8. Giving Back >
8.1 Ben & Jerry’s Foundation >
8.1.2 The U Fund
The U Fund
The trustees of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation oversee and administer a one-time, $5 million gift that resulted from Unilever’s acquisition of Ben & Jerry’s in 2000. These funds are granted proactively to nonprofit organizations that support citizen education and activism around globalization issues and social justice.
In 2006 the Trustees distributed $100,000 in U Fund grants to five organizations.
- $25,000 to Unembedded, a traveling photo exhibit bringing together 60 photographs by four independent photographers. Together they present rare windows on the war in Iraq from the invasion in March 2003 to early 2005. Working outside the confines of the U.S. military’s official journalist embedding program, these photographers document issues and events often underreported by mainstream media.
- $25,000 to the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, an organization that launched Wal-Mart Watch to focus on the business practices of the world’s largest retailer and other big-box retail stores.
- $10,000 to Africa Action, a group working to change U.S. foreign policy and the policies of international institutions in order to support African struggles for human rights, peace and development. Ben & Jerry’s Foundation funds were used specifically to shape public discourse on Darfur and to expose the U.S. failure to act to prevent genocide.
- $20,000 to Rainforest Action Network’s Global Finance Campaign. Rainforest Action Network, together with allies and activists around the world, works to redirect the global economic system away from environmentally and socially destructive activities and into clean, sustainable, and socially just alternatives. After years of grassroots activism and campaigning by countless RAN volunteers, America’s three largest banks, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, have all adopted policies that safeguard old growth and endangered forests, curb investments in projects that contribute to climate change, and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.
- $20,000 to Corporate Accountability International, a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns that challenge irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For nearly 30 years, Corporate Accountability International and their members have scored major victories that protect people’s lives by forcing corporations like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria to stop abusive practices. Support was given for their Water Industry Campaign.