Giving Back to Your Community
Stewart’s Shops/Dake Family has a goal to donate $9 million annually. Stewart’s Shops and the two related family foundations will each donate $3 million to thousands of local charities. This total includes our Holiday Match Program in which Stewart’s matches all customer donations made in our shops from Thanksgiving Day through Christmas Day. Stewart’s Holiday Match customers have helped us raise over $38 million for thousands of organizations since the program’s inception in 1986. Also, as a good corporate citizen, we support a local charity at many of our new shop openings.
How does it work?
It is never a question of whether we’ll give, but rather to whom. Our selection of organizations is based on the following considerations: We support organizations within our market area that focus on meeting the changing needs of their recipients rather than perpetuating the status quo. Our charitable focus is health, education, children’s recreation, and the arts. We value organizations with extensive volunteer support and minimum fund-raising costs, avoiding organizations that are already tax supported or have a large amount of overhead. We try to be as generous as possible to a large number of organizations but are committed to making the maximum positive impact in the categories we consider a priority.
We avoid cause-related and religious organizations*, as we feel they are a matter for an individual’s preference and conscience. Our communities have more than enough specific needs, so we give to those providing a service, as opposed to those supporting a cause. We reserve our contribution dollars for people versus animals and therefor do not support animal welfare organizations. We support local organizations that may not have as broad a base of funding or the wide-spread emotional appeal of national health organizations. We refrain from secondary giving in which we give to someone, so they can in-turn give to someone else. We do not donate directly to individuals or benefits for individuals, and we do not support adult recreation groups.
In addition to this reasonably structured program, we also have funds reserved for those unusual opportunities that may have an especially positive impact on our communities. We cannot support these special needs on a continual basis without hurting the overall program but can provide one-time funding so they can get back on their feet.
Also, we offer a Matching Gift Campaign towards those projects we find worthy of a community push. The campaign can be for one week in two shops or two weeks in one shop, where we match customers’ contributions for a particular project up to $5,000. An example of this would be to help a community playground build. This is just another way We Are Closer To You.
Let us share with the community how Stewart’s Shops donations have helped your organization or event. Please send pictures to photo@stewartsshops.com (.jpg or .png files preferred).
*We may donate to religious organizations if they serve the community as a whole via soup kitchen, food pantry, etc. thus providing a service.
In recent years, we’ve experienced a tremendous increase in the volume of donation requests. It is important to understand that while Stewart’s Shops will do its best to accommodate donation requests, we cannot guarantee that a request will be fulfilled, even if there is a prior history of giving. We want to be transparent in our giving process so that all who reach out understand that funding is limited, and we must make difficult decisions to best serve our communities. While we may not be able to honor all requests due to volume or other factors, rest assured we carefully review each submission and do our best to accommodate whenever possible.
