By D. Douglas Graham
Charity begins at home, but it doesn't
stop there. Here's a look at how four
St. Louis-based corporations are doing
their part to help make Planet Earth
a better place on which to live.
HOK of St. Louis is an architectural design and engineering firm with an international presence and orientation. The company is committed, not only to doing business throughout the world, but to enhancing it as well, even in the remote southeast Kenyan mountain village of Mbirikani.
Located at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mbirikani is populated by Maasai tribesmen who live in a communal society in which family ties run deep and land and resources are shared by all. In 2005, to mark its half-century of global architectural practice, HOK donated $500,000 to the public charity Africa Infectious Disease Village Clinics Inc., to fund construction upgrades, staffing and outfitting for a Mbirikani-based, diagnosis and treatment center.
"Housed at the 24-building, Mbirikani Clinic Complex, the facility is solar-powered, and state of the art," explains HOK Director of Training and Organizational Development, Marsha Littell. "Mbirikani is located in a region of Africa plagued by TB, HIV/AIDS and a number of other highly infectious diseases. Africa as a whole is a continent in crisis. We at HOK are proud to offer what help we can, as enriching the world is one of our core values."
HOK's philanthropic reach is worldwide. The company recently expanded and renovated a kindergarten in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico, and in Mainland China there are HOK projects underway to renovate an orphanage in Beijing, a playground in Shanghai, and an entire island off the coast of Hong Kong. HOK is also hard at work on a Habitat for Humanity project on the island nation of Singapore. In 2008, each of the firm's 26 offices will be completing a significant service project in its local community.
Here & There
Corporate philanthropy in St. Louis often centers on St. Louis Pharmaceutical maker, Pfizer Inc., which, matches dollar for dollar its employees' contributions to United Way. The company also works directly to promote wellness overseas. Through "Global Health Fellows," for example, Pfizer employees work with non-government agencies to provide nations abroad with expertise on global health issues. Pfizer is supportive of scientific education and supports several local efforts to increase science awareness. Also, the company provides not only scholarship funding, but summer internships for local college students and teachers as well.
"We have charitable programs extending well beyond St. Louis," adds Pfizer Public Affairs Associate Director Edward Bryant. "For example, our oldest access program—Connection to Care—offers Pfizer medicines to patients through their doctor's offices. Through another program—Pfizer Sharing the Care—we offer free Pfizer medicines through federally qualified community health centers with medicines free of charge. Both of these, as well as several other Pfizer access programs, are all part of the Pfizer Helpful Answers Program, which provides information about how patients in need can obtain such medications. Pfizer is committed to the advancement of science, and improving the state of healthcare over all. All of our philanthropic programs, be they global or local, have been created with these two goals in mind."
Giving back
Enterprise Rent-A-Car also focuses much of its charitable effort on St. Louis, and the thousands of communities elsewhere in the world where the company does business. This is accomplished via the auspices of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation, a philanthropic entity charged with "giving back" to those communities by underwriting charitable initiatives in four key areas.
First, the Foundation matches employee United Way contributions by 50 percent. It also extends financial support to worthwhile charitable causes embraced by its employees and customers. Next, the Foundation provides grant money to nonprofit groups and causes it deems strategically or socially significant to Enterprise and its employees. Recently, for example, the company funneled $30 million into schools and scholarships that support minority and poor students. The Foundation is also vested in the concept of good corporate citizenship. It donated more than a $1 million to 9-11 victim aid, $250,000 to Red Cross Southeast hurricane relief, and another $250,000 to the same organization for its efforts in the Tsunami-besieged, Indian Ocean.
"Enterprise is also vested in saving the planet," adds Foundation President, Jo Ann Taylor. "Not long ago, for example, the Taylor family provided the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center with a grant of $25 million for the purpose of exploring fuel alternatives. The grant became the foundation of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels. We also partnered with the National Arbor Day Foundation as well, to underwrite the planting of 50 million trees in the U.S., Canada and Europe over the next fifty years."
Monsanto Company's charitable programs are also skewed to the needs of the communities in which the company operates, and its people live. And it was to this end that the firm's philanthropic arm—The Monsanto Fund—was launched in 1964. (Monsanto took The Fund global in 2000).
According to Fund President, Deborah Patterson, The organization operates by partnering with local Monsanto employees and community leaders to ensure that support focuses on the key areas of education, healthy environment, improving nutritional well being through agriculture and addressing human needs beyond U.S. borders (domestically addressed via the company's support of the United Way).
"We think of the people that live in the communities where we do business as neighbors, and all of our charitable programs are created to meet their needs," Patterson explains. "Many of our programs in the States touch on our core goal of supporting education. Although education is important to us, so is the environment. We provided some of the earliest financial support for the Phinizy Swamp Nature Park, an 1,100-acre nature reserve adjacent to Monsanto's manufacturing plant in Augusta, Ga. The park gives city dwellers a never-before-had opportunity to learn a valuable lesson about the importance of ecological balance. Other Fund initiatives are more complex and often are a combination of education, environment and nutrition. The Healthy Children, Healthy Future program in Brazil, for example, raises the health and hygiene consciousness of children and adolescents. It teaches them, their families, and teachers how to grow food; educates on how integral the environment is to food production; and integrates the food raised at school into the lunch program. This holistic approach is focused on making sure that the children donÕt fall prey to disorders that delay development. The point of Fund programs is to enrich the lives of the communities with whom we partner worldwide. ItÕs all about being a good neighbor."
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