Question of the week: is donating 1% of pre-tax revenue an appropriate baseline determinant of whether a company is socially responsible?

An article in BusinessWeek online this week posits that, despite PR to the contrary, corporate philanthropy is down from 25% ago, with companies donating just 0.7% of their pre-tax revenue to charitable organizations.
They suggest that:
Badly needed is a meaningful voluntary commitment by the business community to “ante up” a minimum budget for corporate philanthropy. A [...]

Tracking the downward pattern in philanthropic giving

A number of articles including Slate.com’s “The Coming Charity Crisis” have pointed out a downward trend in American charitable giving in 2008. Slate’s article notes that:
“In May, the annual gala of the Robin Hood Foundation, an event at which a few thousand hedge-fund magnates and leveraged buyout titans conspicuously display their wealth and commitment to [...]