional moral reason for donating, but businesses don't have emotions. The functionalist view of donating to charity is you donate when you want to build your community, however you define your community. Businesses have an equal need as citizens to build the community around them. Businesses donate to charities all the time. They donate to their industry trade associations. They donate to the local municipalities to build parks. They donate to political campaigns. They donate to research foundations and educational institutions. They donate to amateur sports teams. They donate to employee-driven charities like cancer walks. You can argue that businesses donate when it is self-serving, such as donating to universities to attract new employees and patentable research, or political donates, or even good PR like building a new park by the new factory. However, all charity is self-serving. We're all building up the community around us, which benefits us both directly and indirectly. I may donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation if my family has a history of heart disease, or to my alumni association if I use it as a base of professional networking, or to my coworker's kid's softball team funding drive to stay on his good side. You can be cynical about any of these, but these donations are part of what bind human society together.