Case Study: Gap, Inc.'s Corporate Pro Bono Leadership

It was the summer of 1969. Man took his first walk on the moon. Nearly 450,000 people gathered in upstate New York to witness the historic Woodstock concert. And Doris and Don Fisher open the first Gap store in San Francisco. Today, Gap Inc. is one of the world’s largest specialty retailers, with more than 3,100 stores and some of the most recognized apparel brands in the world: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Athleta.

Gap Inc.’s commitment to community investment dates back to its founding in 1969, and was formalized in 1977, the year that the Gap Foundation was created. Gap Inc. only had 30 stores and it was unusual at that time for such a small company to formally create a foundation or to facilitate company-wide employee volunteer programs. But the Fishers had a vision: they wanted to build community involvement into the very fabric of Gap Inc. culture. And they did.

Over the years, Gap Inc. has developed and operated a variety of community investment programs for employees around the world. They include programs that match employee donations of time and money; annual days of service; a 10-year-old national job shadowing program called Camp Old Navy conducted in collaboration with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America; the Community Corps recognition program that sends employees on team builds with Habitat for Humanity; the Field Team Grant Program that makes mini-grants to the nonprofits where stores teams do volunteer work; the nonprofit board service program; and an annual, global Adopt-a-Family holiday program. But another key milestone occurred in late 2005 when Bobbi Silten was named Chief Foundation Officer. Under Silten’s leadership, the Foundation embarked upon a strategic planning process that viewed employees’ professional expertise as the most valuable asset that Gap Inc. could offer to the nonprofit community, and the Foundation built a plan that placed skills-based volunteerism at the core of the strategy.

Pro Bono Strategy

The Gap Foundation has focused on a variety of issues since its creation in 1977, but one theme that has remained consistent for the Foundation’s developed world programs is a focus on children and youth. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees wanted to keep this emphasis on youth, but was interested in exploring new ways to bring the work to life. Foundation staff recommended that, given the significant differences between social issues faced in the developed world versus the developing world, there should be two target areas, and the board agreed.

As part of the strategic planning process, the Foundation met with youth experts from private foundations, the nonprofit world, academia, the public sector, and other corporations. Team members asked a few key questions. What societal issues are youth facing today that are not being adequately addressed by other funders? Which issues could have the biggest impact on youths’ long term success? Which youth-related issues would leverage Gap Inc.’s unique corporate assets, especially the professional skills and knowledge of Gap Inc. employees? What youth-related issues would provide the greatest opportunity to maximize impact when multiple corporate assets were combined and invested?

Based on this research, the Board of Trustees approved a focus on underserved youth ages 12-18, targeting programs that deliver career exploration programs and job readiness training. A separate work stream to determine the Foundation’s focus in the developing world resulted in a focus on women, ages 18-30, with an emphasis on programs that develop women’s life and work skills.

Currently, more than 70% of the organizations that receive grants are aligned against these two targets. The Foundation decreased the number of organizations receiving funding so that it could invest higher amounts in few organizations, and supplement cash donations with other resources, especially skills-based volunteerism and pro bono service.

Pro Bono History

For many years, Gap Inc. employees around the world have been sharing their professional skills with nonprofits. A graphic artist designed new fundraising materials for a charter school. An information technology manager helped an animal shelter set up a database to track placements. A human resources director wrote an employee handbook for a large nonprofit that serves new immigrant families. A marketing team conducted focus groups with teenagers to help a national nonprofit get the teen perspective and update program collateral. Without prompting from the Foundation, many employees had contacted and participated in Taproot Foundation projects.

It was exciting to hear that pro bono and skills-based volunteer work was happening organically, but with the completion of the strategic plan in early 2006, the Foundation saw an opportunity to deepen Gap Inc.’s impact in the community by involving more employees and directing skills-based volunteerism toward the target causes. To demonstrate the potential of combining financial donations, employees’ skills, and other corporate assets like store jobs, Gap Inc. launched a youth signature program, This Way Ahead, in 2007. The program is a collaboration between Gap Foundation, Old Navy stores, Gap stores, Gap Inc. Learning & Development, and The Door (a New York City nonprofit for underserved youth ages 14-21). Learning & Development created a curriculum designed to supplement The Door’s existing career readiness program, and the course “supplements” are taught by store leaders from Gap and Old Navy as part of a 16-week after-school training course. The “graduates” of the career exploration and job readiness phase then interview for paid internships in Gap and Old Navy stores, and those who are offered jobs (approximately 40-45% of those who graduate) work 13-hours per week for four-months.

This Way Ahead is designed to help youth explore career options, set goals, and develop work and life skills that will enable them to be successful on their first jobs, whether at Gap, Old Navy, or any other work site. But the most important aspect of the program is that it gives teens the opportunity to engage with professionals from Gap and Old Navy stores who help them see that work can be fulfilling and even fun, and give youth additional motivation to graduate, to continue their educations beyond high school, and invest in the short-term to reap long- term benefits. In 2009, This Way Ahead is running a third cycle in New York City, and will launch in San Francisco in 2010. The program will expand to additional locations in coming years.

Another key activity took place in early 2008: Gap Inc. formalized a relationship with the Taproot Foundation and created a cross-functional Skills-based Volunteerism Steering Committee, with members from Employee Relations, Diversity & Inclusion, College Recruiting, Learning & Development, Gap Foundation, and the Taproot Foundation. The Steering Committee executed a communications plan, primarily directed to corporate employees, to encourage employees to use skills-based volunteerism or pro bono work for professional development. As a result, over 100 employees who had not previously contacted the Taproot Foundation submitted applications that expressed their interest in joining a pro bono team. The Foundation also encouraged all target aligned nonprofit partners to submit proposals for the Taproot Foundation service grants, and provided funding to the Taproot Foundation to support three of these projects.

The Gap Inc. Legal Department decided to take this emphasis on pro bono and skills-based volunteerism to the next level, and made a commitment to participate in on-going pro bono work as a team. In consultation with Gap Foundation, the Legal Department “adopted” two target aligned youth-serving nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area, Breakthrough Collaborative and Youth UpRising. Gap Inc. Legal will serve as in-house counsel to these two organizations, providing advice and consultation on transactional, commercial, intellectual property, employment, and real estate legal matters on an as-needed basis. And one of Gap Inc.’s primary external law firms has agreed to provide pro bono services to these two nonprofits in matters that that Gap Inc. Legal would typically outsource. This collaboration potentially represents many thousands of dollars of pro bono service for the two nonprofits involved.

Pro Bono Vision for the Future

This matrix represents the Gap Inc. vision for skills-based volunteerism within the broader menu of employee engagement options. The long-term goal is to drive the maximum number of hours into the “sweet spot” of target aligned, skills-based volunteerism, as depicted in this diagram. The Foundation will work toward this vision by expanding This Way Ahead and creating a new signature program around capacity building; facilitating more job readiness volunteer opportunities through target aligned community partners; creating more partnerships similar to the Legal team’s approach, and enable other corporate teams to “adopt” nonprofit organizations; and continuing to raise awareness around the many business benefits that come with skills-based and pro bono volunteerism.

Pro Bono in Action

Here is a summary of Gap Inc.’s current pro bono and skills-based volunteerism initiatives:

• Nonprofit Board Service: Gap Inc. promotes and facilitates board placement for executives in corporate and field functions, especially with target-aligned community partners. Gap Inc. also provides funding to the nonprofits with which these executives serve.
• The 10% Team: Employees commit to four-hours per week (i.e., 10% of their time) for a specified time period to volunteer their professional skills internally to a Gap Foundation project or to a project with a target-aligned grantee.
• Taproot Foundation Partnership: Gap Inc.’s Skills-Based Volunteerism Steering Committee, comprised of representatives from Diversity & Inclusion, Recruiting, Employee Relations, Learning & Development, and Gap Foundation, launched a company-wide, internal pro bono consulting program that leverages the Taproot Foundation projects for professional development and training.
• Capacity Building Initiative: This year, Gap Inc. will launch a leadership program that leverages employee talent to create and deliver a capacity building program for the Foundation’s youth-serving community partners.
• This Way Ahead: Gap Inc.’s youth signature program leverages a curriculum designed by Gap Inc. Learning & Development, instructors from Old Navy and Gap stores, and real jobs, to prepare underserved youth for the world of work.

To learn more about the impact Gap, Inc. is making, visit their website.