Life Happens.
We Respond.
2022 IMPACT REPORT
Our Impact
Dear friend of the Red Tab Foundation,
While we may have just closed out the 40th year of the Red Tab Foundation (RTF), our work is timeless. Having each other’s backs will never go out of style. While major crises may come and go, the simple everyday hardships that can happen to any of us will persist. And so will our safety net.
At RTF, we do what it takes to address challenges as they change and evolve. Our model gives us the flexibility to create solutions tailormade to the needs of our community. This year alone, we pivoted to help with an unprecedented level of instability, from the Ukrainian refugee crisis to the shifting reproductive care landscape, growing inflation, and more. Our community’s generosity of spirit – and your dollars at work - are what make it all possible.
This year, RTF hit an incredible milestone as our biggest fundraising year ever, bringing in $2.1 million in support. This community stepped up to give more than ever before, unlocking grants to support 1,880 emergencies. Each of those dollars went directly to the people who need it most, granting $2.2 million to help make rent, put food on the table, cover medical emergencies, relocate, and rebuild.
We invite you to take a look at the good work you created this year and continue to partner with us in the years ahead. We look forward to expanding our portfolio and working with you to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Warm Regards,
Jenny Rodriguez, Pete Haas Jr., John Booker
OUR MISSION
RTF is a public, nonprofit foundation that assists LS&Co. employees, retirees and their families facing unexpected financial hardship. RTF provides financial assistance, education, and preventative programs to help these individuals in their efforts to maintain their financial, physical and emotional health.
By the Numbers
$2.2M
in grants delivered
+106%
over pre-pandemic
levels of assistance
1880
emergencies
averted
$2.1M
in dollars
raised/most ever
Where we help
Why It Matters
How we Support
Helping Refugees Get Back on Their Feet
When Inna Kazakova, a stylist from Poland, found herself supporting family members impacted by the crisis in Ukraine, she applied for a hardship grant. “The money I sent my father helped him buy much needed medicines for family, including my grandmother, in a city now under occupation. Part also went to buy a cheap car, as she travels to help people in the occupied territories. As for my mother, when she left Ukraine, she took nothing but the cat and some documents. My grant also helped purchase her clothes, shoes, and everything she needed to get settled with me in Poland,” Inna told us. One of the beautiful things about our work, is that so often, RTF assistance is used to bolster not just individuals, but entire communities. RTF has helped support 21 families like Inna’s with needs from the conflict in Ukraine.
From Medical Emergencies to Everyday Hardships
These thing can happen to just about anyone. Last year, Yan Shu Pan, a Store Manager in Shanghai, was left reeling when in a few short months, her mother developed a brain tumor shortly before her father passed. The bills were piling high. “I felt helpless and confused until I remembered about the Red Tab Foundation. When my family and I needed help, the company and my colleagues really cared. The assistance came very fast, even when Shanghai was closed for two months due to the pandemic. The Red Tab Foundation is like a friend, and it helped me move forward when I felt like I had no backup plan." 13% of RTF assistance last year went to support medical-related requests, our top category of assistance.
Retiree Support & Growing Inflation
“With the economy and inflation at an all-time high I am glad RTF is in my corner. I am a 72yr old retiree on a very fixed income and I have reached out to RTF on more than one occasion for help with things from winter heating to funeral expenses. They always find a way to help. Thank you for all you do for me,” shares retiree Linda Gentry. 37% Of RTF support goes to LS&Co. retirees, often former manufacturing employees who spent 20+ years making LS&Co.’s iconic products.
Eldercare support: RTF offers extra services to help the elderly retirees that helped make LS&Co. what it is today.
Red Tab Savers: Building Financial Safety Nets
1,960 Participants since 2015
“It’s so good to work for a company that helps you out. These little things make a big difference. I was able to save money to pay off my credit card debts. It’s amazing, I only put up $240, but I got $500 back,” says Juvilyn Douglas, a DC employee in Canada. Red Tab Savers, our proactive, matched savings program designed to help employees build their own safety nets, underwent a redesign in FY22. We worked with the experts at the Blackrock’s Emergency Savings Initiative to improve the program which has already helped employees save over $1M. Next year, Red Tab Savers will fully relaunch, gearing up to help more employees than ever across the US and Canada build a habit of saving.
WATCH VIDEO >
2022 in Grants
RTF Support Grows 15x in South Africa
In 1995, LS&Co. opened our manufacturing facility at Epping with the intention of providing jobs and opportunities to those who had suffered under apartheid. There may be no place where RTF makes a more life changing difference than in South Africa, where RTF grants have grown fifteenfold over the past 3 years. RTF Case Manager Lavinia Crawford Browne works on the ground near the Cape Town manufacturing facility. “The South African experience of apartheid – where people of color were not full citizens – continues to have a profound effect on our people. Unfortunately, education, health, and housing remain low in the national budget and the majority still struggle to survive,” Lavinia tells us. “Inequities of this nature create generations long impacts as people struggle to get ahead. Marginalized communities simply don’t have the safety net built by generations before them that others do.”
Crises of the day including the impact of the pandemic, an uptick in natural disasters, and crime have contributed to an increased need for assistance last year.
“RTF responded generously to requests for help, which are typically related to health issues, death in the family, plus also fires and floods,” Lavinia shares. “RTF interventions have completely changed the lives of these employees and their families in need. These grants provide employees and their families some sort of security and hope and they are so sincerely grateful. Some ask if they can give to RTF, if they are already giving, ask to increase their donation.”
Red Tab grants in South Africa have skyrocketed from the first few dozen in 2017. This year alone, we have responded to 972 emergencies. Beyond increased hardships, this has been driven by trust built by Lavinia as the local face of RTF, close partnership with HR and the 2018 RTF led employee visit in-country. South Africa is a model for the type of support RTF plans to offer in support of communities around the world.
South Africa Grant Giving
Where We’re Going
Life Happens.
We Respond.
2022 IMPACT REPORT
Equitable & Easy Access to RTF
We want RTF to be top of mind for every LS&Co. employee and retiree who needs us. That means continuing to build awareness of our programs internationally and adapting our processes to be locally relevant.
Stay High Impact & Responsive
Our goal is to always meet the needs of our clients in the moment. We will continue to build new grant categories in response to changing circumstances....to help our employee population weather their own emergencies.
Be LS&Co.’s Shining Star
RTF is what makes LS&Co. a different kind of community; we show selflessness and support one another when times get tough. We will keep building in points of connection for dispersed teams to fully embody LS&Co.’s values and culture.
Building the Industry
855 organizations utilized the Hardship Fund Playbook >
RTF is known as the original hardship foundation, but we most certainly won’t be the last. The strength of the LS&Co. brand gives us an outsized voice when it comes influencing others in giving back. We take our industry leadership role seriously and are focused on field building so that more companies than the tools to support their own employees. When Starbucks was looking to revamp their Cup Fund, they reached out to RTF for help.
“Apart from serving the unexpected and essential needs of LS&Co team members, the Red Tab Foundation is clearly serving another, perhaps unintended, need as a role model for other companies to follow. Drawing on the insight, inspiration, and incredible passion from the Red Tab Foundation Leadership Team, this year we launched the Gold Top Foundation (a reference to our iconic guitar). It has started a movement that is making a difference already that we can all be proud of for generations to come!””
When Gibson Guitars decided it was time to start their Gold Top Foundation, they reached out to RTF for guidance in setting up their program.
RTF was awarded one of one of LS&Co.'s highest honors in recognition of their pandemic response work in FY22.
Our Supporters
“Seeing first-hand how the resources provided by RTF directly impact the lives of our employees gives me great privilege to continue to create awareness and encourage the use of this program. Providing support to our employees during times of need is not only honorable, it strengthens our pride to be a part of an exemplary organization. I ́m so happy to see RTF coming to life more and more each year in LATAM. Muchas Gracias on behalf of LATAM””
The People Who Make It Happen
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Paris steps up to fundraise $10k for RTF
Last year, 15 global fundraisers were hosted to give back to our friends and colleagues, in Paris, Singapore, New York and beyond. 100% of the donations from those events went into the pockets of grantees. “At our Paris sale in March 2022, some colleagues hadn’t seen each other in person for a very long time so it felt like a true ‘back together’ moment for the office,” organizer Mathieu Mahmoun, Manager of Corporate Affairs for South Europe, told us. “I feel I’ve joined a company where there is this invisible thread of solidarity between colleagues globally which tells a lot about how we value people here. Wherever you are, if life gets tough and you need help, here is an option, within your own company, to reach out for help.”
“I feel having been at LS&Co. for 12 years, I have met many individuals that have benefited from support and assistance. Those stories hit my core every time. I have worked in many companies and never found a community and a culture of care like LS&Co. RTF is just that...it’s there to show we deeply care about the people we work with. This is why I give.””
Our Donors
LS&Co provides $650K in funding for our operations each year. That means every dollar donated goes directly to help an employee or retiree in need.
33% increase
in employee donations
15 fundraising
Events & Sample Sales
2,190 Individual Donors
Thank you
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Change is inevitable.
It’s how we respond that counts.
2022 IMPACT REPORT