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Solidarity sponsorship

Objectives:

Sponsor with expertise and not just funds.
Inform and involve staff in the Group's commitments.

Priority:

Provide substantial support for projects that foster social integration through education.

2008 highlights:

Over € 8.8 million in solidarity sponsorship.

Equality, balanced sustainable development, citizenship and responsibility are all values that today's society expects from companies, hence Société Générale's decision to invest in social and professional integration through education.

Dedicated structures

Created in 2006, the Société Générale Corporate Foundation for Solidarity devotes its time to over 125 major projects to help young people get their careers off the ground. Since 2008, the Foundation has also supported projects in other countries linked to the vocational training of young people.
Talents et Partage is an independent charitable organisation set up in 1994 by past and present Société Générale staff. Each year, several hundred volunteers give a little of their time to ensuring the success of the charity actions set up by the association. Talents et Partage also lends its financial support to the various humanitarian projects in which past and present bank staff are involved.
In March 2009, SG Private Banking created the “Fondation 29 Haussmann” to provide clients wishing to be involved in charity, with an innovative solidarity structure to support various projects encompassing all sectors and age groups. For its first year, the theme selected by the Fondation 29 Haussmann is “to help children and teenagers” in difficulty within their family circle or academically.
Overseas, a number of Group subsidiaries have also taken up the cause. In the Czech Republic and Georgia, Komercni Banka and Bank Republic have set up the Jistota Foundation and the Tsiskari charity fund. In Brazil, employees are able to contribute to the charity projects and programmes of the Instituto Société Générale which supports para-education for children, vocational training for young people and the fight against poverty via the creation of craft industry workshops.

Solid partnerships

Apart from the funding it provides, the Société Générale Corporate Foundation for Solidarity forges genuine partnerships with national and international associations:

through its partnership with French organisation, Solidarités Nouvelles Face au Chômage, groups of employees help job seekers in finding work;
set up by Société Générale's Corporate and Investment Banking arm, the Citizenship Program was born out of the partnership between the Foundation and the international charity, Care. Today, three projects in Peru, Mali and Bangladesh chosen by the division's employees are funded by the Foundation (€ 1 million over 3 years) and by employee donations;
in 2008, the joint sponsorship provided by Société Générale and French association Nos quartiers ont des Talents was an outright success with the Group's staff. With their help, over 120 young people were assisted and guided in integrating the employment market. To date, Société Générale has rallied the highest number of sponsors. The operation which, until now, has been limited to the Paris region will be extended further afield and in universities in 2009;
Société Générale UK staff have been strongly involved in providing school support to students in the schools near their offices for several years now.

All of these solidarity sponsorship programmes come together during the Group's Citizenship Week. Held for the first time in June 2008, 77 events were organised by Group entities in more than 20 countries. Moreover, keen to further develop its involvement, the Group's Executive Management has decided that the event will be held again in 2009 from June 15^th to 21^st. A total of 33 countries took part in the operation, including France. The Group’s personnel committed more than 10,841 hours to charitable causes, including 3,446 hours in France, 3572 in Asia-Pacific, 1,940 in Brazil and 197 in Canada.

For more:
Press release 22 June 2009
Press release 25 June 2009