Run the Giving Like the Rest of the Company
Every other function in the business has criteria, controls, and reporting. The giving program — often the company's most public money — deserves the same. Meridian provides the governance, administration, and reporting layer for corporate giving programs and corporate foundations.
The Least-Governed Money in the Building
The Marketing Inbox
The giving program lives wherever the requests land — a shared inbox, a sponsorship form, someone in communications who inherited it. Money moves, goodwill accrues, and nobody can say what the program's criteria are, because there are none in writing.
Governance and Documentation Gaps
Who approved the grant. Under what authority. Against which policy. For a company that documents every vendor contract and expense report, the giving is often the least-documented money in the building — and the most visible when questioned.
Employee Grant Intake, Ungoverned
Matching gifts, employee-nominated causes, disaster-response requests — arriving by email, decided ad hoc, tracked in a spreadsheet if at all. The program employees care most about is the one running with the least structure.
Board Reporting That Does Not Exist
When the board or the audit committee asks what the company gave, to whom, and why, the answer is assembled retroactively from accounting exports. A giving program should be able to report on itself the way any other function can.
Structure, Without Building a Department
A written giving policy the company can stand behind: criteria, authority, conflict handling, and documentation standards. Decisions recorded as they are made, so the program can answer for itself — to the board, to auditors, and to the employees watching how it runs.
One front door for every request — external solicitations, employee nominations, matching gifts — routed through the Meridian Portal with defined criteria and a defined path to yes or no. The inbox era ends; every request gets an answer and every answer gets a record.
Diligence coordination, approvals, payments, acknowledgment letters, and a complete file for every grant. For companies with a corporate foundation, the compliance calendar and filing data room are kept the way a regulated entity's records should be.
A standing report the leadership team and board actually receive: what was given, to whom, under which criteria, and against which budget. The Meridian Portal shows the true state of the program at any hour — no reconstruction required.
Meridian does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice, and never takes custody of funds. Entity formation and tax work are referred to independent professionals with written disclosure.
A Sample Year
Quarter One
The foundation is set: giving policy documented, intake channels consolidated into the portal, criteria published internally, and the current year's budget mapped to a grant calendar.
Quarter Two
The program runs: requests moving through structured intake, employee matching administered, decisions documented at the moment they are made, and the first quarterly report delivered.
Quarter Three
The record deepens: grant files complete and current, acknowledgments on schedule, and mid-year review of the program against its criteria — what was funded, what was declined, and why.
Quarter Four
The accounting: full-year giving report to leadership and board, records delivered to tax and audit teams organized, and next year's policy and budget refined from a year of documented practice.
Begin With the Audit. Continue With Institutional.
Most corporate programs begin with the Foundation Health Audit — a three-week, fixed-scope review of how the giving actually runs: governance, documentation, intake, and reporting readiness. You receive written findings and a prioritized remediation plan, useful whether or not the engagement continues.
Programs that continue are served by Meridian Institutional — the retainer for corporate and multi-entity giving, offered by invitation following the Audit. Terms are published plainly on the engagements page, and every engagement is governed by a written services agreement before work begins.
- One accountable principal — not a rotating account team
- The Meridian Portal included — intake, files, and reporting in one system
- Your records are always yours, exportable in full if you leave
Asked, Answered
Find out how your giving program actually runs
The Foundation Health Audit delivers written findings in three weeks — fixed in scope, fixed in fee, and actionable with or without Meridian.