A Sincere Thank You to Our 2011 Corporate Partners

Frontline health worker Afia, right, provides medicine to 17-month-old Juthi in West Raiguru, Bangladesh.

What did 2011 mean to Hamim, Raymart, Candida and Josh? The helping hand they needed came through Save the Children’s corporate partners. For Hamim, Raymart, Candida and Josh, and for millions of children and their families worldwide and in the U.S. touched by our corporate partners’ extraordinary generosity, we offer profound gratitude for making 2011 the most successful year ever in corporate fundraising for Save the Children.

• Hamim’s life-threatening case of pneumonia was diagnosed and promptly treated by Afia, a frontline health worker in rural Bangladesh we have trained. “I feel comfortable going to Afia for help and I trust her advice,” said Hamim’s mother, Suchita. “I know that many other women in the village also rely on Afia for this kind of advice.”
• Until a nutrition program started at his school in the Philippines, Raymart, 11, one of five children from a poor family, went hungry much of the day. “Now, I can attend my classes without the stomach pain. I want to go to class every day.”
• In rural Nicaragua, Candida invested profits from a crop she grew with our help to buy several cows and begin selling milk and cheese. “Save the Children helped me to guarantee my food supply, but more than that, I now handle my own money.”
• Josh, 11, was among the children in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, whose families fled from a huge tornado so quickly that they had no time to put on their shoes. Clad only in light slippers, Josh was helping clean up debris from his grandmother’s wrecked home. We provided Josh and other children with new socks and sneakers. When our staff asked him if he liked his new shoes, Josh beamed and said, “They’re great! I know I can help more people now.”

Hamim, Raymart, Candida and Josh live continents apart. It was our corporate partners’ support that brought hope and promise to their lives. From training frontline health workers to provide lifesaving health care in remote communities, to rushing relief to children and families affected by the U.S. tornado outbreak, Japan’s tsunami and other emergencies, our corporate partners helped fund many of Save the Children’s most innovative and essential programs in 2011.

We begin 2012 ready to help even more children survive and thrive. Our pledge to them — and to all our corporate partners — is to mobilize relief faster than ever during crises, replicate proven programs that improve children’s lives and turn our partners’ shared value investments in our work into improved outcomes for children’s education, health, nutrition, and protection from harm.

Our 2012 resolutions also include continuing to hold ourselves to the highest standards of accountability. Our fiscal efficiency and responsibility was reflected in our four-star Charity Navigator rating for the 10th year in a row in 2011 and our inclusion as a top charity in Forbes’ recently-released “Top 200 Largest U.S. Charities” for 2011. We were also one of only three non-profits named America’s Greatest Brands by Superbrands Ltd., the international independent authority and arbiter on branding.

We look forward to continuing our lifesaving work with all of our corporate partners this year and thank you again for supporting Save the Children in 2011.

We are pleased to recognize these partners for their support at or above the $1 million level in 2011:

Boston Consulting Group
Bulgari
Chevron
Goldman Sachs
Green Mountain
IKEA
Johnson & Johnson
Kraft Foods Foundation
Media Networks, Inc.
Merck
Procter and Gamble
PepsiCo Foundation
Scholastic
Sony
Starbucks
Target
TJ Maxx
Toys R Us
Ty Inc.
Walmart
Wrigley
Zynga