Our commitment to cultivating Strong Roots, Strong Bonds and Strong Communities
For more than a century, Archer Daniels Midland Company has connected the harvest to the home, transforming crops into products that serve vital needs for food and energy.
Today, we are a global leader in the production of food ingredients, animal feeds, and renewable fuels and chemicals, with 29,000 colleagues worldwide. Although our company has grown over the last century, the foundation of our business remains unchanged: our commitment to agriculture, our stakeholders, our colleagues and our communities.
Through our ADM Cares program, we’re working to sustain and strengthen this commitment by directing up to one percent of ADM’s pretax profits to initiatives and organizations around the world that drive meaningful social, economic and environmental progress.
Three paths to progress
ADM Cares is a corporate social investment program comprising three distinct focus areas:
1. Strong Roots: Helping agriculture evolve…responsibly
As the world increasingly turns to agriculture to help meet its growing need for food and energy, ADM Cares is directing half of its annual budget to organizations that promote agronomically and environmentally sound agricultural development, including environmental stewardship; farm safety; and improved health, incomes and working conditions for farmers and their families in key growing regions.
Highlights of our contributions include:
- supporting a $40-million World Cocoa Foundation/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative to improve the quality of life for men and women who grow cocoa beans in the West African nations of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Liberia. The effort complements ADM’s own Socially and Environmentally Responsible Agricultural Practices program, which has been in place in Côte d’Ivoire since 2005.
- funding a campaign to help soybean farmers in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso improve their yields and profits without expanding into environmentally sensitive areas. The sustainable farming group Aliança da Terra is our partner in this effort.
|
ADM Cares will continue to seek out partnerships and projects that help world agriculture develop along a responsible, sustainable path.
2. Strong Communities: Responding to local priorities
ADM strives to make a positive difference in the communities where we work and live. The ADM Cares Strong Communities component focuses on programs and initiatives that improve the quality of life today, as we help to create a better future tomorrow. Our local managers play an important role by identifying local needs that might be addressed through ADM Cares. Special focus is given to educational initiatives for children and young adults.
ADM has a strong commitment to education and funds hundreds of educational initiatives, including National FFA Organization scholarships that are training a new generation of agricultural leaders. We also support Jobs for America’s Graduates, which provides work-based learning experiences for high school students nationwide.
In addition, because so many of our employees live and work along the nation’s inland waterways, ADM Cares is a major sponsor of Living Lands and Waters, an organization that promotes the health and vitality of these resources on which our business relies. Since our collaboration began, ADM’s U.S. colleagues have devoted thousands of volunteer hours to removing debris from major rivers.
3. Strong Bonds: Extending a helping hand to colleagues in need
Our company depends on the work of skilled, dedicated colleagues. So when extraordinary events arise, we want to ensure colleagues can receive support from our company and each other. That’s why the Strong Bonds component of ADM Cares focuses on colleague-to-colleague assistance, disaster relief, workplace giving campaigns, volunteer programs and in-kind donations. Our Colleague Giving Council, comprised of ADM colleagues at all levels, makes certain that funds are directed to the individuals and organizations that need them most.
ADM colleagues consistently demonstrate their care and concern by donating their time and resources to worthy causes. Through the Matching Gift Program, ADM matches, dollar for dollar, colleague contributions made to eligible charitable organizations.
Applying for funding
Organizations classified as tax-exempt under section 501(c)3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code may seek funding from ADM Cares if their objectives involve promoting agricultural development, agricultural education, farm safety or related topics. Preference will be given to groups in ADM communities that can demonstrate clear, measurable results toward stated objectives and a solid track record of success.
Click here to apply.
