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:
-
Disadvantaged children
-
Financial and business literacy
-
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 flagship environmental community investment programme is The HSBC Climate Partnership, 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 are:
- Carrying out innovative scientific research
- Developing demonstration projects and testing out new methodologies
- Creating working models, showing how the new ideas work in practice
- Providing clear solutions so that governments can agree policy and enact legislation
Our work has already generated real and tangible outcomes - securing and improving water supplies for millions, piloting clean tech solutions, understanding the role of forests in climate change, protecting the habitats of threatened species, influencing government policy, and engaging more than 40,000 HSBC staff as a global taskforce to drive change.
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.
