Kimberly Clark Making An Impact in Global Community

Whether we are helping a mother care for her baby, teaching families to fight the flu, or reaching out to natural disaster victims, Kimberly-Clark believes in caring for people and connecting with communities. To do that we've partnered with many of the world's most respected non-profit organizations.

At Kimberly-Clark, caring is not just our business. It is also our passion.
In our professional endeavors, Kimberly-Clark creates essential products that improve the lives of families the world over. We strive to foster a workplace environment that is safe, productive and rewarding. Our company is committed to business policies that are ethical, socially-aware and environmentally sound.


These core values also guide our decades-long tradition of charitable giving.


Whether we are helping a mother care for her newborn baby, teaching families to fight colds and the flu, or reaching out to the victims of natural disasters, Kimberly-Clark believes in caring for people and connecting with communities.

The Kimberly-Clark Foundation, together with funding from the company and our employees, responds to causes and programs with financial contributions, product donations and volunteer time. In 2009, Kimberly-Clark and our employees contributed $22.7 million in cash and product donations for charitable causes worldwide.

Making an impact through successful organizations

As part of those efforts, Kimberly-Clark has formed partnerships with many of the world's most respected non-profit organizations.

Improving the health and well-being of families

Through United Way, a worldwide network of nearly 1,800 local organizations, including 1,300 United Ways in the U.S., Kimberly-Clark makes an impact by helping this organization improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities to advance the common good in the areas of education, financial stability and health. For decades, Kimberly-Clark and our employees have donated time and money to United Way organizations across the U.S. and is usually one of the largest contributors to local United Ways in almost every Kimberly-Clark community. Kimberly-Clark also is one of about 120 companies that make up the United Way's National Corporate Leadership program - companies that lead the country in their generosity and commitment to engaging their employees and communities to support United Way.

Kimberly-Clark and the United Way share a basic value: we are both committed to improving the health and well-being of families. Each year our employees support their local communities by mounting major United Way campaigns and contributing and volunteering to United Way organizations nationwide. We match employee pledges dollar for dollar. The United Way is the only organization we conduct an employee campaign for in the workplace, and it is an important component of our corporate culture. In 2009, with employee contributions and Kimberly-Clark's matching dollars, we contributed more than $5.4 million to local United Ways around the U.S. In the last decade, Kimberly-Clark and our employees have contributed more than $60 million to the important causes they support through United Way.

Helping young people reach their full potential

After 25 years of active involvement with Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), an organization dedicated to enabling young people to reach their full potential as productive and caring citizens, Kimberly-Clark makes an impact on our communities by helping BGCA bring hope and opportunity to millions of young people. Most recently, Kimberly-Clark has been involved in a five-year commitment to BGCA's Family PLUS program (Parents Leading Uniting and Serving), to equip Clubs with effective strategies to empower families to participate fully in their children's lives. It also helps parents increase skills in areas such as social development, financial literacy and technology. Kimberly-Clark also has donated $7 million toward this program, and CEO Tom Falk serves on BGCA's board of directors. Family PLUS has helped tens of thousands of families connect with Clubs in the development of children and youth. Since the program was established with Kimberly-Clark's help, Clubs throughout the country have seen a significant increase in family support activities and parental involvement.

Improving child survival rates

Kimberly-Clark has been making an impact on improving child survival rates around the world through a decade-long partnership with U. S. Fund for UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). Our current partnership focuses on two programs in Brazil to help some of the country's poorest children have increased access to health care. Kimberly-Clark Brazil has supported these projects, participating on a field visit to learn more about UNICEF's work in Brazil and contributing their expertise to the planning and execution of the Urban Platform Project, which UNICEF hopes to replicate in other countries.

Kimberly-Clark has contributed more than $1.6 million to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF over the past three years for these two initiatives. As a result of our support last year, more than 1 million young people and their families were reached, empowering them to be part of lasting change in their communities, which will improve the health and provide a better future for generations of children to come. Almost 50,000 vulnerable children and their families in indigenous and quilombolas communities received improved access to vital healthcare services, increasing their chances of living healthy, productive lives.

Throughout its partnership with UNICEF, Kimberly-Clark also has challenged the public to contribute to UNICEF's programs to save and improve the lives of children, through a series of challenge grant campaigns that have leveraged more than $11 million.
Getting medical supplies to equipment to needy medical facilities
In partnership with MedShare, an Atlanta, Georgia-based international nonprofit organization, Kimberly-Clark is making an impact on improving health care in developing countries by sponsoring shipments of surplus U.S. medical supplies and equipment to needy medical facilities around the world. During the 11 years of our partnership, Kimberly-Clark has helped deliver 64 shipments of medical supplies and equipment valued at more than $7 million to more than 25 different hospitals in 11 Latin American countries. We have committed an additional 18 shipments over the next two years. In addition, almost 100 Kimberly-Clark employees and retirees volunteer their time to MedShare.

Helping communities be prepared to respond to disasters
One of the many times Kimberly-Clark steps in to provide aid to our communities is in the time of a disaster. Rarely do people need financial and moral support and basic supplies more than when a natural or manmade disaster strikes, and when they need the help, they need it right away. Believing that the best way to help relief organizations help others is to ensure that emergency staff and volunteers are equipped and well-prepared in advance of a crisis, Kimberly-Clark is making an impact on communities before disaster strikes by being a part of the American Red Cross' Annual Disaster Giving Program to support local, national and international disaster preparedness and response programs.

Kimberly-Clark's 2009 support helped the American Red Cross respond to more than 70,000 disasters across the U.S. and throughout the world. The largest included the tsunami in American Samoa, the Georgia flooding and the Italian earthquake.

Making an impact through our employees

Kimberly-Clark employees contribute generously to a wide range of causes and missions. Kimberly-Clark matches those contributions of time and money so that we're supporting organizations that our employees believe benefit their communities the most.
By matching contributions to qualified educational and charitable organizations through our company Matching Gifts program, employees are able to double the impact of their charitable donations.

Kimberly-Clark matches employee contributions to all types of nonprofit organizations (health and human services, arts and culture, higher education and K-12 education), dollar for dollar. This past year, the company matched $1.2 million in employee contributions.
Last year, Kimberly-Clark employees recorded more than 94,000 hours of volunteer time with their favorite nonprofit organizations. The Kimberly-Clark Community Partners program recognizes these volunteer efforts of Kimberly-Clark employees and their spouses by making $500 grants to the charitable organizations to which they volunteer at least 30 hours per year or more. In 2009, Kimberly-Clark allocated approximately $927,000 in grants to these charities.

Each year, up to 100 children of U.S. and Canadian Kimberly-Clark employees may be awarded a four-year, $20,000 Bright Futures Scholarship, enabling many to access higher education previously unavailable to them or to get a better education than they could have otherwise afforded. In 2009, 78 students received scholarships totaling $1.56 million. Since its inception, the program has distributed approximately $30 million in scholarships to more than 1,500 students.