We believe Staples can achieve maximum community impact by partnering with organizations that “know the territory” — groups already active at the community level and focused on issues and causes consistent with corporate priorities — whether large or small. Every year, we provide grants to hundreds of organizations.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA)

We continued our partnership with BGCA in support of the organization's Torch Clubs — chartered, small-group leadership and service clubs for youth aged 11 to 13. In 2011, Staples support enabled the program to charter 248 new Torch Clubs and reach 7,540 new members.

Through the program, 276 Torch Clubs developed and led projects in their communities, and participated in national service events, including those for Martin Luther King Day and Global Youth Service Day. Following the Spring 2011 tornadoes, Torch Club members in the impacted communities of Joplin, MO, Springfield, MA and Tuscaloosa, AL, received 4,500 Staples for Students backpacks.

In 2011, Staples also created a holiday cause marketing program with Staples^® brand paper, providing a $150,000 donation and highlighting the Staples–BGCA partnership. We engaged BGCA to include Staples^® brand paper in their holiday campaign, Give the Gift of a Great Future, which promoted Staples as a holiday shopping destination where customers can purchase gifts to support Clubs nationwide. We also launched the first-ever Massachusetts focused cause marketing program with branded Boys & Girls Clubs of Massachusetts flash drives sold in all stores statewide, resulting in a nearly $20,000 donation to Massachusetts Boys & Girls Clubs.

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)

We continued our partnership with this non-profit research and strategy organization, dedicated to developing inner city economies, with a grant in support of ICIC's Inner City 100 list and other inner city wealth-generation programs. We also presented the Staples Foundation-ICIC Hall of Fame Awards to two new Inner City 100 businesses who have appeared on the Inner City 100 list for five years or more. In addition, Staples presented the Staples Foundation Minority Business of the Year Award to the top minority-owned company on the Inner City 100 at an event bringing together thousands of business, civic and community leaders.

In 2011, Staples demonstrated our commitment to small business by surprising Inner City 100 companies in Manchester, NH and Cedar Rapids, IA with $1,500 in supplies. We also developed a small business resource guide focused on helping entrepreneurs identify and obtain capital funding. In addition, we encouraged our customer base to apply to the Inner City 100 list, with five customers securing spots on the list and a 3-day Executive Education conference at Harvard Business School.

Reaching out

We partner with many other organizations, both locally and globally, to best meet their needs, whether through one-day efforts or ongoing programs, or during crisis situations. Some of these outreach efforts include:

• Mass Mentoring — Through a sponsorship of Mass Mentoring’s National Mentoring Month, which promotes mentor recruitment, Staples increased mentor referrals by 10%, and increased mentoring inquiry requests by 10% from volunteers who would like to become a mentor.
• Opportunity Nation — Staples joined Opportunity Nation’s coalition of 200 businesses, non-profits and educational institutions to create a shared, bipartisan plan that provides Americans with better skills, better jobs and better communities.
• City of Hope — Staples sponsored the City of Hope’s Walk for Hope, Concert for Hope and Celebrity Softball Challenge. Staples associates have also created teams to participate in Walk for Hope events across the country.
• Dress for Success — Staples donated $135,000 worth of products to Dress for Success to outfit more than 5,500 disadvantaged women with the tools they need to help them get organized and present a professional image when they interview and embark on their careers.
• Citizen Schools Massachusetts — Staples invested in their volunteer training program, enabling the group to train 600 volunteers who led after-school educational enrichment programs at middle schools in Boston, New Bedford and Revere.
• Eco-Schools — Staples International donated $18,000 to support Eco-Schools’ first World Day of Action in 2012, providing logistical efforts such as Web site development to help support and coordinate the event globally.
• Entrajuda — As part of their back to school campaign, Staples Portugal developed an innovative customer donation program called "School Bench." The initiative partnered with non-profit organization Entrajuda and ensured that disadvantaged students received a school kit filled with necessary school supplies. In 2011, Staples extended the program to allow customers in retail stores to make in-store donations of €1 or €2 to increase the impact of the initiative. In the second year of the program, more than 16,500 people participated. Together, Staples and their customers donated more than €19,500 to provide study room equipment for schools in need. Over 100 schools received help through the program, reaching over 2,500 students.
• Deutscher Kinderschutzbund — A long-standing German tradition is for young children to receive a "schultüte" (or school cone) on their first day at school. These school cones are usually filled with stationery and sweets to make the first days of school a little easier for the new students. Staples Germany held a back to school campaign, where new students visiting a store with their school cone would receive stationery to start their school year. In addition, Staples donated €0.50 to charity for every child who participated. In total, more than 14,000 new students took part, resulting in more than €7,000 being donated to Deutscher Kinderschutzbund (The German Federal Child Protection Association) in aid of the protection of children against violence and child poverty and to support children's rights in Germany.
• Earth Day Network — Staples Europe donated €5,000 to the Earth Day Network’s Canopy Project aimed at planting trees to combat deforestation. The donation was made as part of the Staples electronic holiday card, and was put to great use in expanding a new plantation in Haiti.
• United Way — Staples associates across Edmonton, Canada, volunteered with the United Way to stuff nearly 900 backpacks with school supplies for low-income youth.
• St. Mary’s Food Bank — Staples Advantage^® associates from our Mississauga, ON office volunteered to help St. Mary’s Food Bank to sort and pack food to be distributed to food bank users. Volunteers had an amazing experience that resulted in one week of work being completed in just a few hours.

Disaster relief

In 2011, the U.S. was struck with several natural disasters, and Staples was there to help. When severe storms, tornados and flooding occurred in May, we donated $25,000 to the American Red Cross, supplied on-the-ground operation centers with copy paper and coordinated our Staples Advantage^® associates’ efforts to donate delivery services and products. We also coordinated donation efforts in support of those affected by wildfires in Texas and Arizona, floods in Pennsylvania and the devastation by Hurricane Irene in Vermont and New Jersey. In addition, Staples donated more than $5,000 worth of products to 435 displaced students and teachers in Detroit, Michigan, when their school burned down.

Associates around Australia, New Zealand and North America helped to raise thousands of dollars for those affected by the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. Staples matched dollar for every dollar raised by our associates, giving a total of $91,785 to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.

Our associates are passionate about getting personally involved in our community efforts. Hands-on work connects them to their communities and to Staples.

In honor of Staples’ 25th anniversary celebration, we launched a worldwide volunteer effort called Community Matters. The program provided tools and resources to help engage associates in their local communities through volunteering. We provided tips and ideas to make it easier for associates to volunteer in every country and business unit, as well as distributed checklists and recruiting posters for associates to use in assembling volunteer teams. In addition, we held a Community Matters Volunteer Fair, and communicated about the program through a global internal advertising campaign, informational kits and presentations.

In 2011, 3,000 associates from 26 countries volunteered more than 36,000 hours in their local communities. In addition to connecting associates with volunteering opportunities, Staples also awarded 250 associates the opportunity to donate $250 to the organizations they work with.

We continued to educate and inform associates about our community and giving activities, including launching Staples’s first internal Web site where associates can learn more about our global community programs and how to lead community projects within their teams.

The following programs and initiatives illustrate the breadth of our efforts to formalize and extend our associate engagement:

Staples Home Office associates engage in the community

Associates at our Framingham, MA home office dedicated their time and resources in several ways in 2011. They:

• Donated supplies for 250 youth in the Boys & Girls Club MetroWest
• Pledged to read on October 6th, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record worldwide literacy effort
• Participated in Cradles to Crayons’ Backpack-a-Thon, helping to stuff 27,500 backpacks with school supplies for local underprivileged youth
• Organized a day of service at The Home for Little Wanderers’ Longview Farm in Walpole, MA, helping paint, garden and landscape for this farm that offers residential treatment for at-risk youth
• Provided holiday gifts for 287 children from the Worcester Rainbow Child Development Center
• Hosted the second annual Shop the Swap event where Home Office associates had the opportunity to buy discounted business attire and donate more than $1,000 of the proceeds to Dress for Success.

Choose a Charity International Associate Grants

We continued the Choose a Charity program for international associates, launched in 2010, allowing associates to direct funds to organizations they support. In 2011, the program expanded to include our operations in Finland, and select countries expanded the program to allow customers to vote as well. More than 20 percent of Staples International associates took part in the program by voting for 24 educational non-profit organizations they care about to receive Staples Foundation funding.

International associate volunteering efforts continue to develop

Staples established formal associate volunteer partnerships in Germany with Kinder-Biennale, in the UK with the Whitehorse Youth Centre, in India with Muktangan, in China with Junior Achievement, in Brazil with Associacao Desportiva para Deficientes, in Australia with the Beacon Foundation and in New Zealand with Foundation for Youth Development.

In addition, we held community events in locations around the world. Community volunteering is an important vehicle for Staples International. It often takes the form of a local Community Day, where associates volunteer a full day to promote active engagement in the community.

• As one example, we have seen associate participation in the Netherlands double over the last three years. In 2011, we expanded to over 120 associate volunteers across five community organizations, logging over 700 volunteer hours. Organizations such as residential homes for the elderly, patients with severe autism and Alzheimer’s, animal shelters, community nature areas and youth social enterprise groups benefited from the support of Staples associates.
• In China, 28 associates volunteered two mornings as teaching assistants for a school assisting children with disabilities. The associates took along stationery and furniture to assist the children and teachers, which were gratefully received. The event produced a great sense of reward for our associates who have since begun engaging with the school in their personal time.
• Additionally, our Indian operations participated in a volunteer team building event with Ashoka, a youth enterprise organization. In total, 57 Staples associates attended the day within Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai to work with seven Ashoka Youth Changemakers and the small community school recently initiated within the park.

Staples Advantage community involvement

Staples Advantage associates in the U.S. also dedicated time in their local communities:

• In Maryland, associates cleaned, painted, sanded doors, built flower beds, raked leaves and installed shelves and gutters for a new Habitat for Humanity home for a low-income family
• In San Diego, associates supported Junior Achievement of San Diego & Imperial Counties by visiting classrooms and teaching elementary students about the economy, personal finances and the importance of fiscal responsibility
• In Rochester, NY, associates volunteered at the Buffalo City Mission Lunch Project by packing 120 lunches for women and children living in the shelter.

Staples Advantage Canada selected Junior Achievement (JA) as our corporate charity partner in 2009. Junior Achievement is an international non-profit organization that brings together business leaders, educators, parents and community to help prepare youth for their future. The organization offers many business and diversity-related education programs for students aged 10 to 19. Junior Achievement strongly aligns with the Staples community focus on youth and education, as it works toward inspiring Canadian youth to achieve their dreams. Michael Zahra, President of Staples Advantage Canada, has accepted a seat on the Junior Achievement Board of Governors in Ontario. Staples Advantage Canada was awarded the “2010 Outstanding Leadership in the Community Award” for our work with Junior Achievement by the Canadian Office Products Association.

In addition to Staples Foundation grants, Staples provides charitable donations to 501(c)3 non-profit organizations engaged in educational and youth-focused projects and events. If your organization fits within our focus area, stop by your local Staples store and speak with the general manager about how they can support your community organization. All requests are evaluated by your local Staples store and decisions are made at the discretion of store management.

We Care gift cards

Staples stores are able to support non-profit organizations making a positive difference in the local community through We Care gift cards. These gift cards enable non-profit organizations to obtain supplies from Staples needed to make a community event or program a success. In 2011, our U.S. stores donated more than $320,000 in the form of We Care gift cards to thousands of educational and youth-focused non-profit organizations across the country.

In-kind product donations

Staples stores are able to donate eligible products to help an organization's administrative needs. Your local Staples general manager can answer any questions about product availability and your organization's eligibility.

Cause marketing

Staples supports youth and education programs through a variety of cause marketing programs that enable our customers to show their support and make a difference.

We’ve found cause marketing to be a great way to bring together customers, associates and partners in community-building endeavors. In 2011, we conducted the fourth annual Staples for Students (formerly Do Something 101) School Supply Drive in partnership with DoSomething.org. This program empowers teens nationwide to host collection drives and donate much-needed school supplies to youth around the country. Staples retail customers are also invited to participate by donating new supplies or giving $1 at checkout. Staples also partnered with the cast of the TV show “Pretty Little Liars” to raise program awareness, and held an event at the Teen Choice Awards with teen celebrities and teen volunteers to fill backpacks with supplies for Boys & Girls Club youth in the Los Angeles area. This year’s campaign put more than $800,000 worth of school supplies into the hands of youth who needed them.