The Hershey Co. has been named a 2021 honoree of The Civic 50 by Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service. In addition to being recognized as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the U.S., Hershey was named the Consumer Staples Sector Leader.
The Civic 50 provides a national standard for corporate citizenship and showcases how companies can use their time, skills and resources to drive social impact in their communities and company. The honorees are companies with annual U.S. revenues of at least $1 billion and are selected based on four dimensions of their corporate citizenship and social impact programs – investment of resources, integration across business functions, institutionalization through policies and systems and impact measurement.
In 2020, Hershey dedicated time, resources and money to support various COVID-19 relief efforts and racial justice causes. To address the devastating impacts of COVID-19, the company invested over $1 million to produce and donate more than 1.5 million masks for its employees, community nonprofits, healthcare organizations and school districts; provided relief grants to local food banks and nonprofits supporting basic needs; and launched a product-donation care package program for more than 200 hospitals.
In addition, Hershey committed more than $2 million to advance racial equity in the United States through a scholarship endowment with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and support to organizations such as the Equal Justice Initiative.
“In a year of unparalleled challenges, Hershey impacted more than 15 million lives with more than $26 million in donations and 60,000 hours in volunteer time,” said Hershey Vice President of Corporate Communications and Global Sustainability Leigh Horner. “ We harnessed the power of our purpose – to make more moments of goodness – to help our communities recover and revitalize.”
Through the company’s holistic sustainability strategy, also known as Hershey’s Shared Goodness Promise, Horner said Hershey will continue to invest in communities by helping create a more resilient supply chain, jobs, supporting children and families, protecting ecosystems and advancing a more inclusive and just society.
Hershey has received the Civic 50 award every year since the award was created in 2012. The Civic 50 has provided a roadmap for good corporate citizenship and showcases how committed companies are moving social impact, civic engagement and community to the center of their business.
The survey is administered by True Impact, a company specializing in helping organizations maximize and measure their social and business value and consists of quantitative and multiple-choice questions that inform the scoring process. The Civic 50 is the only survey and ranking system that exclusively measures corporate involvement in communities.
