With programs that emphasize volunteerism and an emphasis on donating to causes that resonate with employees, the Carolinas' top public companies let workers be their philanthropic guides.

The trend is good for the far-flung communities where local businesses employ people to make steel, service power lines or grind rocks. But it means that the bigger cities, where headquarters typically are located, don't always get special treatment, particularly if the office is home to only a small number of the company's workers.

That contradicts some conventional wisdom about why communities want to attract corporate headquarters. As the thinking goes, executives are more likely to support causes in their backyards, so headquarters communities benefit disproportionately from companies' generosity.

The assumption was true years ago, said Tom Knowlton, director of the corporate citizenship practice for TCC Group, a consulting firm that specializes in nonprofit groups and company philanthropy. Modern companies have realized that their employees are great ambassadors, and they want their staffers to feel good and speak well of their philanthropy, he said.

"Companies are realizing they need to go where their stakeholders are, and their stakeholders are employees and customers," he said.

More than ever, those workers are dispersed across the world because of new global markets, mergers and acquisitions and the search for lower-cost labor.

Sometimes that kind of decentralized giving can generate hard feelings. Take Charlotte steel company Nucor, which employs 75 people in Charlotte. It reserves most of its philanthropic dollars to pay for scholarships for employees' children. When it supports charities, it focuses on the rural communities in 19 states where its 12,000 workers live.

"It doesn't always play well in Charlotte," said Jim Coblin, vice president of human resources. "The Charlotte community thinks: Here's big old Nucor, and they don't spend anything here.

"We spend it out where people are doing the work."

The employee-focused trend is particularly strong at SPX, a Charlotte company that makes equipment for data networking, fire detection, TV and radio broadcasting and air conditioning.

The largest part of its corporate contributions come from matching its employees' donations to their charities of choice -- up to $20,000 per year. The company also matches up to 50 percent of employees' United Way pledges.

Organizations independently seeking funding from the company are asked to show how an SPX employee is involved with their operations, perhaps as a volunteer or a recipient of services. If nothing else, the company likes to see an employee recommendation for charities seeking funds.

"We have people in communities all across the country," spokeswoman Tina Betlejewski said. "We don't necessarily know what's important in all those communities to those employees." If the company's donations are disproportionate in Charlotte, it's because well-paid, community-minded executives live, work and support charities there, she said.

Some companies still support programs in the communities they have called home for decades. Bank of America, which expects to spend $200 million on philanthropy this year, has committed $1 million to the Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte and $15 million to the city's cultural facilities master plan.

Duke Energy committed $10 million to a UNC-Charlotte research institute and $5 million to the cultural master plan.

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