ADVERTISEMENT
Hammons Products’ business success is rooted in the black walnut trees across the Ozarks and the residents who earn extra income each fall by gathering the nuts for the machines that crack open the hard shells to create the snacks, preserves and candies now shipped all over the world.
So it’s natural that giving back to the community that helped create its success is a corporate value. As the third-generation, Stockton-based family firm’s passion for innovation has grown over time, so has its approach to corporate giving. Hammons Products supports a number of Stockton-area needs through both a corporate charitable fund and a benevolence fund established with the Stockton Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.
“We want to see the community strong and vibrant and that means strong and vibrant organizations reaching out and meeting the needs every community has,” CEO Brian Hammons says. “That helps our employees and some of our customers. It creates a better community when businesses are contributing to its vibrancy and dynamics .”
A corporate benevolence fund allows companies to assist employees going through emergency situations without creating additional taxable income for the employee. Hammons Products uses its fund for employees who have serious medical hardships or emergencies like a house fire.
A number of Joplin-area companies established benevolence funds through the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri to help employees or surviving families of storm casualties after the Joplin tornado.
Carthage-based Leggett & Platt was one of those companies. About 100 employees were directly and seriously affected through injuries, and the loss of family members, homes, and cars.
“We had a lot of people offer a tremendous amount of support between customers, suppliers, vendors and Leggett partners who wanted to know what they could do to help,” says Jared Lightle, L&P human resources specialist. “As we pursued what our options were, one of our executives was familiar with the Community Foundation and knew that might be a good avenue for us to go.”
Leggett & Platt has since expanded its benevolence fund to help any of its 10,000 U.S. employees who experience a major crisis or disaster.
Along with the benevolence fund, Hammons Products opened a corporate charitable fund that supports programs like the Stockton Area Ministerial Alliance and the Stockton Community Foundation’s Hunger Challenge effort marking its 10-year anniversary.
Hammons said the fund streamlines the company’s charitable giving, both from an accounting standpoint, with the CFO providing administrative and investment services, and as a more consistent way to respond to requests. The fund provides a steady pool of resources over time, allowing the company to contribute more in robust years and less during lean years, while still being a consistent source of community support.
“It helps us be more purposeful and intentional in our goal of meeting needs in the community instead of a reactive way when an organization comes knocking at the door,” Hammons says. “One of the big things for us is the consistency and predictability it allows.”
He cites the company’s support for the Ministerial Alliance, as an example, because it coordinates emergency relief, the Christmas basket program, a food pantry, and back-to-school supplies at the discretion of pastors responding to needs.
“We like directing dollars to our local organizations that are close to the ground,” he says. “As a society, we’ve somewhat abdicated our interest and desire in reaching out and meeting our neighbors’ needs; instead, we’ve had to have the government step in and do that.
“There is a certain sense of contributing to a positive spirit and moving the community forward,” he adds. “We do want to be seen as a good corporate citizen and good partner and for folks to know that Hammons Products helped in this situation.”
For more information about corporate charitable funds, contact the CFO at (417) 864-6199; or e-mail
cfo@cfozarks.org.
Click here for the full 2012 Giving Guide.
