Outreach and Engagement
Southern Company system employees are inextricably woven into the communities we are privileged to serve.
How We Do It
Our employees can be seen quickly restoring power in neighborhoods hit by storms, at community events and our supporting local charities.
Teaching kids about energy and responsible use of resources is part of Southern Company's commitment to support education. Our policy to be "a citizen wherever we serve" goes back to our earliest beginnings and can be summarized by this passage from Preston Arkwright, an early company leader:
“Our business is different from nearly all other businesses that I know. When we go to a place, we go not as tourists, not as transients, not as promoters and not as tenants. When and where we go, we build and construct a permanent character that can never be moved away. Our first act upon arrival constitutes that we have selected that particular place in which to become a citizen. Not for just an hour, not for just a day, but for always.”
Preston Arkwright
Giving
Across the Southern Company system, we make direct corporate contributions and endow and fund independent, non-profit company foundations that contribute to arts and culture, health and human services, civic and community projects, safety, education and the environment. In 2021, total giving by Southern Company and its foundations exceeded $108M, including $96.9M in cash grants and $11.5M in mission and program related investments (MRIs/PRIs).
Our employee service and charitable programs throughout our company raise nearly than $2 million annually from employees. The funds support United Way charities and other organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs, American Cancer Society, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Girl Scouts, plus other causes listed below.
Additionally, company grants and employee donations make possible Family Services Assistance, an employee emergency fund. Family Services assists employees with significant damage to personal property from a storm so they can carry on restoration duties for the community.
Volunteerism
In addition to grants and charitable donations, Southern Company subsidiaries offer opportunities for employees to volunteer for community outreach, including hurricane relief, Relay for Life and March of Dimes' WalkAmerica. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, employees participate in a company-sponsored program—to make it a "day on, not a day off"—and work with community groups in the spirit of service, activism, and diversity.
Community service groups for employees and retirees administered by Southern Company's subsidiaries include the Alabama Power Service Organization, Alabama Power Energizers, Georgia Power Ambassadors, Citizens of Georgia Power, and the Mississippi Power Community Connection. These groups work on education, the environment, community and economic development, and they support hospitals, libraries, shelters, food banks, nursing homes, children's homes, and non-profit organizations. All told, thousands of our employees and retirees freely give more than 85,000 hours annually for positive works to improve the communities we serve.
