Giving Back

Commitment to Community

The 2007 Sallie Mae Live Strong team The 2007 Sallie Mae Live Strong team raised $100,000 to support cancer research, including $25,000
in matching funds from The Sallie Mae Fund

In addition to the corporate-sponsored giving programs, The Sallie Mae Fund supports programs in communities where Sallie Mae's employees live and work, including American Heart Association, March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, Special Olympics, and Make-A-Wish Foundation. Here is just a sampling of our involvement:

Sallie Mae Employees Are Living Strong

The fight against cancer in Pennsylvania got a huge boost on August 26, 2007 from a team of Sallie Mae employees and friends at the LiveStrong Challenge in Philadelphia. Held in several cities throughout the United States, the LiveStrong Challenge consists of a 5K run/walk, 10K run, and bicycle rides of 10, 40, 70, or 100 miles to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). Sallie Mae fielded the largest team, with 127 members, and raised approximately $100,000 for LAF to support cancer survivors and research. This was the third largest contribution for the Philly Challenge and included $23,000 in matching gifts from The Salle Mae Fund.

Giving to United Way by Sallie Mae Employees

Many Sallie Mae centers hold annual United Way drives. One center that tops the field is the Sallie Mae's Fishers, Indiana facility. Charitable contributions to United Way of Central Indiana in 2007–2008 totaled more than $715,000, making Sallie Mae among its top donors. Eight-five percent of the company's Fishers workforce contributed $475,000 to the United Way campaign. The Sallie Mae Fund provided $240,000 in a matching grant to the organization.

Golfing for the American Cancer Society

Each summer, Pioneer Credit Recovery in New York holds an annual Drive Out Breast Cancer Golf Tournament to help support the American Cancer Society (ACS). Throughout the month leading up to the event, all 1,100 Pioneer Credit employees participate in fund raising auctions and raffles supporting ACS. In 2007, these efforts, including the tournament, raised $50,067 for ACS.

Collection Drives

Across the country, Sallie Mae's employees hold collection drives for much-needed supplies to benefit their underserved neighbors. The Sallie Mae Fund provides grants to local nonprofit organizations to supplement these collection activities. Here are some examples:

  • Employees at Sallie Mae headquarters in Reston, Virginia participate in an annual Thanksgiving food drive. For the past several years, employees have collected more than 800 boxes, each filled with supplies to feed a family of four. In 2007, The Fund contributed $9,000 in grocery gift certificates. To continue the holiday spirit, it is a December tradition, organized by The Fund, to provide gifts to those less fortunate through a family and child "adoption" program.
  • Sallie Mae's Indiana employees annually team up with Teachers' Treasures — an organization that provides much-needed supplies to Indianapolis Public School teachers at little or no cost to them — to hold a school supplies collection. The Fund provides grants to support educational programs benefiting the area's students.
  • During the Christmas in July Food Drive, Pennsylvania employees collected 12,510 pounds of food to benefit the Commission on Economic Opportunity's Weinberg Food Bank.
  • Last summer in Massachusetts, employees raised money for Dictionary Project, a non-profit organization that provides dictionaries to area school children. They achieved their goal of providing dictionaries to every third grader in the Swansea Public School System, about 700 children.