New York, Jan 28 (IANS): Philanthropy brings in a positive impact on employees of businesses that actively partake in corporate giving, says a study.

Giving enhances a business's reputation and strengthens a business's efforts toward corporate social responsibility and also benefits the employees, the study said.

The way that firms choose to deploy those funds has a huge impact on the degree to which giving affects employees, the findings showed.

"Specifically, the impact is stronger when firms donate to a few big and visible targets rather than to a wider range of charities chosen by the employees themselves," said Emily Block, researcher from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, US.

By coupling donations with opportunities to volunteer, organisations can enhance the positive impact on employees, the study revealed.

Employees care about impact and they respond more positively to donations to larger, more strategic and more centralised targets, revealed the study, published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

To examine how corporate philanthropy affects those inside the organisation, the researchers analysed three years' of data on the attitudes of an average of 14,577 employees in 53 offices.