The Hitachi Foundation Provides $500,000 in Final Grant to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions
Legacy grants support efforts to work with businesses in producing good jobs and building prosperous communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 9, 2017) – The Hitachi Foundation granted the National Fund for Workforce Solutions $500,000 in its final grants before closing on December 31, 2016. The grant will support National Fund operations with a focus on promoting business practices that support good jobs. This includes helping businesses advance their workers and supporting communities in launching job quality efforts.
The grant will augment Good Companies@Work, another Hitachi supported project that invested in four communities to implement job quality strategies with local employers. Regional efforts in Cincinnati, OH; Baltimore, MD; Wisconsin Rapids, WI; and Wichita, KS are focused on incorporating new hiring and training strategies that will enhance productivity and growth while providing better jobs for workers—including new skills training, higher wages, better benefits, improved supervision, opportunities for advancement, and incentive bonuses.
The Hitachi Foundation launched its Good Companies, Good Jobs Strategy in 2016 with three final gifts totaling $11 million to the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC; the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Investors’ Circle in Durham, North Carolina. The grants are intended to extend the Hitachi Foundation’s mission to promote business practices that improve economic opportunities for low-wealth individuals and enhance long-term business value.
Hitachi Foundation President and CEO Barbara Dyer stated, “Through these financial gifts, we hope to build each organization’s capacity and increase the number of good companies with good jobs across the United States.”
The National Fund plans to work with these organizations in promoting good jobs, along with the strategies and programs that help workers and companies succeed.
As an early investor in the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, the Hitachi Foundation has been critical to its long-term success.
National Fund President and CEO Fred Dedrick commented, “The Hitachi Foundation has been with us from the beginning, and their investments helped to drive the National Fund’s focus on employer leadership and business practices that help companies and workers thrive. The Foundation has been committed to scaling successful workforce efforts, growing industry partnership, strengthening local companies and serving tens of thousands of workers and employers.”
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About Good Companies@Work
The Good Companies@Work Initiative supports regional funder collaboratives in working with businesses to improve practices the benefit workers and operations. The National Fund is supporting the following efforts with $50,000 matched grants.
- Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative, Baltimore, MD, is using customer demand to create a “race to the top.” With a focus on green and solar industries, BWFC is working to drive business to socially responsible companies.
- Partners for a Competitive Workforce, Cincinnati, OH, will work with three local manufacturers to analyze and address job quality challenges that create recruiting and retention challenges.
- Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas, Wichita, KS: The PACES project is building on strong relationships with local advanced manufacturing employers to elevate living-wage jobs with cross training and financial literacy tools for frontline employers and supervisor training for managers.
- Workforce Central, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, will launch a technical assistance program for local employers, which will focus on increasing companies’ competitiveness by implementing processes and policies that ensure a strong and engaged workforce.
About the Hitachi Foundation
The Hitachi Foundation is an independent, philanthropic organization that seeks to discover, demonstrate and expand business practices that both measurably improve economic opportunities for low-wealth individuals in the U.S. and enhance long term business value.
Media Contact: Jeff White, VP for Strategic Communications, jwhite@hitachifoundation.org
About National Fund for Workforce Solutions
The National Fund for Workforce Solutions is a national network promoting economic opportunity and prosperous communities through investment and innovation. Based in Washington D.C., the National Fund partners with philanthropy, employers, workers, public and private community organizations, and more than 30 regional collaboratives to invest in skills, improve systems, and generate good jobs. The National Fund supports civic and business leaders in promoting evidence-based practices and policies that build shared prosperity. Learn more about the National Fund and its local partners at www.NationalFund.org.
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