Social responsibility: Retailer's community affairs agenda includes disaster relief, housing, youth and the environment - Home Depot: A Different Direction - company provides services and products after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack

Home Channel News, Dec 17, 2001 by John Caulfield

The sudden and unprecedented terrorist attacks that hit the United States on Sept. 11 stunned the nation's leaders and left them grappling for the appropriate political, civil and military response. But three hours after commercial jets crashed in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania, Home Depot was mobilizing its disaster relief teams.

By noon that day, the retailer had set up "command centers" at its headquarters in Atlanta, at its huge store in Elmont, N.Y., and its Mid-Atlantic store support center in South Plainfield, N.J. More than 200 people -- including associates from the company's merchandising, operations, logistics, risk management, legal and community affairs departments -- began coordinating what would become a massive effort to bring supplies to rescue workers and victims in three states that involved more than 50 stores, several dozen vendors and multiple distribution sites (see sidebar, this page).

"Unfortunately, we're getting very good at this," said Suzanne Apple, Home Depot's vp-community affairs, about the company's rapid response procedures. Indeed, merchants in Atlanta who had participated in Depot's relief efforts after the terrorist bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City in April 1995 "could anticipate the products that the rescue workers would need," said Apple, and were quick to contact vendors to start sending merchandise.

Disaster relief is one of four areas of concentration that comprise Home Depot's "social responsibility" agenda. The others -- affordable housing, at-risk youth and environmental protection -- are equally important to the company's corporate philosophy and image building and will continue to be at the forefront of its activities and support next year. But what's changing at Home Depot, say some nonprofit groups, is a greater emphasis on strategic coordination to connect community service to other parts of its operations.

A GIVING HISTORY

Between 1978, when Home Depot was founded, and 2000, the retailer donated more than $100 million to address community concerns. It has been recognized as one of the most generous corporations in America which, of course, makes it a target: Depot receives more than 100,000 grant requests annually, and funds 10 percent to 12 percent of them, according to Depot director of community affairs Jonathan Roseman.

His department's 2001 budget, estimated by company officials at $25 million, includes financial support to national groups with which Home Depot has had long-standing relationships -- such as Habitat for Humanity, Outward Bound, KaBoom! and Youth Build -- as well as grassroots efforts by its stores' personnel. (That budget also pays prospective Olympic athletes working in Depot's stores and funds its Kids Workshop program.)

The arrival of Bob Nardelli as Home Depot's CEO proved to be a windfall for one his preferred charities, The United Way, for whose 911 Fund the retailer helped raise an estimated $2 million.

Beyond money, non-profits want to tap into Depot's 250,000-person work force. In 2000, the latest year for which the retailer has compiled data, associates volunteered six million worker-hours to company-supported charitable and philanthropic activities.

"Team Depot," as this enthusiastic corps of employee-volunteers is known collectively, has drawn from every level in the company, from cashiers to corporate officers. "In the 18 years I've been with Home Depot, I've been able to enjoy its growth and success and have been able to give something back a number of times," said Bruce Merino, president of Home Depot's 193-store Western Division.

In late October, Memo and over 150 Depot associates built a playground in a Hispanic neighborhood in Orange County, Calif. That was one of 25 such playground builds that Depot sponsored this year with KaBoom!, an organization that specializes in putting up swings and slides in impoverished neighborhoods.

Next year, Depot plans to sponsor 30 full-blown KaBoom! projects, and the partners have devised a scaled-down version which emphasizes rehabilitation of existing playgrounds so that more of Depot's store-level associates could participate. "My phone rings off the hook every day with calls from stores that want to do something more," said Roseman.

Home Depot's inclinations toward social responsibility reflect an advocacy for corporate citizenry that comes directly from its co-founders, who not only hammered that message into Home Depot's mission statement but donated considerable chunks of their own time and wealth to causes they favored.

That largesse has certainly benefited the City of Hope research hospital in Duarte, Calif., whose home improvement/hardware chapter -- which was launched at the instigation of Depot's chairman and co-founder Bernie Marcus -- has raised $101 million, $37 million in the past two years alone when it honored Marcus and Depot's executive vp Pat Farrah with the hospital's "Spirit of Life" award.

LEVERAGING ASSETS

Robert Myers, the City of Hope's senior development manager, said that Home Depot will continue to be a "strong supporter" of the hospital. For the first time, the dealer has agreed to participate in the City of Hope's multi-city National Walk for Hope program and has pledged to raise $500,000.