OMK wins competition among corporate charity leaders

The United Metallurgical Company (AO OMK, Moscow) was named winner of the Corporate Charity Leader Contest held annually by the Donor Forum, the PwC International Consultancy, and the Vedomosti Business Daily. The winners of the contest were announced on November 29 in Moscow.

OMK won the category nomination for the Best Program promoting the development of an infrastructure for non-profits, charities, and volunteerism in areas of operations for the OMK Partnership Competition of Charity and Social Projects. This category is partnered with the Russian Ministry of Economic Development. The company was also named second for best project completed in a partnership with another business for engaging its business partner AKB Metallinvestbank in charity and volunteer work. OMK was ranked seventh in 2016 among corporate charity leaders, thus rising from the 35th position in 2014 and the 23d in 2015 and making it into the Top 10 corporate donors in the nation.

“It is gratifying to receive high grades from experts. Recognition by the professional community is evidence that OMK's projects are highly effective. We have made significant progress by encouraging volunteers, promoting social business initiatives, and thanks to the OMK Partnership Competition for grants. Our company is implementing long-term systemic charity programs addressing the principal issues in the areas where we operate. We fit charity in with the overall business strategy building a system of management and attempting to gage the effectiveness and the social benefits of our charitable activities”, noted Deputy Board Chair Natalia Eremina.

BACKGROUND

The United Metallurgical Company has been holding OMK Partnership Competitions since 2015. They are designed to promote cooperation between the Government, private business, and the public in improving the social environment in the various regions. The competition is open to OMK employees, non-profits, central and municipal Government institutions from the Company’s regions of operation: Chelyabinsk and Nizhniy Novgorod Regions, Perm Territory, Republics of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan, and Moscow.

In 2016, the Competition received 256 applications: 76 projects from OMK employees and 180 from non-profits in every region where Company facilities operate. A panel of judges decided that 59 projects would receive funding: 35 from non-profits and 24 from employees.

Corporate Charity Leaders is Russia’s only project entirely designed to support, develop, and promote the idea of corporate charity. It includes two components: a survey of corporate charitable efforts and a competition to evaluate corporate programs by category. The survey produces a ranking which only includes companies that have adopted a systemic approach to charity and are sectoral leaders. Winners in this contest of charity programs are named by the partners that announce a category.

OMK has been participating in this contest among leaders of corporate charity since 2013. The survey procedure was developed by experts with PwC and the Donor Forum specifically for the project. It takes account of both qualitative and quantitative parameters provided by participants in the survey.

Previously, OMK had won the Corporate Charity Leadership Contest in 2015 and 2013. In 2015, OMK was named second for its corporate volunteering program.

In 2013, the Company had won awards in three out of the six of the Contest’s categories. The judges’ highest marks were given to OMK's professional development and modern art sponsorship programs while its corporate charity program was ranked one of the best.

In 2013, the first prize in the category for the best program to promote professional education in the Russian Federation was awarded the Metalspace.ru popular metallurgy website, a joint project by OMK and the MISiS University of Science and Technology. The portal is designed to popularize metallurgy among young people and to make education in metallurgy and occupation as a metallurgist more attractive. OMK together with the MISiS University of Science and Technology has seen success not only as an educator but also as a sponsor of joint educational programs.

First prize for the best program designed to support modern art went to the Art-Ovrag Annual International Festival of Modern Culture. OMK has been managing that project in Vyksa, Nizhniy Novgorod Region, host to two of the Company's metallurgical facilities. The event is designed to advance modern art and the urban environment of Vyksa as an intellectual and education center of youth culture.

In 2013, third prize for the best corporate charity program fitting in with a corporate development strategy went to the OMK-Uchastiye Charity Foundation’s social program entitled “Vyksa, a Town of Equal Opportunity”. It helps build a comprehensive rehabilitation and social integration system for people with health issues and targets aid to orphan children without parental care.