WALMART FOUNDATION

Contact information:
702 S.W. 8th Street, Dept. 8687, #0555
Bentonville, AR 72716-0555
Phone: 800-530-9925

Website: http://walmartstores.com/CommunityGiving/203.aspx

Type of foundation: Corporate

Types of grants: Project, capacity-building, matching funds

Description: The Walmart Foundation’s various grant programs support initiatives focused on enhancing opportunities in education, workforce development/economic opportunity, health and environmental sustainability in an effort to create opportunities so people can live better. The foundation has a particular interest in supporting veterans and military families, traditionally underserved groups, the disability community and people impacted by natural disasters.

In September 2011, Walmart announced the launch of the Global Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative, a five-year initiative to use the company's size and scale to empower women across its supply chain. The initiative aims to provide training and career opportunities to the 60,000 women working in factories and farms that supply Walmart; expand access to the company's international training programs and provide job education and training to more than 200,000 women in the United States; increase gender diversity among major suppliers; and award $100 million in grants from the Walmart Foundation to support women's economic empowerment. This investment will make women’s economic empowerment one of the Walmart Foundation’s largest giving areas.

The foundation’s giving priorities are:

• Education: Addresses the educational needs of underserved young people ages 12 - 25. Examples include programs that re-engage students who have dropped out of high school, improve retention rates of first-generation college students, support teachers and promote adolescent literacy.
• Workforce Development/Economic Opportunity: Provides job readiness and skills training as well as support services for workers with low to moderate skills. Examples include job placement and retention efforts, adult education, occupational training, training for English language learners (ELL), and wraparound services including career counseling, life skills, etc. A secondary interest is asset development programs that help close the gap between earnings and basic expenses. Examples include increasing access to earned income tax credit benefits, child care subsidies and other state/federal benefits.
• Health and Wellness: Improves access to health care, reduces health care disparities and promotes nutrition. Examples include cooking and meal planning classes for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) recipients, healthy snacks for kids in summer programs and support for doctors planning community health programs for underserved children. Hunger relief is also a major focus of the foundation.
• Environmental Sustainability: Seeks to promote production systems that sustain people and the environment by reducing waste, promoting energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources. Examples include waste reduction programs, retrofitting of social service infrastructure and sustainable agriculture initiatives.

The Walmart Foundation also has an interest in disaster preparedness and relief. Walmart uses its company infrastructure/fleet to deliver disaster relief. It also gave $5 million to the American Red Cross to promote disaster preparedness in communities nationwide.

The foundation makes grants through two primary programs:

• The National Giving Program supports nonprofit organizations that implement programs in multiple sites across the country or have innovative initiatives that are ready for replication nationally.
• The State Giving Program supports organizations that serve a particular state or region. State Advisory Councils, made up of local Walmart associates, represent each state, including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The State Advisory Councils determine the needs within each state, review all eligible grant applications and make funding recommendations.

Sample grants:

• $1.97 million in total grants to Sesame Workshop to develop bilingual outreach kits for young children of the U.S. Armed Services, National Guard and Reserves. Recent funding supports an initiative to provide a comprehensive set of multimedia resources that will be made available to children coping with the death of a parent (2006-08).
• $1,200,000 to WGBH to broaden its free online curriculum for teachers across the U.S. With resources for lesson planning, the new curriculum will assist teachers whose students have difficulty reading and writing (2010).
• $1,200,000 to City Year to establish a literacy training academy for 2,000 Americorp volunteers. The volunteers will tutor more than 45,000 urban public school students in the fifth through eighth grades during the upcoming academic year (2010).
• $1,200,000 to National Council of La Raza to invest in job training programs that will prepare Latino workers for quality, upwardly mobile careers in the retail and green jobs sectors (2010).

Fit for public broadcasting: While the Walmart Foundation has not made a large number of grants to media, it has made some significant grants to public media for initiatives that intersect with its core program priorities. Serving disadvantaged/underserved populations is a priority. Dropout prevention, women and girls, and literacy – all topics that intersect with new or ongoing public media initiatives – are priorities for the foundation.

Eligibility: To be eligible for a National grant, an applicant must be a 501(c)(3) organization and must operate on a national scope through the existence of chapters or affiliates in a large number of states around the country; or possess a regional/local focus, but seek funding to replicate program activities nationally. To be eligible for a State grant, applicants must have 501(c)(3) status. Funds awarded in a particular state must be fully allocated within that state (except for grants awarded to organizations located in the District of Columbia, which must be allocated within the Greater D.C. metro area).

Deadline: Letters of inquiry for the National Giving Program may be submitted at any time. The State Giving Program has two funding cycles: one in the spring and one in the fall.

How to apply: Initial approach to the National Giving Program should be by letter of inquiry. For information on submitting a letter of inquiry for a National grant, click here. State grant applications should be submitted online.

Giving range: The minimum grant size for the National Giving Program is $250,000. The minimum amount for the State Giving Program is $25,000. There are no maximum amounts.

Assets: $36,101,036 (year ending 1/31/10)

Total giving: $204,970,646