![]() On June 5, 2020, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion released a statement pledging to increase employee racial diversity in Walmart and the Walmart Foundation, and especially to increase its number of black employees (despite 21.5% of the company’s workforce being black). 18 19 This strategy has helped the Walmart corporation build closer ties to local communities for the sake of goodwill and customer satisfaction. In the late 2000s, the Foundation gave about 150,000 grants of no more than $1,000 each year, with some grants as low as $100. 17Īs a result of this decentralized structure, the Walmart Foundation gives far more small-scale grants than large grants, and gives more money to local churches and sectarian organizations than other comparably sized corporate foundations. Managers rely upon suppliers, employees, and customers to make local connections and find suitable recipients. Though all grants require approval from the Foundation’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas (seat of Walmart headquarters), each store manager has “de facto authority” to give out up to $25,000 per year within the region of the store, as long as the recipients are connected to the expected customer base. The Walmart Foundation disburses 90% of its grants 15 through thousands of its stores 16 across 13 countries: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, the United Kingdom, South Africa, India, China, and Japan. From 1999 to 2005, the Foundation almost tripled its annual expenditure. ![]() 13 After Sam Walton’s death in 1992, Walmart dramatically increased its charitable donations at the behest of Walton’s family. In the late 1980s, Walmart donated around 0.5% of its pre-tax earnings to charity, between one-third and one-eighth the rate of its closest competitors. Nevertheless, in 1979, Walton founded the Wal-Mart Foundation as the charitable arm of Walmart. He was also concerned about draining value from shareholders and customers through charitable giving. In his 1993 posthumously published autobiography, Walton explicitly stated, “We feel very strongly that Wal-Mart really is not, and should not be, in the charity business.” Walton believed that Walmart’s positive contribution to society was based on raising living standards for Americans (especially with lower incomes) by running an efficient company that provided essential products at low prices. Though altruistically minded, Walton resisted directing Walmart toward philanthropic activity. From the 1970s through the 1990s, Wal-Mart expanded into a regional and then national retail powerhouse with a business model of aggressively cutting prices through bulk orders from suppliers. The following year, the company reformed as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. In 1969, after launching dozens of branches, Walton incorporated the store as Wal-Mart Inc. In 1962, Sam Walton opened Walmart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas. In March 2020, the Foundation pledged $25 million to support front-line organizations working against the COVID-19 pandemic. 8 However, in response to increased manufacturing competition from China and other foreign exporters, in 2014, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation spent $10 billion to support U.S.-based manufacturing, and pledged to spend another $250 billion over the following decade. Though the Foundation initially prohibited donations to non-American organizations, 7 it has taken on more of an international focus over time, with grantees in 13 countries. 6 The Foundation’s biggest grants, which reach into the millions of dollars, often go to organizations focused on environmentalism, advocacy for minority groups, and other left-of-center causes. Due to the organization’s decentralized structure, in which store managers are given great autonomy to choose grantees, the Foundation gives money to a wide variety of groups including many churches and small-scale local charities, with an average grant size of only $1,000 in the early 2000s. The Foundation donates to organizations across three focuses: creating opportunities for low-income and minority individuals, environmentalism, and economically supporting local communities. 3 According to the Foundation Center, in 2003, the Walmart Foundation was the 51 st-largest foundation in America based on total assets, and the second-largest based on total disbursements 4 as of 2019 Forbes did not list it among the 100 largest charities. ![]() The Foundation disbursed over $120 million 1 in 2018, 90% 2 of which was distributed by thousands of Walmart stores across the world. While the Walton Family Foundation is run directly and funded by members of the family of Walmart founder Sam Walton, the Walmart Foundation is controlled and funded by the corporation. The Walmart Foundation is the charitable arm of Walmart. ![]()
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