A Foundation of Giving: How One Company Cares for its Employees

This case documents the inception, evolution, triumphs and tribulations of the Borders Group Foundation. The Foundation is an employee assistance program that has given over $2 million in support to Borders staff members in need over the past decade. The Foundation offers emergency monetary grants for crisis situations such as illnesses, financial hardships, and natural disasters, as well as educational scholarships, a bereavement response initiative, and several other programs to support employees. The Foundation is funded by employee donations from their own paychecks, and the company contributes fifty cents for each dollar donated by employees.

The case was designed to enrich understandings, and stimulate debate and discussion, about the following issues:

• Vision Implementation: Once organizations have developed a vision, how do they apply and enact it in practice?
• Internal Corporate Social Responsibility: How do organizations care for their own employees, facilitate and institutionalize peer-to-peer, and sustain their heart and humanity as they grow?

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Teaching Note

A teaching note is available at no cost to instructors who order A Foundation of Giving: How One Company Cares for its Employees. To get the teaching note, please contact Janet Max at (734) 647-8154 or jmax@bus.umich.edu.