In South Carolina Walmart provides $30 million to charitable organizations during last fiscal year

Walmart Donates $1.42 Billion in FY16 to Advance Commitments to Economic Opportunity, Sustainability and Local Communities

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation announced that over the last fiscal year they gave more than $1.42 billion in cash and in-kind contributions to support extensive social and environmental work. The contributions have furthered Walmart’s “whole systems” approach to continue advancing its commitments to creating economic opportunity for associates and others in the retail and related sectors, enhancing the sustainability of Walmart’s operations and product supply chain, and strengthening communities in places where Walmart operates. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation donated more than $30 million to support organizations and programs in South Carolina, supporting nonprofits like Meals on Wheels of Greenville, York County Free Clinic, Senior Resources, Inc., One80 Place, Harvest Hope Food Bank, Upstate Family Resource Center, Chesterfield County First Steps and more.

“The Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program is another way we extend our mission to help people live better in South Carolina,” said Brooke Mueller, Director of Public Affairs for Walmart. “By supporting local organizations and important initiatives across the state, we can continue to build strong communities and help in the critical areas of hunger relief, sustainability, women’s economic empowerment and more.”

In October 2014, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation announced a commitment to help feed a growing planet by enhancing the sustainability of the food system. The commitment will further Walmart’s goals of fighting hunger in the U.S. by improving access to food and includes a goal to provide four billion meals to those in need between 2015 and 2020. As part of that commitment, this year Walmart and the Walmart Foundation donated 611 million pounds of food and $61 million in funding to organizations working to alleviate hunger.

In South Carolina, Walmart donated 16,058,239 pounds of food to local food banks—nearly 13.4 million meals in the last fiscal year.

“We are extremely grateful for the Walmart Foundation’s consistent generosity towards our program,” said Lorain Crowl, Director of Development at Meals on Wheels of Greenville. “Since 1990, the Foundation’s financial support has provided more than 62,500 hot meals for the homebound in our community.”

Major accomplishments in the last fiscal year include:

• Accelerating job mobility: Walmart invested $2.7 billion over two years in wages, benefits and training for U.S. associates. Additionally, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $100 million over five years to increase economic mobility among U.S. retail and related-sector workers. In FY16, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave grants totaling $39 million in support of the Retail Opportunity Initiative, which aims to increase upward mobility of retail and adjacent sector workers in the U.S.
• Sourcing from and training women: Walmart and the Walmart Foundation provided $122 million in grants to support women’s economic empowerment and provided training for more than one million women farmers, factory workers and others. Since 2011, Walmart has sourced more than $16.4 billion from women-owned businesses, making significant progress toward its goal of sourcing $20 billion from women-owned businesses through 2016.
• Accelerating reintegration of veterans into civilian life: Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $20 million through 2019 to support reintegration of U.S. veterans into civilian life. Through FY16, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have invested $14.5 million, including a $1 million grant to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) to start a three-year pilot to identify new ways to serve veterans.
• Reducing Impact of Walmart Operations: As part of its participation in the Consumer Goods Forum and effort to achieve zero net deforestation, based on data reported by suppliers, Walmart achieved its goal to sustainably source 100 percent of its private brand palm oil by the end of 2015, in accordance with the certification standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. At the end of 2015, Walmart U.S. diverted from landfills 82 percent of materials previously considered waste and has protected more than one million acres of wildlife habitat through support to Acres for America.
• Increasing sustainability of products and product supply chains: Through ongoing work with the Environmental Defense Fund, and based upon reports from participating suppliers, Walmart successfully met and exceeded its ambitious goal of eliminating 20 million metric tons (MMT) of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by eliminating a reported 35.6 MMT since the goal was set.
• Strengthening disaster response and community preparedness: This year, to mark the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation made a $25 million commitment over five years to improve community disaster response. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation also provided $5.8 million in response contributions and helped 87 communities after disasters.
• Furthering causes important to local communities: In FY2016, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave $95 million through community, state giving and volunteerism grants. In addition, Walmart associates volunteered more than 1.25 million hours in their local communities and the Walmart Foundation awarded more than 800 scholarships to associates and their dependents to support higher education.

For more information about the Walmart Foundation’s giving, visit foundation.walmart.com.

About Philanthropy at Walmart

By using our strengths to help others, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation create opportunities for people to live better every day. We have stores in 28 countries, employing more than 2.3 million associates and doing business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. We are helping people live better by accelerating upward job mobility and economic development for the retail workforce; addressing hunger and making healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality; and building strong communities where we operate and inspiring our associates to give back. Whether it is helping to lead the fight against hunger in the United States with $2 billion in cash and in-kind donations or supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment through a series of grants totaling $10 million to the Women in Factories training program in Bangladesh, China, India and Central America, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are not only working to tackle key social issues, we are also collaborating with others to inspire solutions for long-lasting systemic change. To learn more about Walmart’s giving, visit foundation.walmart.com.