Community and Education

Volunteer Program

One day after our A Day Made Better event in October 2007, our U.S. Operations launched the OfficeMax Volunteer Program to provide the company and our communities with direction, structure and resources for improving education in our communities, in grades K-12.

The Volunteer Program, based on the success of A Day Made Better and on a 2006 volunteer pilot program, is designed to involve associates in decisions regarding which initiatives to support, within pre-established guidelines. The goals of the program are as follows:
• Support the volunteerism of OfficeMax associates in improving the delivery of education.
• Create or enhance relationships between OfficeMax and local schools and education-focused nonprofits.
• Improve teamwork between OfficeMax associates within and across departments and functions.
• Provide a basis for reporting on key OfficeMax associate volunteer activities in their communities.

Through the OfficeMax Volunteer Program, district managers, territory senior vice presidents, market sales leaders, directors of operations and other leaders, can apply for grants to be used for product or financial donations to education-focused nonprofit organizations or K-12 schools.

Grant requests are reviewed by a cross-functional Volunteer Program Review Committee (which replaced the Corporate Contributions Committee established in 2006 to review our overall approach to philanthropy). The responsibilities of the Review Committee are to approve or reject volunteer grant applications, help navigate the new program, act as champions by promoting the program to field associates and communicate with associates in the field.

All volunteer efforts eligible for funding under the new program must focus on improving K-12 education. Volunteer efforts are to involve at least five associates, and the organizations receiving the funds must have also benefited from the volunteerism of OfficeMax associates. Funding priority is given to efforts that involve OfficeMax associates from a variety of locations or functions and/or that directly support teachers. Such initiatives are eligible for higher funding levels.

All funds from the program must be dispersed to either a public school or an education-based nonprofit organization. Recipient organizations are subject to verification of their nonprofit status and conformance to all other Federal requirements for charitable giving. These funds can be dispersed in the following ways:
• Donations to teachers through Adopt-A-Classroom
• Checks made out directly to an eligible nonprofit organization or school
• Products to be used by the organization or school in support of its efforts to improve public education
• OfficeMax gift card(s) for the school or nonprofit organization
• Sponsorships to eligible organizations that assist in developing an eligible volunteer event