Fall 2008 Issue
CDC Foundation Partnerships a “Win-Win” for Corporations and CDC
The CDC Foundation offers businesses of all sizes an opportunity to support CDC's work. For CDC, these partnerships bring additional resources and expertise to bear on a challenging public health issue. For businesses, these partnerships offer benefits beyond the value of making a typical charitable donation.
Below is a short profile of how a series of CDC Foundation partnerships with Arch Chemicals, Inc. helped CDC improve water safety and helped Arch meaningfully connect their charitable giving to their corporate mission and goals.
Arch Chemicals, Inc. produces biocides, or chemicals that selectively destroy or control the growth of bacteria, viruses and other harmful microbes. Arch employs 3,000 individuals and has 26 manufacturing sites around the world. Since 2004, Arch has made several small grants to the CDC Foundation to support CDC projects.
“As a relatively small company, we have to be very strategic about the projects we fund and the partners we select,” explains Laura Tew, director of stakeholder relations for Arch. “Working with CDC through the CDC Foundation is a great combination. Our board recognizes the value of working with both CDC, a truly science-based organization that achieves tangible results, and the CDC Foundation, an independent organization that can ensure high accountability and stewardship of our funds. And, because we’re a biocides company, our employees have a professional and personal interest in CDC’s work related to the detection and prevention of microbe-related illnesses.”
In 2004, Arch made a $10,000 gift to the Foundation to help launch CDC’s Healthy Swimming in the United States, a program that helps CDC prevent diarrheal disease outbreaks associated with swimming pools and water parks. Because some germs, like Cryptosporidium, can survive for days in even a properly disinfected pool, the project aims to educate swimmers and families about the importance of staying away from pools when you are sick and proper swimming hygiene. The project also provides guidelines to pool operators on training staff, educating swimmers, maintaining equipment and improving bathroom facilities to encourage better hygiene. After seeing the project’s initial success, Arch contributed an additional $30,000 to the project over the next three years.
As a result of the project, the recommendations and guidelines CDC developed are now widely used by pool operators, public health departments and families across the U.S., and project leaders at CDC report that shining a light on the once-overlooked problem has spurred more partners to join the fight to prevent and control swimming-related illnesses.
Two additional small grants to the CDC Foundation helped Arch take their philanthropy global by supporting CDC Safe Water System projects in Bangladesh and Mozambique. Each year 2 to 3 million children under 5 die of diarrheal diseases, which are primarily caused by exposure to contaminated water. The Safe Water System is a simple and inexpensive means to provide families with safe drinking water without investing in complex public infrastructure development. Public health teams distribute narrow-mouthed, lidded containers and a hypochlorite solution and teach families how to use the simple equipment to disinfect their water.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, where nearly 90 percent of water samples collected in one neighborhood were contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria and E-coli, the Arch-funded project helped approximately 6,000 people protect themselves and their children from diarrheal diseases. A similar project in Mozambique supported by Arch established and promoted the use of the Safe Water System in schools, reaching more than 5,000 children who were also able to educate their families about the importance of safe water, hand washing and other good hygiene practices.
Tew affirms that, with approximately half of Arch’s employees working outside the U.S., partnering with an organization with a global reputation like CDC is meaningful.
Says Peggy Geimer, M.D., Arch’s corporate medical director, “I am very proud of Arch’s support of CDC’s humanitarian efforts in the developing world. The professionalism and dedication of CDC scientists in their work protecting the public’s health, especially in the area of water sanitation, both in drinking water and swimming pools, is wonderful. To see our donations put to use for such worthwhile causes is very rewarding.”
Arch continues to participate in conversations with CDC and the Foundation to determine how they can use their resources to make a difference. Says Tew, “Our contacts at CDC and the Foundation work with us to help steer our funding into projects that interest our organization and our employees. They then have the capacity to take a good idea and achieve results.”
Not a biocides company? That’s okay. CDC’s diverse work includes addressing chronic and infectious diseases, injuries and violence, and environmental and occupational health concerns. Contact the CDC Foundation to discuss how your organization’s mission may relate to CDC’s work. Contact Julie Rodgers, director of public-private partnerships, at 404.523.3498 or jrodgers@cdcfoundation.org.
Read more articles from Fall 2008 issue of theFrontLine newsletter