Kimberly-Clark Commemorates 150th Anniversary With Grants to Three Global Nonprofit Organizations Selected by Its Employees
As Kimberly-Clark celebrates 150 years of providing Better Care for a Better World, the Kimberly-Clark Foundation announced that it will honor this milestone anniversary by awarding three $150,000 grants to global nonprofit organizations that are working to improve the well-being of people around the world.
Since its inception in 1952, the Foundation has provided over $440 million in financial support to targeted causes that align with the company’s social impact goals.
Kimberly-Clark employees selected the grant recipients via online voting from a list of nonprofit organizations that focus their work on the priority areas of the company’s brands and the Kimberly-Clark Foundation. The awardees are:
- Water.org has positively transformed more than 45 million lives around the world with access to safe water or sanitation;
- She’s the First has worked with grassroots organizations to make sure girls everywhere are educated, respected and heard; and
- Project HOPE has provided nurses and midwives with the skills they need to save the lives of women and babies around the world.
“As Kimberly-Clark celebrates 150 years in business, it was incredibly powerful to partner with our 45,000 employees around the world to help us select the recipients of these global grants,” said Jenny Lewis, Vice President of the Kimberly-Clark Foundation. “These grants deepen our commitment to the Foundation’s priority areas and build on the momentum of our global social impact programs’ continued expansion.”
Kimberly-Clark’s recent grant initiative contributes to the company’s global ambition that aims to advance the well-being of 1 billion people in underserved communities around the globe by 2030 – through programs and innovation focused on delivering essentials for a better life. In partnership with the company’s trusted brands including Huggies®, Kotex® and Andrex®, the Kimberly-Clark Foundation’s recent progress toward this ambition includes:
- Celebrating seven years of the ‘Toilets Change Lives’ program, which has improved access to safe sanitation and clean water for more than 10.7 million people across 15 countries;
- Expanding Huggies®' ‘No Baby Unhugged’ initiative into Latin America, which has reached 3.9 million children and more than 3 million caregivers across 15 countries;
- Impacting 3.8 million girls since 2020 through menstrual health partnerships with Kotex® and global nonprofits to help tackle period stigma and other misperceptions that hold women and girls back.
“We are thankful that Kimberly-Clark’s employees chose to support Water.org's efforts to empower families with lasting access to safe water and sanitation,” said Michael Mayernik, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Water.org. “This will help thousands of families in need gain access to toilets in their home, giving women and girls privacy, safety and improved health and hygiene.”
“Kimberly-Clark’s grant funding will provide critical support to our coalition of community-based organizations serving girls in 11 countries around the world,” said Christina Martin Kenny, Director of Development at She's the First. “Like Kimberly-Clark, She's the First believes in mitigating any obstacle that keeps girls from attending school. Through our work to build a healthy and thriving ecosystem of girl-centered organizations, we are creating space for girls to choose their own futures where they can be educated, respected, and heard. We are thrilled to have the Kimberly-Clark Foundation partner with us on this important work."
“Collaborative partnerships like this one with Kimberly-Clark allow Project HOPE to meet one of the world's greatest health crises, and the company’s support helps us place power in the hands of nurses and midwives to give all mothers and babies a healthy future,” said Cinira Baldi, Vice President, Chief Development & Communications Officer at Project HOPE.
Overall, Kimberly-Clark Foundation-funded programs and brand partnerships have positively impacted more than 21 million people over the last seven years.
To learn more about Kimberly-Clark’s global 2030 ambition and its social impact efforts, please visit https://www.kimberly-clark.com/esg/.
