Corporate philanthropy, political influence, and health policy

This paper develops a model for corporate political philanthropy based on findings from the tobacco industry. While the paper is not focused on nutrition, the results have relevance to public private partnerships on nutrition. The paper provides interesting insights on how the tobacco industry has used philanthropy to influence political environments and redirect public policy makers’ priorities. In the case of the tobacco industry, the recommendation is to implement existing legislation to prevent suboptimal philanthropy. The importance of governing frameworks for industry is an important takeaway for nutrition.