Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good
Newman’s Own is a company I have been familiar with since I
was a kid. The company began as a charitable organization - the brand started
with a homemade salad dressing that Paul Newman, and his business partner A.E. Hotchner,
prepared themselves and charitably gave to friends as gifts. Newman said at the
time of the company’s formation, "My
profits will be divided between a number of tax-deductible charities and
causes, some church-related, others for conservation and ecology and things
like that.”
Since that time, the Newman's Own Foundation has generated
over $400 million for charity. According to the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/18/giving/making-his-own-charity-an-acquired-taste.html),
“The business was an accident and the charity an afterthought, as Mr. Newman
and his colleagues tell it.” In the article, Newman’s daughter Nell is quoted
as saying "He thought the world had treated him incredibly well … let's
just do this and give it all away.”
By the end of 2006, Newman quietly turned over the entire
value of his ownership in Newman’s Own to charity. “Completed over a two-year
period … the amount of his donations to Newman’s Own Foundation Inc. comes to
an astounding $120 million.” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/06/11/ailing-paul-newman-turns-over-120m-to-charity.html)
Paul Newman passed away in 2008, and Robert Forrester is now
President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation and Chairman and CEO of Newman’s
Own, Inc. According to Forrester, “Paul Newman wanted to make the world a
better place, and we carry on his legacy to do that.” (http://www.forbes.com/sites/devinthorpe/2014/12/29/newmans-own-foundation-ceo-explains-unique-social-entrepreneurship-model/)
Today, 100 percent of Newman’s Own, Inc.’s distributed
profits go to charities around the world. Much of the charity is in the form of
research grants, to organizations focusing on fresh food access and nutrition
education.
