United Way Of America Recognizes Fedex Corporate Involvement With Summit Award

United Way of America
Thursday, 17 May 2001

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — May 17, 2001—United Way of America today recognized FedEx Corporation as one of three Spirit of America Summit Award winners. FedEx was commended for its outstanding employee campaign, major gifts and volunteer programs in partnership with United Way to provide solutions to the most important needs in communities across the country.

"This award recognizes the innovative work that FedEx employees have done in support of United Way and the communities we serve," said Ellie Ferdon, United Way of America's Board Chair. "Thanks to FedEx's commitment, United Way is in a better position to serve as a community solutions provider – building partnerships, forging consensus and maximizing resources to address critical needs in communities across America. I'd like to extend to the entire FedEx family United Way's deep appreciation for all that they do on a daily basis to help make a difference in their communities."

FedEx employees volunteered their time to a range of activities and organizations across the country including the March of Dimes WalkAmerica, Junior Achievement, the National Safe Kids campaign and Adopt-A-School programs. In 2000, more than 12,000 FedEx employees also participated in United Way's Day of Caring (a community-wide volunteer project) with a record 450 people participating from their Memphis, Tenn., corporate headquarters.

The 2000 campaign also raised more than $10 million, an increase of 23 percent from FedEx's 1999 United Way campaign. This included a $1 million corporate gift to United Way, the largest in the organization's history. United Way invests these donations into projects which help improve the overall quality of communities where FedEx employees live and work.

"We are honored that United Way has recognized the work of our associates with this award," said Dave Bronczek, FedEx CEO. "Every FedEx employee is committed to serving community members and the work of United Way."

In addition to FedEx, United Parcel Service and U.S. law firm Holland & Knight also received 2000 Summit awards. United Way presented Summit Awards to companies that have achieved distinction in specific initiatives that make a measurable difference in communities. Nationwide Financial Services Inc. received the overall Spirit of America award.

Spirit of America and Summit Award winners are judged on detailed criteria by a panel of past winners and United Way National Corporate Leadership members who have not entered the competition, United Way labor liaisons and individual United Way organizations.

United Way of America's National Corporate Leadership (NCL) program works with more than 130 major corporations and 1,400 United Way organizations to strengthen corporate involvement in communities. Typical NCL companies have more than 10,000 employees and annual corporate and employee contributions of more than $1 million. NCL companies contribute more than $800 million to United Ways to help bring communities together to focus resources and provide solutions for the most important needs in the community.

For more information, or to contact United Way of America, see their website at: www.unitedway.org