Alcoa Foundation exists to serve the global company’s communities. Founded in 1952, its mission is to invest in residents’ quality of life.  In 2008, Alcoa and the Alcoa Foundation gave over $50.6 million to communities in 35 countries, while the company’s employees volunteered over 705,000 hours to community service projects.

Here are a few ways Alcoa improves lives all over the world:

The Foundation is committed to improving opportunities for women and girls. In the US, Alcoa works with Girls Inc., Boys and Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. The goal is to empower young women to reach their full potential through programs in health, science, math, technology, economic and financial programs, and leadership skills.

In Europe, Africa, and Asia, Alcoa Foundation continues this goal with vocational training and skills-building workshops, gender and equity training for teachers of young girls, encouraging female engineering students to continue in their fields, and providing basic health care services.

Climate Change: Alcoa Foundation has provided $22 million in grants to build awareness and inform public policy. The Foundation partners with community organizations and funds outreach programs that address sustainability, energy use, water management, and development.

Month of Service: The Alcoa Volunteers program encourages every employee to help make the world a better place. And they do: each October, Alcoa dedicates time for employees to perform community service. In the past three years, nearly 53,000 employees volunteered in over 2100 events in 36 countries. Activities range from planting trees, to serving meals, to repairing community facilities and helping students in local schools.

Disaster Relief: Alcoa donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Red Cross in China after last May’s earthquake. They encourage employees to give, and make it easy to do so on their website.

Alcoa and the Alcoa Foundation does good all around the globe, from Australian volunteers building and providing kids with wheelchairs, to helping community programs train and employ at-risk youth in the United States.

Alcoa helps build bridges, both physical and metaphorical, in virtually every country in the world, and its impact on those communities is huge.

Tags: Alcoa, Alcoa Foundation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Volunteer Program

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