Guidelines

Guidelines Adopted September 2004

Purpose of the El Paso Corporate Foundation
El Paso Corporate Foundation funds initiatives that strengthen the communities where our employees live, work, and volunteer.

Download these guidelines in PDF format.

Current Contribution Policy
We will continue to fund programs in the focus areas described below, however certain financial conditions have forced us to curtail our giving and reduce staffing levels. Although all of El Paso’s prior commitments will be met, there is very limited funding available for new requests. Unsolicited requests are not being accepted at this time.

Primary Focus Areas

Education

• Pre K-12 – We fund academic programs that motivate students to prepare for higher education with an emphasis on underserved populations.
• Universities, Colleges, and Trade Schools – We support programs that enlarge the pool of graduates from which we recruit our workforce. Funding is concentrated in the following academic disciplines:
  • Engineering, mathematics, science, and accounting/business for universities and colleges.
  • Technical training for trade school or associate degree programs.
• Educational matching gift program – We offer a matching gift program for our employees supporting K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.
• Scholarships – We have formalized scholarship programs, therefore grants are not usually made to fund other scholarship programs.

Health and Human Services

• We fund programs that have demonstrated the ability to enable independence and/or positively produce long-term improvement in peoples' lives, especially those programs addressing underserved populations.
• United Way member agencies – We support United Way campaigns in the communities where our employees live, work, and volunteer through our annual employee giving campaign and related Foundation matching funds. We rarely make a direct contribution to a United Way member agency.
• National Health Organizations – We fund these organizations only through:
  • Company-sponsored events such as local walks, runs or rides requiring employee participants to raise donations. The Foundation may match or partially match employee fundraising with a set dollar limit per selected event.
  • Our annual employee giving campaign and related Foundation matching funds.

Civic and Community

We fund programs demonstrating the ability to affect underserved populations with positive sustainable outcomes, such as:

• Long-term economic development
• Youth leadership development
• Neighborhood revitalization
• Community safety and emergency response initiative

Secondary Focus Areas

Environment

El Paso Corporation is committed to being a good steward of the environment across all its operations. The Foundation's support in this area focuses on nature preservation and environmental education programs and is concentrated at the local level where we have operating facilities.

Arts and Culture

We recognize the importance of arts and culture in our communities and will continue to meet our existing commitments.

Ineligible Requests
Grant requests from or for the following are not Foundation-eligible:

• Organizations without 501(c)(3) status
• Organizations that already have an active El Paso Corporate Foundation grant
• Capital campaigns
• Multi-year commitments
• Religious organizations for religious purposes
• Individuals
• Hospitals and medical research
• Athletics or youth sports organizations
• National or state-wide initiatives
• War veterans and fraternal service organizations
• Endowment funds
• Pass-through grants
• Fundraising events, such as dinners, luncheons, and golf tournaments
• Political organizations, campaigns, and candidates
• Technology grants, i.e. computers, software, or related hardware