New Report: What Does Wal-Mart Do With Your Money?
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The National Council for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) today issued a new report about the philanthropy of Wal-Mart and the Walton family. Given Wal-Mart’s role as the world’s largest corporate grantmaker, NCRP’s report – the first comprehensive report profiling the Walton Family and Wal-Mart Foundations – provides greater scrutiny of the impact of the corporation and the Walton billionaires across American society. NCRP praises the efforts of Wal-Mart Watch and urges continued scrutiny monitoring the family and corporation’s power and wealth.
Key findings of the NCRP report include:
• The Wal-Mart Foundation’s grantmaking has exploded in recent years; in 1998, it gave out $66 million in grants; in 2004, $170 million (through about 100,000 different grants).
• As lawsuits and community opposition have been mounting, the company’s philanthropic contributions have increased.
• Wal-Mart fails to meet IRS disclosure regulations and lists only the grant recipient name and grant amount in its IRS 990 filings. It fails to provide the addresses of grant recipients and purpose of the grants, which are required by current federal laws and regulations.
• The Wal-Mart PAC has rapidly increased its activity in the past decade, doling out $110,000 to political candidates and organizations in 1994—in the 2004 election cycle, the PAC’s contributions came to $2.1 million, with $1.6 million going to Republican candidates or organizations.
• Sam Walton’s wife, Helen, and their 4 surviving children are collectively the world’s wealthiest family, estimated to be worth collectively nearly $100 billion.
• The goals of some of the Walton Family Foundation’s program areas would open new, lucrative markets for the family to enter through its business holdings (bringing “pro-market” reforms to public education, for example).
The full report – including the top 20 recipients of school reform and school voucher movement funding from the Walton Family Foundation – is available online at www.ncrp.org/index.asp.
