Investing in communities
HSBC supports the communities where we operate by providing employment, making tax contributions, payments to suppliers, and investments in local businesses. We also make a direct contribution to communities through donations and employee volunteering
We focus our community investment activity on education and the environment - the fundamental building blocks for the development of communities. We aim to allocate around 75% of our donations to these two themes.
In 2010, HSBC spent US$108 million on community investment activities.
Our approach is to partner with world-class charities that are making a difference, and we remain involved in the decisions about how the money is spent. We encourage our employees to get involved in their local communities, and we know that this motivates and engages our people.
Our educational support focuses on:
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Disadvantaged children
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Financial and business literacy
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Environmental education and understanding
Future First
Our flagship education programme for disadvantaged children is Future First. Launched in 2006, this programme provides access to education and teaches life skills to deprived and excluded children, whether on the streets, orphaned or in care.
Through Future First, HSBC supports a wide range of programmes from scholarships, teacher training, supporting school equipment, family support programmes and vocational training.
The programme currently supports more than 300 projects in 49 countries benefiting some half a million children worldwide. HSBC has committed $25 million to this programme.
Our recent report highlights some of the successes of the programme so far and sets out the Future First agenda for the next five years.
JA More than Money™
Our global financial education programme, JA More than Money™, teaches students about earning, spending, sharing, and saving money, and potential careers.
JA More than Money™ is run in partnership with Junior Achievement Worldwide and is facilitated by HSBC volunteers. As Dollars and $ense, it was one of JA Worldwide's most successful youth financial literacy programmes in the United States. Results of an independent survey in 2007 showed that the seven to 11 year old students who participated in this initiative demonstrated a much better understanding of financial concepts than others of the same age.
JA Worldwide has taken the programme to 32 countries across five continents in the year 2009–2010.
HSBC and JA Worldwide have a long-standing relationship, having collaborated for 65 years in the United States and more than 25 years in the United Kingdom, where JA Worldwide operates as Young Enterprise.
Our environmental support focuses on:
- Climate change
- Freshwater, e.g. rivers
- Biodiversity, e.g. natural habitats.
HSBC Climate Partnership
Our most recent environmental community investment programme was the HSBC Climate Partnership. This was a five-year commitment between HSBC, The Climate Group, Earthwatch, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and WWF to reduce the impact of climate change on people, forests, freshwater and cities, and accelerate the adoption of low-carbon policies.
Together we:
- Carried out innovative scientific research
- Developed demonstration projects and testing out new methodologies
- Created working models, showing how the new ideas work in practice
- Provided clear solutions so that governments can agree policy and enact legislation
After five years, US$100 million and the hard work of over 100,000 people, the Partnership has delivered many ground breaking achievements. Today 32 million more people have access to cleaner water than before the project started; three million hectares of forestland have been protected and low carbon technology is helping ten of the world's biggest cities to cut carbon emissions more quickly.
Over 2,200 HSBC colleagues became climate champions, and in total HSBC employees gave 63,000 days of volunteering time.
Find out more about the work and achievements of the HSBC Climate Partnership in our online review.
HSBC Eco-Schools Climate Initiative
In 2009, we launched the HSBC Eco-Schools Climate Initiative in partnership with the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). This is a three-year project involving 1,000 HSBC staff volunteers in 10 countries and reaching an estimated 1.2 million young people aged five to 18. The aim of the programme is to inspire action on climate change by improving schools' environmental efficiency.
