Coca-Cola Foundation
/OVERVIEW: This Atlanta-based funder prioritizes causes related to women’s empowerment, clean water, and community well-being. Coca-Cola funds causes around the world, but has local and regional foundations, too, and a strong presence in the Southeast.
IP TAKE: The Coca-Cola Foundation tends to support large grants for larger organizations; however, smaller organizations are welcome to apply and shouldn’t be intimidated. In particular, if you’re smaller, network with an employee to get on its radar, depending on the space in which you work. Though this is a bureaucratic funder, it’s more accessible than similar corporate foundations, but it takes lots of patience in a crowded field.
Grant seekers can apply for support at any time of the year and there is no dollar limitation for community support applications. It takes about two months from application submission until the date Coca-Cola issues a response. This is not a funder that typically welcomes inquiries about submitting applications, but rather directs grant seekers to its online system. General inquiries should be directed to the staff at cocacolacommunityrequest@coca-cola.com.
PROFILE: Founded in 1984, the Coca-Cola Foundation is the “primary philanthropic arm” of the Coca-Cola Company. The foundation commits one percent of its annual operating income to its charitable giving, which up until 2007, primarily supported programs related to education. In 2007, the foundation expanded its philanthropic reach “to include global water stewardship programs, fitness and nutrition efforts and community recycling programs.” Coca-Cola prioritizes grantmaking to women, water, well-being, and on a smaller scale, the environment and youth. In the United States, Coca-Cola also supports natural disaster response and recovery efforts, community economic development, and arts and culture programs. In Africa and Latin America, the foundation expands its giving priorities to include support for HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness programs.
The Coca-Cola Foundation lists three primary, broad and far-reaching funding areas: Empowering women, which it defines as economic empowerment and entrepreneurship; Protecting the environment, which includes access to clean water, water conservation and recycling; and Enhancing communities, which supports education, youth development and other community and civic initiatives.
Grants for the Environment, Marine and Fresh Conservation
Water stewardship reflects one of the foundation’s funding priority areas, Protecting the Environment. Coca-Cola awards water stewardship to organizations that protect watersheds in water-stressed regions and promote water conservation awareness within local communities and industries. Big water-related grants have been awarded to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which received a $2.25 million grant in support of its New World: Inclusive Sustainable Human Development Initiatives. The initiatives were launched by Coca-Cola and the UNDP in 2014 and operate across multiple countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Other past grantees include the Ocean Conservancy and the Cahaba Rivers Society.
Grants for Economic Development and Women
In a 2014 media release announcing the foundation’s increased focus on women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment, Lori George Billingsley, Global Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Coca-Cola Company, said, “We know that empowering women to be entrepreneurs and leaders yields dividends of community growth, prosperity and sustainability.” Coca-Cola’s Empowering Women program is one of its three major grantmaking priorities, and its grants prioritize women’s entrepreneurship, including “education, skills-based training, and other personal and professional development resources.”
Past grantees include the Atlanta Women’s Foundation, which received support for its Pathway to Success Program, and Covenant House Georgia, which received a grant for its Safe Start for Women outreach programs.
Grants for Education
The Coca-Cola Foundation makes grants for education through its Enhancing Communities initiative. These grants support K-12 students through funding for local projects and programs, and college students via scholarship programs. Coca-Cola does occasionally make grants to both public and private colleges and universities, as well as educational organizations supporting college completion.
Grants for K-12 Education
The Coca-Cola Foundation supports a broad range K-12 education projects around the world. through its water and well-being funding initiatives. Coca-Cola does not outline specific priorities for its education funding; rather, it takes a broad approach to education grantmaking through its various initiatives. In the United States, some of the foundation’s past K-12 projects include Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a Boston-based program that has involved 30,000 students in hands-on marine ecology programs, and Rock to the Future, a program that provides music instruction and academic support to underprivileged students in Philadelphia. Internationally, the foundation has supported the Social Wolves Foundation of Poland, which brings high school and college students together to discuss and solve problems in local communities.
Grants for Higher Education
Most of the Coca-Cola Foundation’s support for higher education is in the form of scholarship programs, including the signature Coca-Cola Scholars program. In recent years, the foundation funded numerous first-generation, minority and women’s scholarship programs. Public and private colleges and universities as well as educational organizations supporting college completion have received funding. Past grantees include American Indian College Fund, Morehouse College, and Loyola Marymount University.
Grants for Housing & Homelessness, Community Development
Coca-Cola’s Enhancing Communities grants support initiatives including, but not limited to, “educational scholarships,” “drop-out prevention programs,” “youth development initiatives,” and “locally designated critical issues.”
Past grantees include the Gateway Center, for “increased services, from immediate housing to medical care, for Atlanta's chronically homeless population;” Back on My Feet, to expand its “mentor‐focused running team and its financial literacy and professional development skills training courses” for women experiencing homelessness; and Operation Renewed Hope Foundation, which provides “homeless prevention assistance with necessary financial resources and other supportive mechanisms” to veterans and their families in Washington D.C.
Grants for Public Health
Ironically, the Coca-Cola Foundation spends most of its domestic public health money to combat the problems its products help create. Promoting healthy and active lifestyles is a primary goal of the foundation, if not of its parent company.
In 2015, the Coca-Cola Company made headlines for funding public health research that promotes misleading ideas about obesity. As the largest producer of sugary beverages in the world, Coca-Cola is at the center of a public health crisis. By and large, the broader scientific community agrees that Coca-Cola products are a contributing factor to a growing obesity epidemic. In response, according to the New York Times, poured money into Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN), a crisis management campaign dressed up as science.
Funded almost entirely by Coca-Cola, GEBN was founded on the premise that Americans are too concerned with what they consume and not concerned enough with being active. In a video introducing the group, GEBN Vice President Steven N. Blair denied that there is evidence linking sugary drinks to obesity, contradicting the majority of health experts who say that sugary drinks play a role in the spread of obesity and type 2 diabetes, and evidence that shows exercise has only minimal impact on weight compared with what people consume.
The Coca-Cola Foundation makes public health grants through its Enhancing Communities initiative. Around half of these health grants stay within the United States and nearly all of those are awarded in support of fitness and nutrition programs. The foundation also gives grants to domestic water stewardship initiatives, COVID-19 relief and response programs, and HIV/AIDS causes, but most of that is directed internationally.
Past health grantees include Agent of Change Foundation Limited, The Henry W Grady Health System Foundation Inc., and San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Grants for Global Development
The foundation splits its global development giving into three categories: active and healthy living; education and youth development; and water stewardship. Coca-Cola’s active and healthy living and health-related grantmaking support organizations promoting healthy lifestyles through increased physical activity and good nutrition. The foundation also supports HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness programs in Latin America and Africa.
The Coca-Cola Foundation’s education and youth development grants largely focus on education and skills development in youth populations in an effort to advance socio-economic development—particularly in youth bulge regions of the world such as Africa.
Finally, water stewardship is one of the Coca-Cola Company's corporate credos, and its foundation's charitable water work is guided by the company's environmental goals. Among these: returning water in amounts equal to what the company removes from a region; increasing water use efficiency; mitigation of water risk; and the treatment and recycling of wastewater. The foundation shows a preference for projects that are water-related and provide an economic boon for the community in some other capacity. Much of Coke’s water and sanitation giving occurs through the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF).
Past global development grantees include The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Population and Community Development Association, and Friends of City University Inc.
Grants for Humanitarian and Disaster Relief
The Coca-Cola Foundation's outreach enjoys a global presence and often gives to equally recognizable, international organizations, such as the Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity. Besides grant support for disaster relief, the Coca-Cola Foundation also provides bulk shipments of beverages to regions where clean water is scarce. While grants can be generous in their amounts, the foundation remains strict about what community requests it fulfills.
The foundation also matches employee donations for disaster relief: “Our community commitment is shared across The Coca-Cola system. When natural disasters strike, The Coca-Cola Foundation and the entire Coca-Cola system respond to offer emergency relief. Through the Coca-Cola Matching Gifts Program, eligible employees make personal contributions to qualified organizations and The Coca-Cola Foundation matches those contributions on a 2-for-1 basis.”
Past humanitarian and disaster relief grantees include American National Red Cross, Medshare International, and CBCP Caritas Filipinas Foundation, Inc., for earthquakes in the southern Philippines which caused extensive damage to homes, businesses, and roadways.
Grants for Georgia
Coca-Cola was created in Columbus, GA and it is headquartered in Atlanta, so it makes sense that much of Coca-Cola’s local support is centered on the Atlanta metro area and Georgia. This is a good funder to know for high-profile local groups working in health and the environment. Specific to the Southeast, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation was established in 1986 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is the only local/regional Coca-Cola Foundation in North America. This is also a funder that supports natural disaster emergency relief and matching grants.
Past local support has gone to the following organizations: Atlanta Women’s Foundation, The Atlanta Police Foundation; Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Inc., Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, and Georgia-Alabama Land Trust. The foundation has also recently given a grand total of $3.8 million to community exercise and nutrition programs throughout Georgia.
Important Grant Details:
Applicants must submit requests for funding through the foundation’s online application system. Coca-Cola only considers gives funding for proposals that meet its guidelines and strategic objectives.
Coca-Cola Foundation grants range from $10,000 to $1 million, but most grants fun from $25,000 to $500,000. It does not limit grantmaking geographically. New grant seekers can apply for Coca-Cola grants via the online application system.
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