Community : Walmart 2015 GRR

Associate philanthropy

At Walmart, our people make the difference — not only in providing customers great service, but also by generously giving their time and money to the causes they care most about. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation encourage Walmart associates to help others by:

Encouraging associates to volunteer
Supporting local nonprofits with grants made on behalf of volunteer hours completed by associates
Matching associate payroll contributions to any of 11 participating nonprofit organizations
Matching corporate officer charitable contributions to nonprofit organizations in their local communities

Aspiration

Provide matching donations to encourage associates to donate to charitable organizations.

Walmart enables U.S. associates to give to any of 11 participating nonprofit organizations through payroll deduction as part of the Associate Giving Program. The Walmart Foundation matches those contributions dollar for dollar ranging from $1 million to $8 million per charity. Through this program in FY2015, associates raised nearly $12 million. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation matched more than $8.4 million. Participating organizations include:

Associate Giving Program (AGP) organizations:

Associate in Critical Need Trust (ACNT)
United Way
American Cancer Society
American Diabetes Association
American Heart Association
American Indian College Fund
Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund
Hispanic Scholarship Fund
United Negro College Fund
Feeding America
EarthShare

Aspiration

Encourage associates to volunteer for causes they care most about.

In FY2015, our associates volunteered more than 1.5 million hours to organizations in the areas of education, environmental sustainability, health and wellness, hunger relief, workforce development and more. Associates may apply for a Volunteerism Always Pays (VAP) grant on behalf of their volunteer hours at eligible organizations. Once associates as individuals or as a group reach a threshold of 25 hours volunteered, individuals may apply for a $250 grant and groups may apply for grants up to $5,000 to the charity, generating $14 million in “dollar-for-doer” grants in FY2015.

Sreekumar Gopinathan: Making volunteerism a way of life

When it comes to involvement in his community, Sreekumar Gopinathan has always been at or near the front of the line − regardless of where his career has taken him. But when he moved from Atlanta to northwest Arkansas to become a senior engineer in Walmart’s Information Systems Division, he was delighted to discover he had the support of an entire organization behind him.

“Community work has been my passion ever since my childhood, and that’s part of the culture here at Walmart,” Sreekumar said. “I really do appreciate how Walmart encourages and stands behind its associates in that way. It’s inspiring.”

Sreekumar’s community involvement since joining the Walmart family has been nothing short of inspiring. In 2013, he logged more than 200 volunteer hours at 35 community events, and surpassed that in 2014 with more than 240 volunteer hours as part of 42 local events, committees and initiatives. The Volunteerism Always Pays program matched Sreekumar’s contribution of time with charitable donations — $250 for the first 25 hours he volunteered and additional contributions for time volunteered beyond that − all directed to the nonprofits where he volunteered. Examples include transporting snacks from a local nonprofit to four elementary schools, computer and networking installations for the Dress for Success organization, lawn maintenance and house cleaning for several elderly residents, and more.

U.K.

Maxine Green, a Community Life Champion at our Morley store, was awarded the Leading Light Award by Prime Minister David Cameron for her ongoing community and charity work.

Central America

Maxine Green, a Community Life Champion at our Morley store, was awarded the Leading Light Award by Prime Minister David Cameron for her ongoing community and charity work.

Argentina

In 2014, more than 400 associates working at our corporate office in Argentina invested more than 2,500 volunteer hours in local community projects and initiatives.

Challenges: Associate philanthropy

With such a large associate base and activities happening all over the world, we face two challenges with our volunteerism programs:

Matching skills to needs: Nonprofits increasingly need volunteers with specific skills (e.g., legal, logistics, finance, marketing, operations) to address specific needs. Finding associates with the relevant skills — out of 2.2 million associates — and matching them to the needs of thousands of organizations is a significant challenge.
Accounting for all hours volunteered: We’ve found that some associates volunteer but don’t submit a VAP application allowing us to track hours and contribute to the organization.

We’re looking at our programs to help make them easier to utilize and finding more ways to connect those who want to contribute specific skills to nonprofits in need.