Giving Tuesday: Meet the VF Foundation’s 2024 Grantees

In honor of Giving Tuesday, we are excited to highlight some of the 2024 Grantees of the VF Foundation, which granted nearly $3.5 million to 43 organizations around the world in partnership with VF's people and brands in 2024. Since its inception, The VF Foundation, the private grantmaking organization funded by VF Corporation, has been investing in communities around the globe, funding organizations and causes that help create a more active, inclusive and sustainable future.

"We are proud to invest in emerging and established grantees on a local, national, and global level who are catalysts for positive change," said Gloria Schoch, Executive Director of The VF Foundation and Senior Director of Global Impact at VF Corporation. "Our funding is fueling the next generation of workforce talent, empowering vulnerable communities, expanding access to the great outdoors and accelerating promising solutions for the fashion industry to protect our planet."

Highlighted below are some of the 2024 grantees, all working to advance progress towards The VF Foundation's priority areas.

Driving a More Accessible Outdoors, Fashion Industry and Trades

The VF Foundation works to lift barriers to outdoor exploration and foster career opportunities in fashion and trades. In 2024 The Foundation invested in the following organizations:

• Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design to pilot the development of a national high school curriculum and youth outdoor product design competition in partnership with the National Arts Education Association. The program will culminate in a summer pre-collegiate program to solve real design challenges to prepare students for future careers in the fashion industry.
• Fashion Scholarship Fund Community Colleges Initiative to foster an inclusive pipeline of U.S. talent for the fashion industry by supporting young adults of promise pursuing less-traditional educational pathways.
• Real Deal Revolution to spark a passion for the trades through hands-on educational trainings and workshops across the U.S. in partnership with women's organizations and Dickies^®.
• NoisyVision to provide the sensory disability community the opportunity to explore nature through inclusive hiking experiences in Italy in partnership with Timberland^®.
• Trust for Public Land to launch a National Trail Activation Fund in partnership with Altra^® to expand America's Trail Networks, to pilot a community youth clinic with The North Face^® athletes as part of The North Face^® Climb Festival in Brooklyn, New York and to seed the development of community-driven Green Schoolyards on nature-deprived Tribal lands.

Empowering Vulnerable Communities

The VF Foundation works to uplift under-resourced communities around the world. The Foundation is helping to address core obstacles in community development and help create lasting economic improvement intended to benefit future generations. To help achieve these goals, the Foundation is funding organizations that mobilize resources to empower local decision-making and action, such as:

• Resilience Fund for Women in Global Value Chains , a first-of-its-kind collaborative funding initiative, bringing together corporate investors, foundations and NGO partners to invest in the health, safety and economic resilience of the women who form the backbone of global value chains in Southeast Asia.
• Shimmy Technologies, Inc., a pilot program expansion to upskill garment workers in Bangladesh and Honduras equipping them with the necessary training to thrive in an industry embracing automation.
• Water.org to provide an estimated 60 million liters per year of volumetric benefit in communities facing water scarcity, giving 10,000 people in Nairobi, Kenya access to improved water and sanitation solutions through microloan programs.
• Skateistan to fuel capacity building efforts to grow and scale educational programing, leadership training, and skate schools worldwide for marginalized children and youth in partnership with Vans^®.

Conservation Education and Protecting our Planet

The VF Foundation is investing in education, research, and circular and regenerative practices in fashion and apparel, including promising innovations in reducing textile waste, supporting local farmers and fueling jobs to advance a sustainable future. A handful of grant recipients in this space include:

• Wildmon to invest in an ecoacustics pilot with smallholder farmers in southern Thailand to quantify the ecological benefits of regenerative rubber farming practices compared to conventional moncultures in partnership with Timberland^®, The North Face^®, and Vans^®.
• Industrial Commons Material Return to fund the creation and implementation of a digital inventory system to track the reuse of textile waste through its lifecycle to achieve Recycling Claims Standard (RCS) certification to extend the life cycle of U.S. made products in the market and fuel jobs in partnership with Smartwool^®.
• Forum for the Future to support policy advocacy efforts as a lever of change by helping advance incentives and an enabling infrastructure for U.S. cotton farmers to benefit from adopting regenerative practices.
• World Business Council for Sustainable Development CTI Fashion Initiative to propel harmonized global standards, metrics, data and best practices to scale up a circular fashion industry.
• Protect our Winters Europe to fund a white paper, film, and educational programming in partnership with Icebreaker^® to explore how glacier loss affects the world's drinking water, the food we grow, and the energy that powers our lives.

Providing Humanitarian Aid

When disasters strike, the VF Foundation provides coordinated support for humanitarian relief and recovery efforts to support communities where VF operates around the world. This includes monetary investments, employee matching grants, coordinated volunteer efforts, and product donations. Partners this year include:

• American Red Cross to support the hardest-hit communities in the southeast region of the U.S. impacted by Hurricane Helene and Milton, delivering life-saving aid and supplies.
• Soles4Souls to provide shoes and clothing to victims of the Valencia Floods in Spain as they rebuild their lives in partnership with VF's brands.

We hope these partners inspire you to find organizations to support in your communities around the globe that are close to your heart this holiday season.

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