Just like with social networking, AT&T dives its feet into several community relations endeavors. AT&T has one primary charitable foundation, the AT&T Foundation, that supports several different initiatives including AT&T Cares, AT&T Pioneers and AT&T Aspire. I will examine each of these initiatives in this blog but first here is a little background...
In 2009, nearly $152 million was contributed back into the community through AT&T's corporate, employee and Foundation giving programs. The AT&T Foundation’s main focus is to enhance the communities AT&T reaches and serves with their services. This ties into AT&T’s mission statement because they continuously attempt to make a difference in each of the local communities they serve and therefore make each customer feel like they are a valued consumer.
Now let me teach you a bit about some of AT&T’s community service initiatives:
AT&T Cares
AT&T Cares is an interesting and unique concept; the goal of which is to get AT&T employees engaged in community service for causes that they are passionate about. The AT&T Cares Council is made up of one ambassador from each business unit to make sure that all departments of AT&T’s busines are involved and that all employees have the opportunity to become engaged in the initiative. The areas of volunteerism the company focuses on are education, social services and the environment. Last year, AT&T employees and retirees, donated more than 8.5 million hours of time, worth more than $170 million, to community outreach activities (CNN). Pretty impressive!
One example of how employees get involved is through the Share Our Strength Campaign, the leading
national organization that strives to put an end to childhood hunger in
AT&T Aspire
Another way AT&T gives back to the 
community is through the AT&T Aspire, a philanthropic commitment to address high school success and workforce readiness. The initiatives mission is to give grants to school districts and foundations that focus on preparing students for the college and workforce.
The reason that this is such an important cause for AT&T and one of the company’s key inititiaves is because AT&T with their strong community focus sees young peop
le as the future and wants all young people to have a chance to succeed. One way they do this is by addressing the high school dropout epidemic. AT&T is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities and improving lives. The foundation supports projects that create opportunities, make connections and address communities’ needs that affect employees and their customers. To address the high school dropout epidemic, AT&T started the Job Shadow initiative where members of the AT&T Pioneers volunteer to job shadow young students and help teach them and enhance vital job skills. Here is a video that explains AT&T’s strive to help students through job shadowing.
AT&T Pioneers
While I touched upon the AT&T Pioneers program above as the AT&T Pioneers play a crucial role in all of AT&T’s community in
itiatives, is it is important to further explain who makes up the AT&T Pioneers and what they do. The AT&T Pioneers consist of over 325,000 employees and retirees completely on a volunteer basis. Not only do they support the Share Our Strength campaign and the Job Shadowing initiative, but they are also there in times of critical need. For example, AT&T Pioneers regularly supply troops and victims of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Haiti with online video chats with family at AT&T phone banks. They have set up multiple phone stations overseas for soldiers to be able to call home. This directly plays into AT&T’s company strengths as they are using their products and services to provide valuable and much needed good will to the community. In addition, AT&T Pioneers have launched a text messaging campaign with proceeds benefiting the Red Cross. Here is a commercial that advertises AT&T disaster relief efforts.
Final Thoughts
AT&T’s community work has not gone unnoticed. This active community of employees and retirees has been recognized regularly for their good work and community service focus. Just recently, Ladies’ Home Journal honored AT&T with the “Do Good” Stamp for their community giving programs including AT&T Pioneers. Here is a list of other awards AT&T has earned.
It is clear that these community relations support groups do nothing but enhance AT&T’s reputation as one that cares about the communities they serve. If I was an AT&T customer, I would be proud to know that I am part of a community that is bigger than just telecommunications.
Just as with AT&T’s social networking skills, it is hard to see what the organization is “lacking” from a community relations perspective. They are involved in several fascists that suit their origin.
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