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. Highlighting our work in 2010, we renewed our relationships and added to our shared record of achievement with five such long-term partners.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA)

We renewed our partnership with BGCA with a $3 million, three-year grant in support of the organization's Torch Clubs — chartered, small-group leadership and service clubs for youth aged 11 to 13. Among other activities, the grant supported a Staples Torch Club Award for community service projects nationwide, as well as a "Linking Hearts & Hands" national service project in which club members competed for prizes.

Staples' support in 2010 also helped sponsor Torch Club Summits in Arlington, Texas, and Annapolis, Maryland, where club advisors and staff shared ideas and best practices for improving program offerings. And Staples' creative services associates redesigned, pro bono, the BGCA Torch Club logo now used across all Club communication materials.

As part of a new social media promotion to recruit Facebook fans, Staples donated $1 to BGCA for every newly acquired fan. Overall, the campaign reached more than 120,000 Staples and BGCA Facebook fans and recruited 2,500 additional fans in two weeks (versus the typical rate of 250 new fans per week). At the grassroots level, Staples brought together associates from our U.S. Retail, North American Delivery and home offices with local BGCA clubs for volunteer activities.

Ashoka

In 2010, we provided Ashoka, a global association of social entrepreneurs, with a $500,000 grant in support of its Youth Venture programs in Europe, South America and North America. We also held the annual Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition, which received 500 entries from more than 50 countries — the largest volume of submissions ever. Eight finalists received cash prizes, mentoring from Staples executives and a trip to a finale event hosted by Staples in Washington, D.C. During this event, the competition finalists shared stories of their social ventures with an audience of business, civic and community leaders and social entrepreneurs.

Finally, Staples hosted multiple Ashoka Youth Venture Panels at our Amsterdam offices where associates provided feedback to the teams on their business plans and ideas for growth and development. We also established five virtual mentorships through which Staples associates provided Youth Venture teams with guidance in marketing, finance and human resources. And in addition, we incorporated Ashoka Changemaker training into our various learning and development programs in Europe, and attendees participated in on-site virtual mentoring with Youth Venture teams around the world via Webcam.

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 $200,000 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 six 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.

Also in 2010, Staples and ICIC developed Business Resource Guides focused on how small businesses can develop relationships with "anchor institutions" to obtain more funding and acquire new customers. The guides were distributed nationally through ICIC and third-party economic, inner city development and business leadership conferences.

Earth Force (EF)

In 2010, Staples made a $175,000 grant to this national non-profit youth organization that empowers kids to help solve local environmental problems. Among other activities, the grant supported the creation of the Urban Environmental Challenge, a national program enabling youth to lead environmental service projects that address climate change issues. In 2010, the program targeted youth, civic leaders and Staples associates in Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Charlotte, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; and Chicago, Illinois.

In Tampa, Florida; Arlington, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; Flint, Michigan; Grand Prairie, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina, we presented Staples Earth Force Awards to youth and educators engaged in projects that addressed environmental needs in their communities.

TakingITGlobal (TIG)

In June 2010, Staples provided a grant of $116,253 to support a second year of TIG's Tread Lightly program. Tread Lightly is a climate change education and engagement initiative designed to inspire teachers and youth to reduce their ecological footprints and take action on climate change.

The Tread Lightly program offers a number of teaching resources and online tools, including an interdisciplinary secondary school teacher toolkit, an ecological footprint challenge, an eco-art contest, a virtual classroom and international videoconferences. With renewed support from the Staples Foundation, TIG was able to expand Tread Lightly to reach more educators and youth worldwide. For example:

• In Portugal, Mariana Brandao made use of the Tread Lightly tools at her secondary school. "We were excited to participate in this project," she says. "We decided to adapt it to our own specific needs and I'm happy to report that it went very well." Mariana plans to expand her use of Tread Lightly next year. "With proper planning next year we will be able to start using the virtual classroom at full speed."
• In France, Camille Gil has had success introducing Tread Lightly to French youth involved in climate change events. Camille, who works with the French Youth Climate Coalition, says that "teachers in France need the Tread Lightly program because it fills a niche. Climate change issues are just starting to be an issue for youth, and the way Tread Lightly is presented is ideal for French youth."
• Meimei Shih, a secondary school teacher in Taiwan, also benefited from Tread Lightly. She appreciates the background of the program, acknowledging that "climate change has been a serious global issue since the late twentieth century. Scientists have examined the problem over the past fifty years, and corporations have also taken green actions to combat climate change." Her class participated in two Tread Lightly videoconferences in December 2010 to take part in the COP16 proceedings.

Overall, approximately 7,000 students were engaged globally, of whom 720 participated in videoconferences and 931 made an environmental pledge on the Tread Lightly Web-site. Among other achievements was the translation of all Tread Lightly materials — already available in English and French — into seven additional languages. These translations allowed us to increase the international relevance of the program and effectively engage with youth and educators in nine countries, including the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

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:

Local education and community development in and around our headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts:

Cradles to Crayons. Staples associates volunteered to sort and distribute resources and supplies to children throughout Massachusetts.

Jumpstart Read for the Record. Staples sponsored this worldwide annual event and enabled associates to read to youth and share in literacy activities.

1GOAL. The Staples Foundation created a partnership with the Global Campaign for Education's 1GOAL campaign through a $100,000 donation, to cover activities in 2009 and 2010. With support from football/soccer and entertainment celebrities, the 1GOAL campaign sought to generate awareness and establish critical mass in support of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal of “Education for All by 2015” through a signature collection program. Staples ran 10 weeks of internal and external 1GOAL activities in 21 countries, collecting thousands of signatures in support of education for all children. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 1GOAL cemented its status as the biggest cause-related football/soccer campaign in the sport's history.

Disaster relief

In response to the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, Staples donated $100,000 to the International Red Cross's Haiti Relief and Development Fund to assist victims of the disaster. In addition, all Staples stores and Copy & Print Centers in the United States and Canada collected $1 donations. Those efforts combined with contributions from European customers totaled nearly $250,000 for the Red Cross.

In 2010, Staples made a concerted effort to find out, through surveys and other forms of dialogue, what our associates would like us to do to help develop and improve the communities where they work and live. What we learned is that our associates want to get personally involved in community building efforts. Direct participation, they told us, is what really connects them not only to their communities, but to Staples as well.

As part of our 25th anniversary celebration, we'll strengthen our commitment to communities by launching a new worldwide effort, Community Matters. This initiative is focused on helping associates make a difference in their local communities by providing tools that make it easy to volunteer. We are communicating the program to all associates through global internal advertising, information kits and presentations and internal newsletter articles.

To make it easier for associates to volunteer, in every country and business unit we've provided tips and ideas for people who might want to get involved but don't know how, and we've distributed checklists and recruiting posters for associates to use in assembling volunteer teams. Combining top-down and grassroots energies, the initiative has gained advocates company-wide.

To show our support, through 2011, we will offer opportunities for associates to win donations for the organizations they work with. We have also introduced tools for associates to track, record and share their community engagement activities.

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

Supply Chain Community Conference

In 2010, the Global Supply Chain team incorporated a volunteer activity into their annual conference. The group of 500 associates stuffed 20,000 backpacks with school supplies that were distributed to students around Massachusetts. The team worked with Cradles to Crayons (C2C), a non-profit organization that provides much-needed resources to children. By matching the core retail business and supply-chain knowledge of Staples with C2C's volunteer management expertise, both organizations were able to leverage a global gathering to make a local community impact.

Choose a Charity International Associate Grants

This new program enabled Staples associates to nominate organizations to receive a portion of Staples funding. The launch of this program in 2010 marked the first time international associates had the opportunity to direct funds to organizations they support. Engaging associates worldwide, the program distributed $85,000 to 85 community organizations across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia.

Volunteer Day International

Staples sponsored a 2010 Community Day, where more than 200 associates from nine countries — the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil and India — participated in volunteer activities in their communities. Volunteer projects focused on a wide variety of causes, including children, the elderly, homeless and people with special needs, refugee students, animals and the environment.

Staples Advantage community involvement

This international program sponsors grassroots volunteer efforts by Staples associates to identify and meet local community needs. Standout efforts in 2010 included a donation from Staples Advantage Canada to Junior Achievement of Ontario, which enabled 50 associates to provide two days of mentoring and guidance to 720 middle school students in Mississauga, Ontario.

Regional youth mentoring

In cooperation with Ashoka in Europe and based on case studies from that organization's Youth Venture program, Staples associates in 2010 mentored young people as part of their own advanced management training programs.

In the United States, several Staples associates were honored by the John Mazie Foundation for their similar work in mentoring young people. This Wayland, Massachusetts-based organization promotes mentoring of at-risk youth. The associates spent more than one year in both formal and informal mentoring sessions with their youth partners. This hands-on involvement instilled confidence and enhanced the youth partners' hopes and expectations for a positive future.

Listening to people is built into the way we do business at Staples, and caring about what our customers care about, and supporting causes they support, is a wonderful way to build customer loyalty. In fact, many of our community-oriented programs bring together Staples associates, customers and vendors in partnerships more enthusiastic and successful than the sum of their parts.

Support for educators

Staples enabled customers to celebrate and recognize the impact teachers have had in their lives through a "Teacher Call Out" program. Through this program, students contacted radio stations to nominate the teachers who have inspired, motivated and made a difference in their lives or communities. More than 90 radio stations around the United States provided teachers with on-air recognition. Each educator also received Staples gift cards to help purchase much-needed resources for their classrooms.

Cause marketing

We've found cause marketing to be a great way to bring together customers, associates and partners in community-building endeavors. In 2010, we conducted the third annual Staples/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.

Another example in 2010 was the sale of the Pink Ribbon uni-ball 207 Breast Cancer Awareness pen. Staples associates encouraged customers to buy the pens and, together with Sanford (the pen manufacturer), donated $100,000 to City of Hope, a leading research, treatment and education center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.

Social media: cause for contributions

As our cause marketing campaigns demonstrate, small contributions can add up to make a big difference, and social media now offers us yet another way to engage our customers. In 2010, we asked the public to "vote" a donation to their favorite among our charitable partners by becoming a follower of Staples on Twitter. The effort netted more than $50,000 for our partners such as BGCA, Earth Force and Ashoka and highlighted their programs to a new audience.

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 2010, our U.S. stores donated more than $330,000 in the form of We Care gift cards to nearly 4,500 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 store 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 donate proceeds from sales of the Staples Easy Button®, up to $1 million each year, to Boys & Girls Clubs of America in the United States. In Europe, proceeds support TakingITGlobal's Tread Lightly program.