Cargill charitable giving tops $58 million in FY2009

Minneapolis-based Cargill has announced grants of more than $58 million to organizations around the world working to promote nutrition, health, education, and environmental stewardship. In response to the global financial crisis, the company donated $5.5 million for emergency hunger relief in ten countries through organizations such as Feeding America, the Salvation Army, and the Global Foodbanking Network. In addition, the company, as part of a five-year, $10 million commitment, awarded $2 million to the humanitarian organization CARE, which works to alleviate poverty in the developing world. And to help foster science, technology, engineering and math learning in Minneapolis schools, the company invested more than $3 million in two programs. "We recognize our continued success depends on the growth and health of our communities and partners," said Cargill chairman and CEO Greg Page. "We are committed to investing in communities where we live and work to promote vibrant, stable communities and growth that improves living standards."

Full text press release available via Cargill, Inc., 10/28/09.

Green Offshoots

A small but growing number of environmental nonprofit organizations are establishing for-profit businesses to pursue their agendas and build a green-economy work force. Commercial ventures such as SmartRoofs, a spin-off of the nonprofit group Sustainable South Bronx, also generate revenue for the parent organizations, potentially reducing their dependence on foundations, individual donors, and government grants. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Green for All, a national group working to develop environmentally friendly economic opportunities in poor areas, called such enterprises “early adopters” that are “paving the way for mainstream business to integrate the concept of green jobs into everyday practices.”

Full-text post by Liz Galst is available via The New York Times, 10/28/09.

More Green for Green?

Ask 700 executives which social or political issue will have the biggest impact on their companies in the next five years, and the environment tops the list. Yet an analysis of 155 large U.S. companies, including 69 of the Fortune 100, shows they gave only 4% of their philanthropic donations to environmental causes last year.

Full-text article by Emily Stone is available via Crain's Chicago Business, 8.18.08.

Suburban Hospitals "Greening" Their Facilities

Some suburban hospitals have been making strides toward the increasingly important goal of “greening” their facilities as much as possible to become more environmentally friendly.

Realizing that such efforts are not only good for their bottom line in that energy savings and pollution reduction equipment and materials can reduce costs, hospital officials in the area know that it’s also a stance that’s increasingly popular to the public.

Full-text post is available via the Business Ledger, 1.7.08.

The Logic of Green Giving

Which charities are most deserving? Those working on environmental issues tend to come low on most people's lists, judging by the paltry amounts they receive; yet, they can make a huge difference to some of the world's most pressing problems.

Commentary by Sylvia Rowley is available via BBC News, 12.24.07.