COMMUNITY RELATIONS- The AT&T Foundation

AT&T prides themselves on over 135 years of caring about people. They believe that people matter to their communities, to each other, and to their company. This always has been and always will be one of AT&T's core values, which continues their success year after year. Good community relations is a key aspect to a company's success and AT&T does a phenomenal job of caring for their community.

AT&T created their philanthropy, the AT&T Foundation to help them support all of the different causes they wish to fund. They invest in resources to advance education, improve lives, and strengthen communities. In 2010, the AT&T Foundation contributed more than $148 million to different giving programs.

A specific program that the AT&T Foundation created for the advancement of education, AT&T Aspire; was launched in 2008. Historically AT&T has focused more directly on issues of education in different communities, therefore this program has been one of the most highlighted. AT&T Aspire focuses on confronting the high school dropout crisis and ensures that children to graduate in order to continue on in the workforce which is essential for our nation, and for AT&T's future company. AT&T Aspire works by identifying programs that work for students and bringing them to scale. They work to support their educators and to get the students excited to not only set goals, but to achieve them. AT&T Aspire is the nation's biggest and most significant education program  and one of the biggest commitments of any corporation of it's kind.

Another community that AT&T supports through their foundation is the military. AT&T has worked to support active military members, their families, and veterans for the past 85 years. They use charitable contributions, program and event sponsorships, and maintaining policies that support reservists when the soldiers are called to duty. They use different tactics to support our troops by donating prepaid phone cards, their Cell Phones for Soldiers campaign, and volunteering their time through another program, the AT&T Pioneers to collect cell phones and send care packages to our troops overseas. They also greet soldiers at airports as they arrive home and host different events to recognize the sacrifice of the soldiers and their families.

AT&T does not just think locally, they act globally. They use their foundation to help with international causes, such as supporting countries going through disasters and communicating during disaster relief, investing in future leaders, stimulating safety and hope, and creating their Peace through Business program which empowers and educates women to help build stable democracies all over the world. Thinking on a global scale is something that is admirable and creates a good brand awareness for AT&T.

Aside from our external community, AT&T builds strong relationships with their internal community as well. Their employees are always their main priority. They show this by engaging their employees, using diversity management, workforce inclusion, offering good wages and good benefits, good corporate governance, and more. A company's success begins with the happiness of their employees.



AT&T has a variety of different methods to show community support as you can see. Through various programs they support a wide range of communities that are in need of assistance. Although there does not seem to be a single focus in their efforts, there is a main theme of helping the people in our communities that need it most. AT&T plays a huge role in our communities by putting on programs and donating money to less-fortunate areas and people and places of need. AT&T's mission is that the people and consumers come first, and I think that their community relations programs definitely support this mission. They use their foundation and their services in as many ways that they can to benefit the people. Many of thier causes are supported by the foundation financially, however in their "Cell Phones for Soldiers" campaign, they take advantage of their platform in the cell phone category and promote through that.


I believe that AT&T's community relations is exceptional for it's public relations. AT&T is known for their amazing public relations, and I truly believe this is why. Keeping a good relationship with the community and consumers is a way to put a company's name out in the public in a positive light. Without doing anything, AT&T already has a positive image in the eyes of consumers because of all of the great things they do for the people; aside from their renowned products and services. This will make more people more likely to want to use AT&T products or services because they know that they are not just a company that cares about making money, that they care about their people too; and that is a company that people want to support. I do not think that there is anything more that AT&T could be doing.