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Contributing to Community—Programs & Actions
The following are major community programs and grants for both Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation in 2008.
Economic Downturn Support
In recent months, the volatile economic climate has significantly changed our business and considerably impacted those around us. Our communities are facing greater hardship and future uncertainty.
Despite the shifting landscape, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation are steadfast in our commitment to communities in which Alcoa has a presence. The Foundation continues to work alongside Alcoa businesses and community partners to assess the local impact of the global downturn and ensure our resources are being targeted to areas of priority need.
From supporting the provision of basic necessities, to building capacity for future resilience, to deepening and leveraging existing partnerships, we are supporting the communities as they adapt to the changing world around them and address a wide range of emerging social challenges.
Iceland
Following the economic crisis in Iceland, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation responded quickly, working with the local community to make a timely contribution to help sustain NGOs providing services in a time of immense need.
- A package of US$150,000 in grants to partners Icelandic Church Aid, the East Iceland Vocational Rehabilitation Service, and an immigrant integration initiative in North Iceland is assisting with the provision of food, social services, training, and job-finding services to those impacted by the economic collapse.
United States
Across the United States, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation programs focused on revitalizing communities, adapting skills for a changing workforce, improving access to and quality of health care, and strengthening vital community service organizations.
- Communities with Alcoa operations across America that are in significant manufacturing centers are adapting to the challenges of economic change and competitiveness. Two Alcoa Foundation partners, Smithsonian-Cooper-Hewitt and Trident Technical College, are addressing revitalization issues through two-year grants. In Charleston, South Carolina, Trident Technical College established an Apprenticeship Training Program to train close to 40 production technologists, a skill set in demand in five local industrial companies. Cooper-Hewitt’s award-winning City of Neighborhoods Program, a design education and advocacy program, teaches elementary school students to work with educators and civic leaders to design plans for community infrastructure and public space improvement. The program is underway in schools in four communities across the East Coast.
- The Community Health Clinic in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, is extending family health care services for low-income and uninsured families using a two-year, US$102,000 Alcoa Foundation grant. Since the grant was provided, patient visits have increased 47%, and the clinic’s prevention programs have resulted in early disease detection and treatment.
- The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh received US$200,000 for a two-year clinical program to research the effect of clean technology in treatments combating autism in children. Goals include creating environmental cleansing therapies to effectively improve patients’ immunity and psychological status.
Latin and South America
In Latin and South America, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation are supporting a number of activities designed to improve public health, contributing to better sanitation and primary health services in local communities.
- Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation programs are focusing on the pressing issues of access to safe housing and disease control in Mexico through two partnerships. The Cooperative Housing Foundation is helping provide safe and affordable housing for 290 low-income families in the cities of Acuña, Juárez, and Piedras Negras. Families receive small loans to purchase safe building materials and access potable water and sanitary waste disposal services. Doctors of the World, USA (DOW) is reducing the incidence of tuberculosis in Mexico by disseminating tuberculosis control tools and lessons learned in Chiapas and other Mexican states.
- In Suriname, Medical Mission Primary Health Care is integrating screening, testing, and early treatment services directed at cervical cancer prevention and primary care services for women with the support of a three-year grant of US$108,000. This program is being taken into health centers across Suriname’s interior region with a target of reaching 80% of women aged 25 to 55.
Guinea
In Guinea, malnutrition and mortality rates have worsened in recent years, due in large part to the country’s difficult economic situation.
- Alcoa Foundation partners with School for School International to provide a health education program in 27 schools. More than 160 teachers and approximately 8,000 students are learning important basic health and hygiene messages on such topics as nutrition and malaria prevention.
Europe
In Romania, the Saint Francis Foundation is creating an orphanage and life skills and other educational programs for 22 children from broken families using a US$100,000 Alcoa Foundation grant. The grant seeks the long-term impact of assisting 70 to 80% of the children to complete a college-level education.
Australia
The Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation portfolio of community programs in Australia strengthens community service organizations, the major source of local programs and services. Grants also address childhood safety, the number one health-related concern for youth.
- An Australia-wide partnership with Our Community is building the capacity of Alcoa community partners through innovative and practical training, resources, and recognition. Through Alcoa Foundation contributions of close to US$295,000 since 2005, the program is improving governance in the community sector and empowering community workers to become change agents within their organizations. This has, in turn, accelerated the impact of their important and diverse work in delivering sustainable benefits to Australian communities.
- Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation have a long-term partnership with the K.I.D.S. Foundation to promote school safety and reduce childhood injuries, the leading cause of death in Australian children aged one to 14. Through Alcoa Foundation funding of US$873,000 since 2005, K.I.D.S. Foundation’s awareness-raising programs now operate in 16 preschools and 40 primary schools across Australia, involving 9,356 students from communities in which Alcoa has a presence in the KIDS Foundation Safety Club program. The 2008 KIDS Foundation Injury-Free Day was launched by Julia Gillard, Australia’s deputy prime minister, and involved 126,000 students from 420 schools (a 50% increase from 2007). Australian Alcoa sites hosted students, raised funds for the K.I.D.S. Foundation, and used the Injury-Free Day as an added impetus to work safely.
Greater Involvement by Alcoa Employees at a Time of Need
In October, as the financial crisis began to unfold, a record number of Alcoa employees participated in giving back to their communities as part of the company’s annual month-long volunteer campaign, the Alcoa Worldwide Month of Service.
Across 26 countries, 21,975 Alcoa employees partnered with 1,670 NGOs in 699 events that positively impacted more than 50,000 lives. Reflecting the challenging economic times, employees responded to the immediate needs of their communities by donating food and clothing, helping children and schools, providing assistance to the elderly, and repairing facilities for those in need. A total of 273 shelters, homes, and local community facilities were repaired, rebuilt, or supported; 160 events, including food and coat drives, directly assisted the disadvantaged; and more than 7,300 meals were served to those in need.
Education and Skills Development
Access to, and quality of, education is critical to the strength of communities and their future. Alcoa Foundation programs focus on improving access to quality education, building the capacity of educational institutions, strengthening science-based skills, and equipping communities to be innovative, resilient and transformative.
Examples of grants in this area include the following:
- U.S. studies show that New York City has one of the poorest graduation rates in the country, with less than half of students earning their diplomas on time. Alcoa Foundation partners Global Kids and City Year New York are helping improve the academic performance of urban students. With Alcoa Foundation support, Global Kids’ Power of Citizenry Leadership Program has expanded to 12 New York City high schools, and more than 90% of the program’s participants graduate each year. The three-year partnership with City Year’s youth service volunteers has improved the learning environment and school attendance rates at Bronx Public School 48, where more than half the students live below the poverty line. Alcoa Foundation staff members have added their volunteer time to support the activities of each of these partners.
- In Russia, the Alcoa Foundation Technical Education Support Program is in its fourth year with partners from Samara State Aerospace University, Don State Technical University, Moscow University of Steel and Alloys, and the Institute of International Education, the program administrator. To date, a grant of more than US$1 million has provided scholarships to 315 engineering students and stipends to 39 young faculty members for research and publications. Funds for instructional materials and equipment also enhanced the partner universities’ research capacities.
- American Friends of the New Economics School in Russia has established an economics professorship with a US$300,000 grant. Through the professorship, a new generation of economists will be trained for positions in academia, policymaking, and the private sector.
- In Canada, a US$100,000 grant is assisting the Portneuf community its efforts to revitalize and maintain a pool of skilled workers. Service Accès Travail Portneuf is using the grant to provide employment services, including mentoring and materials for job seekers and targeted business and vocational training. The project focuses on encouraging young people to take advantage of training opportunities to increase their employability.
- In east Iceland, Alcoa is supporting a unique pilot program at Nesskoli Neskaupstad Primary School designed for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The program, supported by a three-year, US$175,000 Alcoa Foundation grant, ensures that these students have the opportunity to learn life skills. The school plans to ultimately become a center for ADHD students across the region.
- Youth Development Resources in Brunei is using a two-year grant (US$200,000) to prepare young adults for employment and small business opportunities through educational activities. These include a leadership camp, workshops, mentoring sessions with professionals from the business community, motivational speakers, and Entrepreneurship Week, in which the students become real life entrepreneurs. The program aims to ensure that at least 75% of the participants are able to secure employment and establish their own businesses.
- In China, Temple University School of Law’s Judicial Education Project, managed in conjunction with the National Judicial College of the People’s Republic of China and assisted by a US$210,000 partnership with Alcoa Foundation, is promoting the development of the rule of law in China by educating Chinese judges in U.S. practices. These include due process, judicial ethics, and transparent judicial decisions based on the law.
- As part of an ongoing partnership with The Asia Society, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation supports programs that broaden understanding of the events that shape Asia’s dynamic political, economic, and social environment. International conferences, briefings, panel discussions, symposiums, publications, and study missions have brought together policymakers, corporate executives, civil society leaders, scholars, and the media to examine important trends in Asia.
Internal Programs
The Alcoa Foundation Sons and Daughters Scholarship Program and Educational Gift Matching Program were early initiatives put forth by Alcoa Foundation shortly after it began in 1952 and at a time when the majority of Alcoa’s employees were located in the United States. The programs endure today as a means of fulfilling Alcoa Foundation’s commitment to higher education in the United States, while other Foundation grants address the educational needs of our international locations.
The Alcoa Foundation Sons and Daughters Scholarship Program is a national competition administered by Recognition Program Services, a division of ACT. In 2008, the program awarded US$357,000 in college scholarships to 61 children of U.S. Alcoa employees.
The Educational Gift Matching Program allows U.S. employees to make donations to the college or university of their choice and have the gift matched by Alcoa Foundation. In 2008, the combined giving for both programs totaled US$1.1 million.
Climate Change and Sustainability
Alcoa is a world leader in sustainability and has taken a global leadership position on addressing climate change inside our operations, across our industry, and within the communities where we are located.
Through a range of global and local outreach programs, such as Ten Million Trees, our Earthwatch partnership, and Alcoa Foundation’s flagship Conservation & Sustainability Fellowship Program, Alcoa has been at the forefront of community projects that address critical sustainability issues for decades.
The global scope of climate change makes it one of the most significant sustainability challenges we face. While Alcoa continues to lead in defining industry’s role in addressing this issue, we also realize the most effective response to climate change is one that engages individuals, communities, industry, governments, and all stakeholders in a collaborative fashion.
To support and enhance this focus, Alcoa Foundation has funded a significant portfolio of climate change projects and entered into partnerships with a range of community organizations and NGOs to respond to this critical issue.
In the last three years (2006-2008), Alcoa Foundation has invested more than US$22 million in climate-change-related projects to inform public policy, build capacity, raise awareness, and mobilize action at the community level.
Conservation & Sustainability Fellowship Program
At the same time, Alcoa Foundation’s flagship US$9.2 million Conservation & Sustainability Fellowship Program has been working on a broader front toward unlocking answers to the most challenging sustainability issues facing the world today—climate change, energy use, water management, and accelerated growth and development.
The four research themes of work carried out by the fellows are climate change and energy; conservation of fragile ecosystems and biodiversity, sustainability, livelihoods, and economic growth; and integrating sustainability into public policy and governance.
The program is supporting the research activities of 30 academic fellows and 60 practitioner fellows working across 35 countries. Support and mentoring are being provided by six academic partners (Curtin University of Technology, Australia; London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom; Tsinghua University, China; University of Michigan, USA; University of São Paulo, Brazil) and three sustainability institutes (International Union for Conservation of Nature—IUCN, Switzerland; Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico; World Wildlife Fund—WWF, USA).
The fellows’ research, as well as the work of the partners, was showcased and shared at the second biannual Advancing Sustainability Conference held in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2008. In addition, the program’s Advancing Sustainability Network reaches more than 11,000 conservation and sustainability peers worldwide from NGOs, academia, the private sector, and governmental agencies.
Visit the program website for detailed information on the program, partners, individual fellows, breakthrough research, and the conference.
Contributing to Better Public Policy
In the policy arena, Alcoa Foundation is actively partnering with recognized climate change NGOs that are working to engage multi-sector stakeholders, inform policy development, build a broad constituency, and mainstream sustainable mitigation practices.
Specific partnerships include the following:
- A three-year, US$1,225,000 partnership with the World Resources Institute (WRI) is supporting research to inform and provide input to the U.S. and international policy communities as they develop a global regime to address climate change and advance sustainable development. The focus is on improved architecture for economically-efficient and equitable future global agreements; critical developing-country growth markets (e.g., in China, India, and Brazil), where rapid economic development provides opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; and responses for Alcoa communities where vulnerability to climate impacts require strategies to prepare for adaptation.
In China, this work is helping support WRI’s involvement with Tsinghua University’s Low Carbon Energy Laboratory to conduct joint research on technology transfer and on carbon capture and storage. It is also supporting WRI’s work with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to develop GHG protocol accounting tools for businesses to adopt and the government to monitor emissions.
- Under a three year, US$500,000 partnership with Resources for the Future (RFF), Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation are supporting the development of policy approaches and engaging stakeholders and policymakers on the domestic and international issues underpinning legislation focused on climate change and GHG emissions. Through this work, RFF is also developing concepts and capacity building for adoption of voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) to address climate-related issues in key developing countries.
- Rainforest Alliance’s Climate Change Program is using a two-year, US$300,000 grant to develop three pilot projects on carbon offsets and certification/auditing in Guatemala and Mexico. Rainforest Alliance is one of five NGOs that are members of the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Alliance and is a CCB auditor that ensures that land-based projects are generating climate, community, and biodiversity benefits. To date, Rainforest Alliance has completed 20 evaluations of projects worldwide and is planning similar evaluation in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. Rainforest Alliance also became a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) forestry verifier committee, and it is in the process being approved as a verifier for the Voluntary Carbon Standards (VCS).
The Maya Biosphere Reserve (Guatemala) and Plan Vivo (Mexico) are biologically diverse areas where Rainforest Alliance has implemented activities with communities to mitigate climate change while creating new and more sustainable sources of revenue. Agroforesty, reforestation and management of harvestable wood, and cultivation of cash crops (coffee and cocoa) using environmentally friendly techniques are some of the community-based initiatives that are leading to measureable decreases in carbon emissions.
Helping Communities Understand and Respond to Climate Change
Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation are also actively supporting the efforts of communities and organizations worldwide to understand and adapt to landscape and biodiversity change. Through a portfolio of local partnerships, community-based projects, and educational and awareness programs, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation are assisting communities in raising awareness, integrating environmentally responsible practices, processes, and behavior to drive practical, locally developed and managed approaches to climate change.
Examples include the following:
- The Peninsula Open Space Trust in California is helping 85 active nonprofit land trusts working in local communities across the state understand and adapt their practices in response to the impacts of climate change.
In the first year of the project, which is supported by a two-year, US$200,000 Alcoa Foundation grant, more than 150 representatives from over 70 California land trusts attended five workshops to learn more about climate change and different options for carbon sequestration through protection and adaptation activities. The Peninsula Open Space Trust also prepared a communication guide about climate change stewardship for land trusts to promote awareness within their communities. In addition, the trust created a memorandum for the California Climate Action Registry about forest protocols and climate change activities for its state-required working group to develop credible, accurate, and consistent GHG reporting standards.
- Through grants totaling US$300,000, Alcoa Foundation has supported initiatives of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment that bring together diverse representatives from the private, public, academic, and nonprofit sectors to create the Resilient Coasts Blueprint for action on coastal resilience and climate adaptation and for the Terrestrial Carbon Initiative. The blueprint targets change in public- and private-sector policies and practices on such issues as insurance regulation, land-use decision-making, building codes, and other efforts to improve coastal resilience. Further funding support for The Terrestrial Carbon Initiative will enable work with key stakeholders for technology transfer to set up national terrestrial carbon inventories and monitoring, provide input to laws and regulations concerning carbon credits, and provide input to the United Nations level on rules for early action.
- In Vietnam, Rainforest Alliance is using a two-year grant (US$150,000) to introduce its coffee certification program in the Central Highlands to improve production and economic sustainability while enhancing biodiversity and other natural resources.
- In a partnership since 2000, more than 100 educators from across the United States have attended environmental, scientific education, and public policy workshops at The Keystone Center Key Issues Institute through Alcoa Foundation support. This program provides the latest techniques in building sustainability into science curriculums and has enabled teachers to connect their conservation and sustainability lessons in the classroom with youth groups and community-based projects. Other teachers have secured small grants for hands-on projects.
- In Europe, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation support has enabled the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) to create the World Scout Environment Badge, approved at the 38th World Scout Conference in Korea in 2008. This program has enabled the development of environmental education programs designed for members of scout troops and the establishment of Scout Centers of Excellence in Environment and Nature. To date, the World Scout Environment Badge has been awarded to more than 500 Scouts from Algeria, Australia, Bolivia, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Palestinian Authority, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Further roll-out of this program in partnership with WOSM is planned for 2009 and beyond.
- In California (USA), Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation have been partnering with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy since 2006, providing US$965,000 to deliver the Research, Education and Community Involvement Program for the Environment (RECIPE). The program leverages the conservancy’s research capabilities, which are focused on the restoration of threatened native coastal habitat, with opportunities for elementary through high school students to participate in research activities and restoration activities. The existing partnership established the science research function and the Center of Excellence to coordinate the development of a scientific and management information base for the conservancy and projects to restore and sustain native habitat. The renewed partnership will also support the research projects of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students and community members.
- Since 2006, a US$516,000 partnership with Fund “Aid for Community Sustainable Development” (FSD) in Russia is supporting youth and local NGOs to develop environmental education and improvement projects as important mechanisms for the formation of civil society in Russia, and to involve young people in community life and conservation. Schools in the communities of Samara and Belaya Kalitva, which are home to Alcoa locations, have developed partnerships with local NGOs that are delivering environmental education and hands-on experience with community-based conservation projects designed with the community.
- In Brazil, Conservation International do Brasil (CI-Brazil) is using a five-year grant (US$505,000) to establish protected areas in the Tapajós-Madeira Nucleus, one of the most important sectors of the Southern Amazonia Biodiversity Corridor. Through this project, partnerships between local organizations and networks with local institutions have been created to share promising conservation practices throughout the protected areas. Lessons learned from this project will be used to expand the biodiversity corridor into other protected areas along the Tapajós-Madeira Nucleus.
Recycling
Recycling is a major sustainability issue around the globe and one with clear connection to our business. Alcoa Foundation has funded more than 30 projects totaling in excess of US$1.3 million in the last three years to assist community-based recycling programs in communities ranging from Indianapolis, Indiana, and Morristown, New Jersey, in the United States, to Arad, Romania, and Amorbieta, Spain, and across Quebec, Canada, and Victoria, Australia.
These projects are working to lift recycling rates by targeting major sporting venues and schools through innovative recycling facilities and education campaigns to raise awareness, set targets, and measure results.
Energy
Alcoa Foundation is supporting the development of community-based solutions to climate change through energy efficiency and the use of alternative and renewable energy sources.
Grants totaling US$415,000 are helping reduce reliance on traditional, carbon-intensive energy sources in communities across Mexico and Nepal. A grant to the Mexican Fund for Nature Conservation launched a solar oven production, distribution, and user training program across Mexico. Building on this program’s success in reducing reliance on fossil fuels in local communities, Alcoa Foundation partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to trial the implementation of this “hot-pot” solar oven technology across remote communities in Nepal. Both projects are resulting in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of biomass and firewood in vulnerable environments.
A portfolio of local grants are supporting community awareness around energy consumption and encouraging energy conservation. These include encouraging car pooling and alternative transportation through the Smart Trips Program in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; educating our next generation through alternative energy education programs in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland; and encouraging community energy conservation through the Save Energy Project in Qinhuangdao, China.
Individual Action
Growing concern around the environmental impacts of climate change and rising energy costs has prompted many of our employees and neighbors to question what they can do to take action. In response, Alcoa Foundation has provided more than US$1.9 million in the last three years to raise awareness and mobilize personal action on climate change in communities in which Alcoa is located.
Specific grants include the following:
- Under a three year (US$970,000) partnership with The Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation have launched Make an Impact, a community-focused project aimed at mobilizing individual action to address climate change in U.S. communities in which Alcoa has a presence. This project has created a leading-edge interactive website for families to calculate their carbon footprint and learn about and implement promising practices for GHG reduction.
In its first phase in 2009, the program will be launched at nine locations in the United States: Alcoa Intalco and Wenatchee, Washington; Pittsburgh Corporate and Alcoa Technical Center, Pennsylvania; Alcoa Global Center, New York; Warrick, Indiana; and Winsted, Connecticut. Over the next two years, the project will be implemented in other locations and communities across the United States and in additional countries where Alcoa has a significant presence.
By the end of 2008, there was a 15% take-up among Alcoa employees where the program has been implemented in the United States, as well as engagement by 10 local community organizations. Based on the personalized footprint reduction recommendations provided to participants to date, the program has the potential to reduce their combined household footprint by more than 362,800 kilograms (800,000 pounds) of GHG’s, translating to a collective saving in energy costs of more than US$160,000.
- The Australian Make an Impact program, originally developed in 2006 through an Alcoa Foundation partnership with leading Australian NGO Greening Australia, has more than 1,000 (around 15%) Australian employees actively involved in reducing their carbon footprint.
In 2008, the Australian program was enhanced by joining Breathe Easy—Greening Australia’s bio-diverse carbon offset initiative accredited by the Australian government. This initiative helps individuals both reduce their carbon emissions and offset emissions through bio-diverse tree planting. Through Breathe Easy, more than 250 hectares (617 acres) of trees have been planted in one of Australia’s biodiversity hotspots—Gondwana Link in the southwest corner of Western Australia. These trees will sequester approximately 50,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) over 20 years—the equivalent of the yearly carbon emissions of 3,571 average households.
Activities during Alcoa’s 2008 Worldwide Month of Service included 14 Carbon Crunch workshops, where more than 540 employees and community members learned to reduce their greenhouse footprint. During the month, Australian employees and community members planted more than 7,655 trees, with the potential to save over 3,827 tons of CO2.
Disaster Relief
Alcoa Foundation disaster relief grants are a visible sign of our connection to communities in their time of great, immediate, and long-term need. These grants help bridge the community recipient’s gap between stability and a catastrophic event.
There are three categories where the disaster grant process is activated within Alcoa Foundation:
- A disaster within an Alcoa location community.
- A disaster within a community, state, or nation with importance to Alcoa in one form or another.
- A disaster of a global magnitude where humanitarian support is an essential expression of corporate social responsibility.
Disaster relief efforts for 2008 included the following:
- US$50,000 for flooding in Santa Catarina, Brazil;
- US$10,000 for flooding in Torreon, Mexico;
- US$37,000 for the earthquake in Panzhihua, China;
- US$20,000 for Hurricane Gustav in Jamaica;
- US$45,000 in Ossetia;
- US$100,000 for Hurricane Ike in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA;
- US$10,000 for Hurricane Ike in Houston, Texas, USA.
- US$25,000 for flooding in Suriname;
- US$15,000 for tornadoes in Georgia, USA;
- US$30,000 for Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar;
- US$25,000 for flooding in Iowa, USA;
- US$150,000 for the earthquake in Sichuan Province, China;
- US$10,000 for the tornado in Strawberry, South Carolina, USA;
- US$250,000 for snow storms in Anhui Province, China;
- US$50,000 for the wind and rain storm in Suriname;
- US$20,000 for flooding in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA;
- US$25,000 for Hurricane Felix in Honduras; and
- US$50,000 for wildfires in Orange County, California, USA.
Exit Grants
As part of Alcoa’s and Alcoa Foundation’s commitment to the communities where the company operates, we work with communities to develop exit strategies to assist local organizations whenever we have businesses or locations that will or might be affected by a plant divestiture or closing. The purpose is to leave a grant commitment behind in the affected community. These strategies consider the timing of the action, multi-year grants already committed to not-for-profit organizations in the community, historical grantmaking levels, community needs and expectations, and other commitments that are in effect.
In 2008, Alcoa Foundation awarded 40 exit grants for a total of US$636,250. The majority of these grants were in communities affected by the sale of Alcoa’s packaging and consumer business. Some examples of 2008 exit grants are:
- US$35,000 to Municipal Corporation od Social Development in Colina in Colina, Santiago, Chile, for teacher training and instructional aids;
- US$35,000 to Fundación Leer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the Reading Is Fundamental program;
- US$30,000 to Venture Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, USA, to enhance the vitality of the community through downtown economic development marketing, promotion, advocacy, and events, including the Richmond Folk Festival;
- US$25,000 to the Troutdale Historical Society in Troutdale, Oregon, USA, for improvement of a historical Centennial Arch;
- US$25,000 to the Nevada Public Education Foundation in Carson City, Nevada, USA, for the career awareness and education program for high school students;
- US$25,000 to the Day Spring Foundation in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, for assistance with daily needs for residents with mental disabilities;
- US$15,000 to Casa Albergue Temporal Para Ninos, IBP, in Ensenada, Mexico, for the pre-school education program;
- US$15,000 to Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) e.V., NABU Worms in Osthofen, Germany, for the nature and education program; and
- US$15,000 to St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Science in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, for the Interactive Science program.
Case Studies
Community Investments Help Improve Quality of Life in Iceland
System Provides Clean Water, Economic Opportunities in Suriname
Suralco Helps Suriname Schools Improve Chemical Lab Safety
Measuring the Financial Impact of Alcoa's Presence
School Preserves Brazilian Shipbuilding Tradition, Creates Career Opportunities
Workshop Helps Rural Women in India Gain Entrepreneurial Skills
Planting a Greener Future
Creating Sustainable Livelihoods to Protect Chimpanzees in Guinea
Proving the Value of Public Libraries
Helping High-Risk Youth Prepare for the Future
Sustainable Logging Project Hits the Right Note
Building Capacity in Communities, Organizations
Safety of Children, Families Priority for Alcoa
Volunteers Go Back to School
Diversity on the Menu at Point Henry
Students Dig Deep to Put Classroom Learnings into Action
Land Reuse Project Brings Sustainable Income, Environmental Protection to Guinea Community
Partnership Serves as Recipe for Success in Land Conservation
Fun, Interaction Spark Interest in Energy
Partnership Revitalizes Community, Preserves Australian History
Taking Steps to Encourage Careers in Science, Technology
Donated Artifacts, Outreach Grant Preserve, Teach North Carolina History
Volunteer Initiative Reduces Personal Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Canada
Safe and Healthy Australian Children
Developing Australia's Future Leaders
Promoting Community Engagement through Art
Bringing Sustainable Education to Schools
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