Employee volunteerism and giving

At HP, we see great value in supporting the communities in which we live, work, and sell our products. We applaud the HP employees who make an impact in communities worldwide through their volunteer efforts and financial gifts.

Thousands of HP employees around the world volunteered their time or donated money to support local communities and assist in disaster relief efforts during 2010. The following numbers reflect those employees that reported their volunteer efforts to HP or donated money through HP company channels.

• More than 8,500 HP employees donated more than 102,000 hours to volunteer projects.
• More than 11,000 HP employees donated money to nongovernmental organizations and disaster relief efforts.

Employee volunteering

HP encourages employees and retirees to apply their abilities and expertise to volunteer efforts. We engage, equip, and inspire our employees to share the knowledge and skills they use every day in their work at HP to improve their local communities. And we support their efforts to volunteer during both company and personal time.

Many HP employees find volunteer opportunities that match their skills through HP VolunteerMatch. Matches can include anything from empowering women entrepreneurs in India to restoring damaged habitats and protecting threatened native species in Germany. Beginning in 2010, employees can submit new volunteer opportunities for review and inclusion. Also in 2010, HP upgraded the VolunteerMatch site to make it easier to find volunteer activities and share experiences. We’re also working to launch an internal website in 2011 that will allow employees around the world to share best practices, tools, and resources for effective community involvement.

Examples of employee volunteer activities in 2010 include the following projects:

HP Legal pro bono work¹

HP’s legal team established a 2010 goal to involve at least half of its U.S. employees in pro bono work, with each of the participants averaging 20 pro bono hours during the year. HP’s legal staff made the following progress toward that goal:

• 266 employees participated in pro bono efforts
• Staff donated 3,114 total hours of legal work

The team focuses on the needs of low-income individuals and organizations that serve them. In 2010, the Legal department’s efforts expanded beyond the United States, and nearly 17% of HP’s legal team outside the United States is currently participating in legal pro bono activities.

Examples of pro bono activities from 2010 include:

• Counseling U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan regarding health benefits through a partnership with National Veterans Legal Services Program
• Educating teenagers in Germany and the United States about the risks they face online, such as fraud, cyber bullying, and threats to data privacy (see sidebar)
• Providing legal support to clients facing eviction in San Francisco, California, United States, through work with the Volunteer Legal Services Program of The Bar Association of San Francisco
• Working with the Homelessness Prevention Project in the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties of California, United States
• Helping immigrants with their journey to become United States citizens
• Assisting low-income individuals in the United States to locate legal resources
• Exposing underserved high school students in the United States to legal concepts and professions

Job skills training for adults

HP human resources professionals are sharing their expertise to open up a world of opportunity for job seekers.

• Singapore HP volunteers supported the Women’s Welfare Association of Singapore by providing students with a variety of job search tools, including resume writing and interviewing techniques.
• United States HP employees in Palo Alto, California began volunteering with JobTrain on a quarterly basis in 2010. Volunteers offer their expertise in resume writing, interviewing skills, presentation skills, career consulting, and teaching a life-skills curriculum developed by HP.

East Africa volunteer team

In 2010, HP employees based in Kenya provided food, clothing, and mentoring support to children at the Kayole Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Kenya. The employees also assisted with Junior Achievement programs in the country and collaborated with the Palmhouse Foundation—a charitable trust that sponsors gifted children from needy homes and provides mentorship to help them complete high school. This volunteer team is also helping to coordinate aspects of the early infant diagnosis project for HIV-positive infants in Kenya.

Retiree volunteerism

HP has about 79,000 retirees, many of whom remain involved in our volunteer efforts. Each year, HP retirees volunteer thousands of hours to support local charities and schools worldwide. In 2010, HP retirees lent their skills to organizations such as National Lab Network, Habitat for Humanity, and the Special Olympics. They also mentored at-risk youth, gave gifts and school supplies to children in need, and volunteered in their local schools.

The Encore Fellows program allows HP retirees to use the professional expertise they gained at HP in the nonprofit sector. In 2010, retirees who spent their careers at HP working in human resources, marketing, and customer support, began Encore Fellowships to oversee initiatives, conduct research, and improve the infrastructure and processes of nonprofit organizations.

For more information about how HP retirees continue to contribute after they leave the company, see Employee engagement.

Employee giving

The Hewlett-Packard Company Foundation provides employees in the United States with one-to-one cash matching for gifts to qualified nonprofit organizations, at up to $1,000 USD per employee, per fiscal year. In 2010, HP employees in the United States donated cash totaling approximately $3.2 million USD, matched by $2.7 million USD from the Hewlett-Packard Company Foundation. In addition, U.S. employees can donate HP technology to qualified charitable organizations or schools. Employees contribute 25% of the product list price, up to $5,000 USD, and HP contributes the remaining amount. In 2010, employees in the United States donated products worth approximately $4.9 million USD (including the HP match).

In late 2010, we launched a one-month pilot employee product donation program in Canada. The pilot resulted in the donation of more than $56,000 USD in HP technology to Canadian charities.

Rosamystica Community School

In 2009, HP employees in Norway began working with Norwegian Church Aid to build a community school in a densely populated and poverty-stricken area near Lusaka, Zambia. In total, HP Norway contributed more than $46,000 USD to fund the building project and supply the school with essential materials, such as pencils, books, desks, and blackboards.The employees stayed connected with the project through newsletters, videos, and pictures, and even created T-shirts for the students to celebrate the grand opening of the school. Watch a video of the official 2010 opening of Rosamystica school.

Disaster relief

In 2010, HP employees, HP, and the Hewlett-Packard Company Foundation donated money, equipment, and expertise in response to natural disasters, including earthquakes in Chile, China, Haiti, and New Zealand, and responded to flooding in Eastern Europe, North India, and Pakistan.

Following are the approximate values of cash and product contributions from HP employees, HP, and the Hewlett-Packard Company Foundation in response to 2010 disasters:² 

1. ¹ Pro bono: Contributed without compensation and for the public good.
2. ² Figures are for the 2010 calendar year.