Lenovo 2013 Annual Report Download - page 93

2012/13 Annual Report Lenovo Group Limited 91
SOCIAL INVESTMENTS
Lenovo’s Next Generation Hope Fund is helping redefine
how Lenovo and our employees support the communities
where we live and do business. We enable doers to
do more through social investment programs targeting
education, entrepreneurship, disaster relief and regional
community outreach. Lenovo provides assistance through
financial contributions, equipment donations, and employee
volunteer hours. As a company, Lenovo annually commits
up to 1% of pre-tax income to global social investment
programs. To measure success, we evaluate the
effectiveness of each investment against predefined goals
upon program completion.
Lenovo aims to advance, enhance and extend education
at all levels. We support education-related programs
and initiatives through our industry-leading products
and technologies, community investments and program
sponsorships. We do not limit the scope of our education
related social investments, but rather we consider each
opportunity based on its own merits. Lenovo donates
equipment, provides financial contributions and lends
expertise to schools and related organizations across
all global markets. Lenovo supports global education
investments in both K-12 and higher education.
During FY 2012/13, Lenovo introduced an innovative
competitive grant program targeting employees who
play a significant volunteer role within a local non-profit
organization. This program, Employee Doers for Youth,
which was funded by Lenovo’s Next Generation Hope
Fund, provided three youth-focused non-profit organizations
with a total financial and Lenovo laptop donation of up to
US $20,000. Three region-based selection committees
reviewed nearly 30 applications from Lenovo employees
and selected the winners based on various categories
including organization capacity and project impact.
Of the 793 million people in the world who are illiterate,
two-thirds are female. To help address this inequity,
Lenovo’s Asia Pacific/Latin America region established
an exclusive technology partnership with Room to Read,
one of the fastest growing NGOs in the world, Lenovo
has donated US $400,000 worth of ThinkPad laptops to
support its Girls’ Education Program in India, Vietnam and
other countries in the Asia Pacific region.
The Lenovo ThinkPads will be used by Room to Read’s
staff and volunteers to improve their operational efficiency
in monitoring and documenting the progress of more than
16,000 at-risk girls in these countries, and enhance the
organization’s effectiveness in program administrations.
Room to Read senior spokespersons also use Lenovo
ThinkPad technology as they travel around the world to
raise awareness about Room to Read and its mission.
In 2012, Lenovo partnered with DoSomething.org and
Microsoft Bing for “The Hunt: 11 Days of Doing,” a
campaign in the U.S. with TV celebrity spokesperson
Shenae Grimes, inspiring teens across the nation to take
action and make a real difference in their communities
through 11 days of themed challenges. The Hunt embraced
all facets of volunteerism on a variety of platforms focused
on issues including the environment (energy), recycling,
poverty and homelessness, violence and bullying, health
and fitness, discrimination, disaster response and relief,
education, and animal welfare. All three organizations
combined resources and strategies utilizing traditional and
social media to generate awareness for the 2012 campaign
on a national scale.