8. Giving Back >
8.1 Ben & Jerry’s Foundation >
8.1.1 Employee-directed Grant-making
Employee-Directed Grants
Ben & Jerry’s employees are extensively involved in the grant-making activities of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation because the Foundation’s monies derive from the hard work of the Company’s staff. The Foundation administers three programs that award grants under the direction of Ben & Jerry’s employees.
National Grant-making Program
A nine-member Employee Grant-making Committee representing each of the three Ben & Jerry’s sites in Vermont makes grants to national and Vermont-based nonprofit organizations to support progressive social change and environmental work. Members volunteer to join the committee and are selected by Foundation staff. They are expected to serve three-year terms. Grants are made ten times a year and range from $500 to $15,000.
In 2005 the Employee Grant-making Committee distributed $877,650 in grants. These included:
- $10,000 to Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Tri-Valley CARES) for their efforts to halt the development of new nuclear weapons at the DOE’s Livermore Lab and across the US;
- $12,500 to the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone for their campaign for housing justice;
- $13,000 to the Farm Worker Pesticide Project for their work to reduce and eliminate farm workers’ and their families’ exposures to pesticides.
A complete list of national grants can be found on the Foundation website.
Community Action Teams
Each of the Company’s Vermont sites (Waterbury, St. Albans, South Burlington) also has an employee Community Action Team or CAT. These teams review and decide on small grant requests, generally $100 to $1,000, to support the work of local, Vermont-based, nonprofit organizations.
In 2005 the three Community Action Teams distributed $156,025 in grants to organizations such as:
- The Missisquoi River Basin Association
- Camp Exclamation Point, Inc.
- The Vermont Youth Conservation Corps
- Animal Rescue of the Kingdom.
Employee Matching Gift Program
In order to encourage and support employees’ personal generosity, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation initiated an Employee Matching Gift Program in 1998. When employees make donations to nonprofits of their own choice, the Foundation matches dollar-for-dollar up to $2,000 per employee annually.
In 2005, 16% of staff participated and the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation matched $40,225 in employee donations.
