Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of audit committee attributes on corporate philanthropic donations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The study targets Nigeria’s listed firms between 2019 and 2020. We hand-collected the data from the available published annual reports of 141 and 128 firms for 2019 and 2020, respectively. Therefore, the authors used a total of 269 firm-year observations for the study. The authors used ordinary least square regression to analyze the data and Tobit regression to establish the robustness of the results. Findings The results indicate that the frequency of audit committee meetings has a significant positive relationship with corporate philanthropic donations before and during COVID-19. In the case of audit committee independence, it has only a significant positive relationship with corporate philanthropic donations during the pandemic. However, the findings reveal that audit committee size and foreign directors on the audit committee do not influence corporate philanthropic donations before and during COVID-19. Research limitations/implications The study considers audit committee characteristics out of the corporate governance mechanisms that can influence the philanthropic donations of the listed firms in Nigeria over two years from 2019 and 2020. Practical implications The findings have practical implications for encouraging the audit committee to support philanthropic donations for the welfare of the poor and the needy, particularly in difficult times like the COVID-19 period. The results could also help regulators and policymakers to provide regulations and policies that can encourage firms to participate actively in philanthropic activities to their best ability. Social implications Motivating firms to provide philanthropic donations for the welfare of underprivileged persons could strongly support the government’s effort to minimize the socioeconomic problems caused by COVID-19. Originality/value The study contributes to the scant literature that establishes the impact of audit committee attributes on firm philanthropic donations toward helping the poor and the needy in difficult periods.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of board attributes on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure of the listed firms before (2019) and during (2020) COVID-19 in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The data were manually extracted from the annual reports of all the listed companies that published their reports for the years. A total of 266 firm-year observations were generated, comprising 140 and 126 observations for 2019 and 2020, respectively. Findings The results indicate that the frequency of board meetings and foreign directors on the board significantly influence CSR expenditure before and during COVID-19. Board independence had a significant positive association with CSR expenditure before COVID-19 but insignificantly positive during it. However, board size and gender diversity do not influence CSR expenditure before and during COVID-19. Research limitations/implications The study used secondary data from the annual reports to compare the impact of board attributes on the CSR expenditures of listed firms in Nigeria between 2019 and 2020. Practical implications Providing effective CSR regulations and incentives could motivate or mandate the board of directors to incur CSR expenditure within the company’s financial capacity for society’s welfare, particularly under challenging times like COVID-19. Social implications Encouraging firms to incur more CSR expenditures to their ability will contribute to poverty alleviation and improve socio-economic development. Originality/value This study is one of the few that investigated the effects of board characteristics on CSR expenditure for the welfare of the poor and the needy. Besides, it uniquely focused on comparing the results before and during COVID-19.