The Bottom Line Corporate giants pour money into emergency response and research.

Walmart and Wells Fargo are two unsung heroes of the emergency management world. While most corporations focus mainly on their bottom lines, these two titans make major, tangible contributions to emergency management agencies in their communities. In doing so, both companies combine a sense of civic responsibility with enlightened self-interest — because the disasters that affect their communities also affect these corporations’ properties, employees and paying customers.

More Than $50 Million Contributed

As the largest U.S. retailer, with 4,574 physical locations, Walmart has good reason to care about emergency response to natural and man-made disasters. This is why the company has numerous emergency management personnel coordinated by its own EOC at Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

The company’s commitment to emergency response stretches into the communities it serves, not just its own properties. For instance, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Walmart and the charitable Walmart Foundation used its stores and associates to deliver truckloads of water, food and other essential supplies to the stricken Gulf Coast, in addition to providing cash donations and jobs for associates displaced by the storm.

Over the past 10 years, these two bodies have contributed more than $50 million in global relief and resiliency efforts, and responded to disasters in the U.S., Mexico, the Philippines, Haiti, the United Kingdom, Canada and Chile. On the 10th anniversary of Katrina in 2015, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed another $25 million to support disaster recovery and resilience efforts worldwide.

The strategy of the company and its foundation is to form partnerships with all levels of government to boost the quality of disaster response and resiliency in U.S. communities. It’s not just about money, according to Brooke Brager, Walmart’s senior manager of emergency preparedness and planning. “We support and encourage our associates to take part in Local Emergency Preparedness Committees,” she said. “We also encourage our store managers to work closely with their communities’ local emergency management agencies so that everyone knows what to do when a disaster hits.”

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