TIers put our company’s commitment to citizenship into action every day in their jobs and in their communities. In our ongoing series “CiTIzenship," we feature TIers around the world making a difference in their communities and creating technology for good.
Trisha Cunningham loves to help girls dream big dreams.
“I’m a first-generation college graduate,” Trisha said. “I didn’t have anyone in my family who could show me the path for a successful career, but I did have people along the way who helped me. Because people did that for me, I want to give back by making sure girls know they can achieve their dreams.”
Trisha began volunteering with Girl Scouts when her daughter was in second grade. Today, she serves on the boards of Girl Scouts Today and Leadership Women.
In addition to her passion for making a difference personally, Trisha’s role as TI’s chief citizenship officer gives her an opportunity to lead initiatives that help make our communities around the world better places to live and work.
“Corporate citizenship begins with each of us,” she said. “It involves everything we do. It’s about how we do our jobs every day and about the impact we make in our communities.”
A strong heritage
Our investment in good corporate citizenship goes back to the people who founded TI in 1930. J. Erik Jonsson, for one, was not only an integral TI leader, but served as mayor of Dallas in the years immediately following John F. Kennedy’s assassination and helped refocus the community in the wake of the tragedy. Jonsson is credited with helping start the United Fund (which became United Way of Metropolitan Dallas), and his leadership while Mayor led to the building of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. He and the other TI founders (Cecil Green, Eugene McDermott and Patrick Haggerty) also established the Graduate Research Center, which later became the University of Texas at Dallas.
“Our founders felt strongly that they needed to invest and make Dallas better by improving education, providing good jobs and making philanthropic investments,” Trisha said. “That has been part of our DNA from the beginning, and we’re fortunate to have that heritage.”
The world today is vastly different than it was 85 years ago, but our commitment to corporate citizenship remains stronger than ever. We focus and measure corporate citizenship in six key areas: product stewardship, environmental responsibility, employee well-being, community commitment, responsible advocacy and corporate governance. Our Corporate Citizenship Report provides an overview of our progress in these areas.
And even though we as a company invest heavily in our communities, corporate citizenship begins with individual employees, Trisha said.
“We want people to feel connected to the things we do to make our communities better, whether they’re on the job or off the job,” she said. “Corporate citizenship goes beyond the bottom line. It’s about a broader commitment to make the world a better place.”
Our many accomplishments highlighted in our recently released 2014 Corporate Citizenship Report include:
- A record $7.4 million contributed to the United Way in the U.S.
- Contributions of more than $36 million to provide access to education globally.
Focusing on the right priorities
Part of Trisha’s job is helping identify issues and set the right priorities for corporate citizenship. She coordinates this effort with the Citizenship Executive Committee, which is comprised of senior executives with global responsibilities who provide strategic direction. A second group – the Citizenship Stakeholders Team – is more hands-on and makes recommendations to the executive committee.
She and her team benchmark our peers in the industry and ensure we are continually aware of issues our customers care about. In recent years, for example, supply-chain issues such as human rights and conflict minerals have become important concerns for many customers and other stakeholders. We expect our suppliers to exhibit good corporate citizenship and recently updated our TI Supplier Code of Conduct.
A more global focus on corporate citizenship has also meant increased awareness of TIers who work every day to help make their world a better place. In Bangalore, India, a team of employees is exploring an innovative idea to use technology to reduce the time required for kidney patients to go through their regular dialysis treatments. Improvements could mean more patients get the treatments they need at lower costs, a major roadblock for low-income people in that major city.
Trisha felt a personal connection when she visited a local hospital on a recent visit to India.
“My dad was on dialysis, so it meant a lot to me when I visited the foundation and learned more about this project,” she said. “Dialysis is very expensive, and I saw how they were helping people who didn’t have the means or insurance to pay for that service. It spoke to me because it was started by a couple of TIers who want to help people.”
A responsibility to give back
The girls that Trisha led in her Girl Scout troop are college students now, and she is grateful for the opportunity she had to make a difference in their lives. Some of the girls were painfully shy as elementary students and have developed confidence and leadership skills through their involvement in the troop. Today, they’re thinking about careers and life after college.
“We’ve been given so much, and we have a responsibility to give back,” Trisha said. “These girls learned how to lead and run with their ideas. It’s fun to see them achieve and gain confidence because that’s part of what I was there for. I get goosebumps just talking about it.”