“When corporate philanthropy is working well, it should feel like an extension of the company,” said Julie Gehrki, president of the Walmart Foundation and senior vice president of philanthropy at Walmart. “It starts with the idea that the company in and of itself should be solving social and environmental problems.” Gehrki recently joined Dean Amir Pasic, Ph.D. of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy for a fireside chat to discuss her role and why philanthropy is important to Walmart.
Gehrki says the company recognizes that its economic interest will intersect with social and environmental problems. So, it’s in its best interest to include solutions to these problems in their business strategy. One of those issues is economic mobility.
“We think college educations are important, but people should be able to have economic mobility without college,” said Gehrki. “We all have skills that are missing on our resumes. That is nowhere more true than if you didn't go to college.” She highlighted how everyday skills—like navigating public transportation or providing exceptional customer skills aren’t reflected on resumes and applications. To address this, the Walmart Foundation has collaborated with Ivy Tech Community College and Purdue University to create a digital repository, allowing individuals to document their skills in a digital wallet for a more comprehensive employment profile.
Walmart recognizes its importance in local communities and the impact they can make. For example, the company has helped food banks by providing logistics experts to maximize space and efficiently distribute food. It has also provided refrigerated food trucks across the country to enable them to donate fresh food and get it to the food bank safely.
Local communities are also supported through Spark Good, a platform on Walmart.com that includes local grants, opportunities for customers to round up on their purchases to donate, a way for organizations to request space to raise funds in front of stores, and more. Currently the platform includes about 50,000 nonprofit and civic organizations.
With so many causes and needs in the world, how does Walmart Foundation decide what to support? Gehrki says there is a three-part test that is helpful when making decisions.
- Relevance: Are you working on an issue that is relevant to the business and can you articulate the relevance? “If we want to sell shrimp in 50 years, we’ve got to take care of the oceans differently than we do today,” said Gehrki. This is an example of relevance to the company, because the supply chain has to be sustainable for the business to remain in the long term.
- Trust: Only work on issues in ways that build trust. Look to work with partners who also build trust and approach things in respectful and thoughtful ways.
- Effectiveness: Can we be effective on this issue? There are issues your organization can’t be as effective on as others can, so it’s important to stay with those that you can.
Gehrki was a Jane Addams – Andrew Carnegie Fellow at the school, a program that was the precursor to the world’s first master’s degree in philanthropy. She has dedicated her career to addressing economic, environmental, and social challenges through strategic philanthropy.
You can watch the full conversation here.