Walmart Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Walmart Foundation supports economic opportunity, sustainability, community development and racial justice with a strong focus on communities where it operates retail stores.

IP TAKE: In recent years, the foundation’s grant strategy has shifted dramatically. Grantmaking consists of a mix of six- and seven-figure partnerships with large nonprofits, as well as small grants of up to $5,000 that originate at local retail stores and support community organizations through the Spark Good program. Spark Good accepts applications for grants and cash register “roundup” programs, but with the exception of the occasional RFP, Walmart does not accept applications for its larger grants. Note that some of Walmart’s giving initiatives address issues that are of strategic interest to the company, such as retail employment, supply chain efficiency and food donations. Application information about local Spark Good giving is available here, but Walmart.org is otherwise inaccessible.

PROFILE: Walmart.org is the philanthropic arm of the Walmart Corporation and represents “the combined philanthropic efforts of both Walmart and the Walmart Foundation.” Although it is a corporate foundation, it is affiliated with the Walton family, one of the richest families in America. Walmart is majority-owned by the Waltons through a combination of their holding company, Walton Enterprises, and their individual holdings. The Waltons conduct their own giving through the Walton Family Foundation, the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, and several other Walton giving vehicles. The organization’s overarching goal is to help “people live better one community at a time.” Walmart makes grants through four program areas: Creating Opportunity, Advancing Sustainability, Strengthening Community and the Center for Racial Equity.

Grants for Work and Opportunity

Walmart’s Creating Opportunity focus area aims to create and support inclusive opportunity for work and advancement in the retail and technology sectors. The initiative aims to advance a broad “transition to a workforce system that recognizes and values all the skills people possess in the same way it recognizes and values college degrees.” Approaches include:

Support for the adoption of skills-first practices for more inclusive hiring at major U.S. companies;
The use of quality data and insights to create credentialing “[t]o level the playing for those without college degrees”;
A narrative shift toward recognition and value of skills acquired through work experience; and
Data mobility that helps employers “access workforce data that shows the full set of skills workers have.”
One Walmart grantee, Education Design Lab, received over $2 million for a project that involved “community colleges, learners and employers” in an effort to develop “short-form credentials that lead to jobs paying at or above the local median wage.”
Another grantee, Opportunity@Work, received funding for its Paper Ceiling Campaign, an effort to increase awareness and respect for the skills that workers develop on the job.
Other grantees include MIT’s Digital Credential Consortium, Rockefeller Philanthropic, Skills for Chicago and the Foundation Strategy Group.

Grants for Environment, Climate Change, Clean Energy, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

Walmart’s grantmaking for Advancing Sustainability focuses on “support for programs that complement Walmart’s sustainability initiatives.” Walmart names climate, waste, nature, and people in supply chains as priorities for this work.

Climate funding targets efforts for the preservation of nature and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Through a corporate initiative, Project Gigaton, Walmart partners with suppliers to ” avoid a gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions from the global value chain by 2030.”
In the area of waste, Walmart supports “programs focused on reducing plastic, food and textile waste.”A significant portion of this work is internal to Walmart’s retail operations and consists of efforts to repurpose or donate unsold products and packaging.
Nature grants typically support large national and global environmental outfits like the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy and the Rainforest Alliance.
People in Supply Chains refers to Walmart’s work with suppliers and stakeholders to advance sustainable labor, agricultural and product distribution practices. Walmart runs an internal Responsible Sourcing Program, and has made grants to organizations like the Technoserve Smallholder Market Alliance Program, the Farmer Market Readiness Program in India run by the nonprofit Tanager, and a women farmer’s support program run by the Professional Assistance for Development Action organization in India.

Grants for Community Development

Through its Strengthening Community focus area, Walmart runs several programs to support the communities where its employees live and work.

Spark Good is Walmart’s most accessible grantmaking program and the only one that accepts applications for funding. Giving is steered by “customers and associates” of both Walmart and Sam’s Club stores and addresses “the causes they care most about.”
- Facility Giving includes grants from specific local stores or facilities. Nonprofits may also “request space outside of stores” through this program.
- Customer Giving allows organizations to request “round up” donations from customers at Walmart and Sam’s Club checkout registers.
- Associate Giving consist of donations made by Walmart and Sam’s Club employees.
- Information about how to register and apply for Spark Good programs is available here.

Healthier Food for All encompasses all of Walmart’s donations of food to Feeding America food banks, as well as the company’s grants to food and health related organizations like the American Diabetes Association, Foodcorps, the People’s Food Institute and the Regional Food Bank of Northeast Florida, among others.
Disaster Preparedness and Response is another component of Walmart’s community giving. Grantee partners include national, regional and local organizations. Recipients include the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center, the New Jersey Voluntary Organization in Disaster Relief, the Denver Rescue Mission and the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
Walmart also supports its employees during times of need via its Associates in Critical Need Trust, which awards grants to “associates in times of economic hardship resulting from an unforeseen crisis.”

Grants for Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights

Walmart’s Center for Racial Equity supports “research, advocacy, and innovative interventions that foster equitable outcomes for people” with grants and engagements that “complement and extend the impact of Walmart’s business efforts.” The center was established in 2020 with a $100 million, five-year commitment to address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people. Specific areas of focus include education, criminal justice, finance and health.

The education focus overlaps with Walmart’s Creating Opportunity program and focuses on “equitable advancement through upskilling” and “strengthening talent pipelines.” Walmart has supported OneTen, a coalition of businesses committed to increasing the number of African Americans hired and promoted in “family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement.” Other grants have supported the NAACP Empowerment Programs, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the 1890 Universities Foundation.
The criminal justice area focuses on “prevent[ing] people from entering the criminal justice system.” The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform received funding from Walmart to develop and implement programs to prevent violence and ensuing incarceration among at-risk youth. Other grantees include the Arkansas Justice Collective, Prison Fellowship Ministries and the Mississippi Center for Justice.
The focus area for finance broadly supports “financial inclusion and equity for the Black community.” Interests include improving local economies and supporting Black entrepreneurs and businesses. Walmart has supported a beauty business accelerator program run by the Washington Area Community Investment Fund. Other grantees include the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the Black Innovation Alliance and the Congressional Black Caucus Association.
The fourth focus area, health, works to improve health outcomes and access to healthy food in Black families and communities. Walmart gave $5 million to the American Heart Association’s Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, which runs programs to increase the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods in communities of color in Atlanta and Chicago. Other grants have gone to the Black Health Alliance, the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, Partnership for a Healthier America and Boston’s Health Resources in Action.

Grants for Veterans

The Foundation works towards other reintegrating U.S. veterans in the economy.

This is a goal that Walmart is uniquely positioned to advance as America’s largest private employer.
Grant recipients in this area include the Disabled American Veterans Department of Massachusetts Service Fund, Veterans, Inc. of Worcester, Massachusetts and

Important Grant Details:

Walmart’s grants range from a few hundred dollars to over $30 million. Most grants, however, fall in the $50,000 to $600,000 range.

Grants stemming from Walmart’s Spark Good program are the smallest, but also the most accessible. These grants typically support local community causes and range from $250 to $5,000.
Larger grants tend to support ongoing partnerships between Walmart and national organizations working in the corporation’s areas of interest.
Many of Walmart’s funding interests have tie ins with its retail operations, like food donation, career advancement for the retail sector, and supply chain efficiency.
Grant applications are only accepted for the Spark Good program. Guidelines and an FAQ are available at the website.
All other grants applications are accepted by invitation only. Walmart will only occasionally post RFPs on its website.
For information about past grants, see Walmart’s Grantee Search page.

Walmart.org does not offer a way to get in touch, but social media handles for some of its staff members are provided on the team page. A phone number listed for Walmart’s corporate giving program is (479) 273-4000.

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