Three cheers for General Mills.
At the company’s 2008 Report to the Community event this week, Ken Powell, General Mills chair and CEO, reassurred a crowd of nonprofit representatives that the firm will maintain corporate giving levels in 2009, despite the bleak economic outlook.
Powell and Ellen Goldberg Luger, executive director of the General Mills Foundation, reported nearly $87 million in fiscal 2008 contributions. This keeps General Mills in the Minnesota Keystone Program, which recognizes and honors companies that donate at least 2% of their pre-tax earnings to the community.
It also means that General Mills stays near the top of MCF’s rankings of top grantmakers in the state. MCF’s newest list of rankings, based on data from 2007, was published on Wednesday.
The company focuses giving in five areas: international, hunger, youth nutrition and fitness, education, and volunteerism. This last area received lots of play at the event. Although nearly 80 percent of General Mills employees volunteer already, the foundation leaders promised they will focus even more in 2009 on finding volunteers to help nonprofits with critical strategy and planning issues during these tough times.
Join the conversation: Even as assets drop, is your foundation discovering new ways to help nonprofits weather the economic storm? How is your nonprofit adjusting to possible shifts in the funding landscape?
- Wendy Wehr, MCF V.P. of Communications and Information Services
Now everyone is talking about the American economy and eclections, nice to read something different. Eugene