Tapestry's Community Response and Relief
Originally published in Tapestry's 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Tapestry continued to support our communities during FY2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We took strategic actions to protect the health and safety of employees and customers and to comply with local regulations. Our brands and Foundations made a number of relief grants and provided support to communities most severely impacted by the ongoing pandemic.
- Coach contributed to several organizations on the front lines including $1 million to the World Food Programme and Feeding America.
- The Coach Foundation donated $75,000 to Direct Relief, India, as well as $25,000 to Restaurants Organizing, Advocating, & Rebuilding (ROAR), an organization creating a path to a sustainable future for workers in the restaurant industry. The Coach Foundation’s support of ROAR was part of the company’s larger $3 million commitment to support New York resilience in the face of the pandemic.
- kate spade new york supported women and girls through the mental health challenges they disproportionately face as a result of the pandemic.
- The Coach Foundation, through its Dream It Real program, supported low-income students with essential virtual education resources to support continued education as they navigated the pandemic.
- All of our brands donated product to healthcare facilities and frontline workers, including Stuart Weitzman’s donation of 1,679 pairs of sneakers to the staff and medical workers on the front lines at NYU Langone Health.
EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFTS
To encourage employee involvement and recognize their contributions to their communities, Tapestry’s brand Foundations match the personal charitable giving of eligible employees in North America up to $10,000 each year, with up to $1,000 double matched. Since the program’s inception in 2010, we have donated $4,481,000 through the matching gift program, including $448,000 in FY2021. In addition, we double match employee donations to key focus areas such as social and racial equity causes. In FY2021 we made double matches totaling $76,534.
PRODUCT DONATIONS
Our nonprofit partners put our products to good use in the communities they serve, bringing joy to the people who receive them. Giving back to communities through product donations works to support community organizations while finding the best end-of-life solutions for our products. In FY2021, Tapestry brands donated more than $152 million in product (retail value and samples). This increase reflects our concerted effort to expand global donation programs to find a second life for excess inventory. As a result, we have surpassed our initial goal to donate more than $75 million in financial and product donations by 2025. Going forward, we will continue to support our communities with product donations as one of our strategic priorities.
As the world adapts to the pandemic and begins to recover, we expect excess inventory to decrease and future years’ product donation amounts to stabilize. Tapestry brands donated various styles of apparel, footwear, accessories and home goods items to organizations that align with each brand’s social impact mission.
- Coach donated more than $10 million in product to nonprofits in its Dream It Real network to provide interview and job-ready clothing, handbags, and footwear to underrepresented students participating in education and job readiness programs. Through its partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Coach established six ‘Coach Closets’ at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to provide free professional clothing at on-campus student centers. In Canada, the brand also partnered with Soles4Souls benefitting the Boys and Girls Club of Toronto that recycles shoes and clothing and creates job opportunities to help break the cycle of poverty.
- kate spade new york worked with over 15 partners to donate over 480,000 units of inventory. Delivering Good coordinated a majority of the donations, directing them to organizations investing in women and girls. Strategic donations also included upcycling damaged handbags to two local New York City organizations that reused the product for gardening, art and school projects and donating products to a local women’s shelter.
- Guided by its purpose of inspiring others to Let Their Strength Shine Through, Stuart Weitzman made a number of charitable contributions in FY2021, ranging from product donations to creating specific products where a portion of the proceeds supports nonprofits aligned to the company’s brand values. The brand also partnered with Dress for Success, a global nonprofit organization that provides professional attire for low-income women to help support them as they navigate the world of work. Approximately 4,300 pairs of shoes were donated across the organization’s 145 offices located in 23 countries with the goal of inspiring women with style, comfort and confidence through their footwear to make bold moves in the workplace and beyond.
"This donation meant so much to so many people. During a time of so much uncertainty, to be able to receive a donation of beautiful things, things that they may never have been able to access before, was a wonderful gift." BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF CANADA
