Corporate Citizenship

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For more than 60 years, Lowe's has supported the communities we call home. At a time when schools and community groups are struggling to make ends meet, Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation recognizes that we must increase our focus on basic, one-time project needs.
This year, we challenge ourselves to seek ways to provide the tools that help our educators and communities manage through these challenging times efficiently and with the greatest impact. Basic needs will take priority. Today, we see students needing essentials and communities striving to create and maintain safe gathering places.
Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation is determined to do what we can to provide for our communities' basic needs. Please keep this focus in mind as you apply for a grant. Thank you.

Each year Lowe's Heroes volunteer program helps to improve the communities where Lowe's employees work and live. Together, each store team identifies a community improvement project that will make a difference in their community, such as working with Habitat for Humanity® or a local public school. While projects vary by location, Lowe's Heroes volunteers share a common goal to make their communities better places to live.

This grant program provides parent groups with financial tools to help improve their children's schools. Grant awards of up to $5,000 support school improvement projects at public schools nationwide. Since 2006, through Toolbox for Education, the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation has donated over $20 million to more than 4,000 K-12 schools, benefitting over 2 million schoolchildren.

Lowe's partnership with Habitat for Humanity® International helps provide safe, affordable housing for thousands of working families. Lowe's and its vendor partners have contributed almost $20 million to Habitat projects since 2003 and committed another $20 million through 2013. Lowe's employee volunteers continue to give hands-on support at home sites coast-to-coast to help Habitat homeowners realize their dream of home ownership. In addition, Lowe's underwrites Habitat for Humanity's Women Build program. Lowe's Women Build clinics offer Habitat volunteers basic construction skills needed to build Habitat homes while empowering women to be part of the solution to eliminate substandard housing.

In times of disaster, Lowe's is there to help through the American Red Cross, contributing $1.25 million in 2009 to support disaster relief efforts after natural disasters including floods, ice storms and tornadoes. Since 1999, Lowe's and our customers have proudly contributed more than $20 million to the American Red Cross. As a National Disaster Relief partner of the American Red Cross, Lowe's establishes store credits to assist Red Cross chapters responding to disasters and our stores serve as customer donation sites post-disaster.

In 2009, Lowe's awarded $600,000 to college students across the United States through the Lowe's Scholarship and the Carl Buchan Scholarship, named for Lowe's founder. For more information, visit www.lowes.com/scholarships

In 2009, the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation entered its third year of supporting Rebuilding Together®, the nation's largest all-volunteer home rehabilitation organization. Lowe's participation helped preserve affordable housing in over 95 communities, improving accessibility for disabled homeowners, allowing elderly and disabled homeowners to live in quality homes safely and keeping dozens of low-income families safe, warm and dry. In total, the Foundation pledged $1 million in grants to Rebuilding Together® affiliates.

Lowe's is helping to narrow the skilled labor gap by supporting SkillsUSA®, a national student organization with 15,000 chapters at public high schools, trade and technical schools, and colleges. SkillsUSA® chapters represent 300,000 student and professional members engaged in more than 130 highly skilled occupational areas. SkillsUSA's programs in schools help students develop their personal and technical skills while incorporating service-oriented learning to empower students and their teachers to help improve their community. In 2009, Lowe's contributed $1.5 million to provide chapter education grants and program enhancements, as well as fund community service projects and student competitions.

Lowe's Employee Relief Fund distributes emergency funds to hundreds of employees each year. The company matches employee donations dollar-for-dollar. Since the program began, the Fund has provided more than $10 million to over 9,000 employees.

The Nature Conservancy preserves the plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. Since 2006, Lowe's has contributed $5 million to support a variety of conservation activities including land acquisition, efforts to restore healthy ecosystems, waterway clean up and bay and estuary restoration in the northeastern United States.

As more and more college athletes feel the pressure to turn professional before graduation, we honor one student each year from various NCAA Division 1 sports with the Lowe's Senior C.L.A.S.S. Award (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School). Those honored are students whose academic performance equals their commitment to their team. Commonly hailed as “the right award at the right time” by many of these nominees, the award helps to foster a climate of young people building successful careers and using their skills to make a positive impact in their lives.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America, through youth programs and activities in neighborhood clubs, helps over 4 million kids each year by focusing on academic success, healthy lifestyles, and good character and citizenship building. In 2009, Lowe's granted $1 million to help renovate 19 clubs in dense, urban areas.