The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society has a long-time connection to KEEN Footwear. Corporate sponsorship is a critical piece of the conservation puzzle. The partnership helps keep places like Jasper, Alberta, shown here in heart-stopping colour display, safe for future generationsROBERT BERDAN
KEEN Footwear, based in Portland, Ore., with offices in Oakville, Ont,. supports small, local non-profits day to day in the pursuit of urging nature lovers out into nature, and keeping wild spaces pristine. Its corporate vision, however, is global – and ambitious. And when disaster strikes, there is always room to give more.
On December 26, 2004, when KEEN Footwear was less than a year old, a 9.1 earthquake and devastating tsunami hit the Southeast Asian countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Rory Fuerst, the founder of KEEN, the outdoor gear company made the immediate decision to divert the firm's entire advertising budget of $1-million to disaster relief efforts in the region.
Thus began the giving habits and traditions that have shaped KEEN's current CSR model. Chris Enlow is the corporate responsibility manager at KEEN, where he's on the team of its Hybrid Care program. "Hybrid Care has a mandate to promote responsible outdoor participation, as well as to support public-land and water conservation programs on the local level," he says. And the company remains committed to disaster relief.
Citing the earthquake that hit Nepal in May this year, he recalls how Fuerst phoned his boss late at night on the Friday after the disaster to ask what KEEN is doing for the Nepalese victims. "He threw down $5,000 and a challenge to match any pledges, a dollar for a dollar," Enlow says. "Within four days, with our partners and subsidiaries around the world on board, that $5,000 kick-start to the Nepalese Relief Fund grew into $150,000, which went straight to agencies on the ground."
Working with local experts is the strategy of KEEN for its outdoor participation stimulus and conservation commitments. "We work with partners on multiyear relationships," says Enlow. The sum total of those two streams of commitment in Asia, he notes, have totalled $10-million in donations in 10 years, in cash and in kind.
In Canada, among the company's longtime and steadfast relationships are with two non-profit enterprises: The Bruce Trail Conservancy on the Niagara Escarpment and CPAWS (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society) in Ottawa, which bills itself as "Canada's voice for wilderness."
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