SC Johnson Giving

OVERVIEW: SC Johnson Giving prioritizes economic development, access to healthcare, the environment, education and empowering low-income communities within the areas where the company operates.

IP TAKE: SC Johnson has a penchant for awarding numerous small grants rather than just a few large ones. Grantseekers should be aware that improving the lives of local community residents is key to securing SC Johnson funding. It is relatively accessible for a corporate funder.

Johnson has separate application portals for the US and Canada, so grantseekers need to be vigilant here. A large number of grants have supported colleges and universities lately; grantseekers will want to emphasize their project’s connection to local education.

PROFILE: Based in Racine, Wisconsin, SC Johnson Giving is the charitable arm of the company SC Johnson. This foundation dedicates many resources to supporting its local community; however, it devotes similar attention to the over 125 local communities in which the company operates globally. Citing its corporate Purpose statement, which articulates its goal to make a positive impact in all of the communities in which it operates, the foundation is committed to its communities. It gives five percent of all pretax profits to charity. SC Johnson’s current areas of focus are A More Sustainable World, A Healthier World and A World With More Opportunity.

Grants for Global Development, Community and Economic Development

SC Johnson’s initiative for grants for A World With More Opportunity broadly supports programs and projects that “open doors for those in need by strengthening communities while advancing economic and social mobility through equal access to education and housing.” The program does not name more specific goals. Recent grantees include the United Way of Racine County in Wisconsin, Racine’s Gateway Technical College, the Dollars for Doers Program of Massachusetts and the Sons and Daughters Program of Wisconsin.

Grants for the Environment

The company’s grantmaking for A More Sustainable World seeks to promote plastics recycling as well as conservation initiatives for oceans and forests. SC Johnson gave $1.5 million to support the Caatinga Association’s efforts to preserve and catalogue more than 2,240 plant and animal species in Brazil’s Caatinga Region. In the U.S., grants have gone to the Nature Conservancy and Plastic Bank, which aims to reduce plastic in the world’s ocean’s by increasing the amount of material that is recycled yearly.

Grants for Public and Global Health

Grants for A Healthier World focus on global food insecurity, improving healthcare systems and access and eliminating diseases caused by parasites. In 2017, SC Johnson and its partners created an initiative in Rwanda to support malaria prevention efforts. In the U.S. it has supported the Children’s Hospital of Colorado, the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center.

Grants for Early Childhood, K-12 and Higher Education

Grantmaking for education stems from SC Johnson’s commitment to A World With More Opportunity. The program indicates a commitment to STEM education, but grantmaking appears to be broad and focused mainly on higher education. SC Johnson provides ongoing support to Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, as well as University of Wisconsin campuses at Whitewater, River Falls and Parkside, Oshkosh, Madison and Milwaukee. Other higher education recipients include St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, Bradley University, Northwestern University and Missouri State University, among several others. K-12 grantees include the Phoenix Country Day School, the International School of Denver, Deerfield Academy and the Prairie School in Wind Point, Wisconsin.

Important Grant Details:

SC Johnson grants have been awarded in amounts exceeding $3 million, but most grants fall into the $5,oo0 to $20,000 range. Grantmaking strongly prioritizes communities in which the company has a “major” operational presence. Education receives the largest grants, almost $20 million between 2013 and 2018, compared to just over $200,000 for community and economic development, $455,000 for human services, and $42,000 for the environment. This funder also gives large sums to the SC Johnson Special Charitable Trust and the Johnson Foundation.

SC Johnson will not make grants to individuals, political causes, religious institutions, or social, athletic, veteran, labor, or fraternal organizations. This funder indicates that it accepts applications for funding on a rolling basis, but at this writing, it does not provide a live link to its application portal. the It has a separate portal for its Canadian Applications.

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