USA Deduction vs. expense for corporations.

[Floridian]

I work for a non profit and would like to understand if it is more advantageous to a business to make a donation or a sponsorship(advertising expense).

My understanding is for small businesses that the expense is probably better. My question is for very large companies that would file as a corporation. I can't see much of a difference on the IRS web site.
i am trying to understand what would motivate larger companies to engage with a non profit by understanding what is more beneficial from a tax perspective. Thank you.

 

[Tyson]

I think only a C-Corporation can claim a charitable donation as a tax deduction, and then only after meeting special requirements. It has little to do with the size of the business. If the non-profit that you work for is able to give the donating business something of value in return, like say some sort of advertisement, then the business can claim it as an advertising expense (tax-deductible) instead of a charitable donation.

Thus your non-profit can likely increase its base of potential donors if it is able to provide some sort of value to the business in return. The donors are then customers instead. This might have negative effects on the charity as its efforts and resources are going towards a purpose (providing value to businesses) that is contrary to whatever the non-profit was originally set up to do. There might be other negative legal and/or tax effects, I am not very familiar with how non-profits work.