PEORIA, Ill., Dec. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) employees and retirees together with the Caterpillar Foundation have pledged more than $13 million to the United Way agencies across the United States as part of its 2015-2016 campaign. This record amount includes a dollar-for-dollar matching grant from the Caterpillar Foundation. The United Way has been Caterpillar's only annual solicitation for funds to its employees and retirees for more than 60 years.
"Our employees generously give each and every year to the United Way to support their communities, neighbors, and at times, their families and friends. This year is no different, even in the face of continued challenging economic times," said Caterpillar Foundation President Michele Sullivan. "Just over half of the money raised will go to the Heart of Illinois United Way in Peoria, Illinois. Outside of Peoria, our employees and retirees give just as generously, and their contributions are from Nashville, Tennessee, to Corinth, Mississippi, to San Diego, California, and outside the United States in Panama and Mexico as well."
Since the Caterpillar Foundation began investing in the United Way, employees and retirees are able to designate their contributions to the United Way of their choice.
"The United Way is a great way to invest your money in charities where you live," said Sullivan. "It assesses the community needs, finds efficient programs that deliver measurable outcomes and works to eliminate those needs in the future by identifying the causes and creating long-term solutions."
Employees and retirees pledged more than $6.5 million, a 2 percent increase from last year. Caterpillar's overall employee participation in 2015 reached 47 percent, a 3 percent increase from 2014.
"I want to express sincere appreciation to Caterpillar employees for consistently going above and beyond in providing generous contributions and volunteer leadership to United Ways and member agencies," said Michael Stephan, president of Heart of Illinois United Way. "United Ways, and the communities we serve, tremendously benefit from the Caterpillar Foundation's ongoing commitment and support. In my twenty-seven years working for United Ways, I have never experienced a more caring, compassionate company that is committed to partnering with us to ensure vital programs and services are available that positively impact the education, income, and health of our communities."
Caterpillar is part of the United Way's Global Corporate Leadership Program, which includes 95 corporate partners that raise more than $1 billion annually. There are more than 1,110 local United Ways in the United States, and Caterpillar's annual campaign supports more than 500 of these local United Ways where the company's employees live and work.
About Caterpillar:
For 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2014 sales and revenues of $55.184 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments - Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.
About the Caterpillar Foundation:
Founded in 1952, Caterpillar's philanthropic organization, the Caterpillar Foundation has contributed more than $600 million to help make sustainable progress possible around the world by providing program support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to education and basic human needs. To learn more about the global impact of the Caterpillar Foundation, please visit www.caterpillarfoundation.org.
Forward-looking Statements:
Certain statements in this press release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.
Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global and regional economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and regulations; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or government investigations; (xxvi) changes in accounting standards; (xxvii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxviii) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxix) other factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 17, 2015, for the year ended December 31, 2014.
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SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.
