User:VZBob/Corporate responsibility

Corporate responsibility
The Verizon Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, donating about $70 million per year to nonprofit organizations, with a focus on education, domestic violence prevention, and energy management. , the Foundation Center ranked the Verizon Foundation as the 16th largest corporate foundation by total giving. Between 2000 and 2012, it awarded a total of more than half a billion dollars in grants to over 50,000 nonprofits. Verizon has been involved in a number of education initiatives, especially related to STEM fields, including: a national competition for students to develop mobile application concepts; the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program, providing professional development for teachers in underserved areas; and pledging $100 million in cash and in-kind services as part of President Obama's ConnectED program to provide students with wireless service, software, and electronic devices. The company also runs HopeLine, which provides used mobile phones to victims of domestic violence, and a program that offers grants for victims of domestic violence to start or grow home-based businesses. As of October 2014, HopeLine had given over $21 million to organizations in the U.S. and approximately 180,000 devices to victims. As part of an initiative to reduce the company's carbon intensity metrics by 50 percent by 2020, Verizon announced planned investment of $100 million in 2013, and a further $40 million in 2014 to install solar panels and natural gas fuel cells at its facilities. The increased capacity would make Verizon the leading solar power producer among U.S. communications companies.