Kimberly-Clark Employees Use Their Skills to Support Social Enterprises Helping to End Poverty
One of the ways Kimberly-Clark lives its purpose to provide better care for a better world and uplift a billion lives by 2030 is by energizing its employees to create change.
The company partnered with We Make Change to host a Change Day to give Kimberly-Clark employees the opportunity to use their skills to make a positive impact. Twenty employees from around the world volunteered their expertise to support four social enterprises helping to end poverty.
Kimberly-Clark employees were matched with a social enterprise based on the causes they care about and the skills the social enterprises needed. During a five-hour session, the employees worked to support the social enterprises with what they needed, including marketing strategies, financial planning, and business strategy.
At the end of the day, Kimberly-Clark employees and the social enterprises presented their work together, including the steps they would take beyond the Change Day to grow the impact of the social enterprises.
The social enterprises they supported were:
- era92 Creative: Helps disadvantaged youth in Africa develop skills in art, design and technology and turn these skills into sustainable work.
- MKCurvy: Seeks to infuse colorful fabrics typically worn in Africa into mainstream fashion with all of its clothing pieces produced in Africa within a woman-driven supply chain.
- S4S Technologies: Trains landless women farmers to become micro-entrepreneurs by equipping them with the right combination of technology, finance, and market; and also provide solar dryers to farmers to process vegetables and buy back processed produce from them.
- The Bra Recyclers: Reduces the number of usable textiles going into our landfills while providing substantial benefit to women and girls escaping domestic violence and human trafficking.
Nwamaka Agbakoba, the founder of MKCurvy, said of the day: “This Change Day was an amazing opportunity to network with sharp minds and kind hearts to develop solid bones for our supply chain and marketing strategies. The simple, insightful questions asked of our team went such a long way towards building a more effective and sustainable company poised for growth and massive social impact.”
Pete Dulcamara, the chief scientist and technical vice president at Kimberly-Clark and a co-sponsor of the event, said: “Change Day provided a unique opportunity for our employees to gain consumer insights that we might not get any other way. It also allowed our employees to use their skills and experience to positively impact a social enterprise, and employees left the day inspired by the purpose, passion, and persistence of the social entrepreneurs they met that day – I know I did.”
Employees play an integral role in helping Kimberly-Clark achieve its 2030 goal to advance the well-being of 1 billion people. For more information about Kimberly-Clark's 2030 ambitions, visit kimberly-clark.com/esg.
