JP Morgan Chase 2015 Annual Report Download - page 39

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V. WEHAVEALWAYSSUPPORTEDOURCOMMUNITIES
Most large companies are outstanding corpo-
rate citizens – and they have been for a long
time. They compensate their people fairly,
they provide critical medical and retirement
plans, and they’re in the forefront of social
policy; for example, in stang a diverse
You seem to be doing more and more to support your communities — how and why?
Since our founding in New York more than
200 years ago, JPMorgan Chase and its
predecessor banks have been leaders in their
communities. This is nothing new. For
example, in April 1906, J.P. Morgan & Co.
made Wall Street’s largest contribution
– $25,000 – to, as The New York Times
described it at the time, “extend practical
sympathy to the stricken people of San
Francisco.” This was two days after the
earthquake that destroyed 80% of the city
and killed 3,000 people. In February 2016, we
played much the same role when the firm
and our employees contributed hundreds of
thousands of dollars to pay for medical
services for children exposed to lead in the
Flint, Michigan, water crisis. And over the
last several years, we have given more than
$20 million to help in the aftermath of
natural disasters, from tsunamis in Asia to
Superstorm Sandy in the northeast United
States (and it was gratifying to see how
employees rallied with their time and with
the full resources of the firm to help).
workforce, hiring veterans and eectively
training people for jobs. They, like all institu-
tions, are not perfect, but they try their best
to obey the spirit and the letter of the laws of
the land in which they operate.
In addition to our annual philanthropic
giving – which now totals over $200 million
a year – we are putting our resources, the
expertise of our business leaders, our data,
relationships and knowledge of global
markets into significant eorts aimed at
boosting economic growth and expanding
opportunity for those being left behind in
today’s economy. We have made long-term
global commitments to workforce readi-
ness, getting small businesses the capital
and support they need to grow, improving
consumer financial health and supporting
strong urban economies. You can read more
detail about these programs on pages 71-72.
And in the sidebars in this section, you can
hear directly from some of our partners
about our eorts. We think these initia-
tives will make a significant contribution
to creating more economic opportunity for
more people around the world.
In particular, I want to tell you about an
exciting new community service program
we have developed that is capitalizing on our
most important resource – the talent of our
people. The Service Corps program recruits
top-performing employees from around the
world to put their skills and expertise to
work on behalf of nonprofit partners that
are helping to build stronger communities.
This program, combining leadership devel-
opment with philanthropic purpose, started
small in Brazil, grew into the Detroit Service
Corps as part of our investment there, and
has now spread across the globe, with proj-
ects in Africa, Asia, and North and South
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