8.4.Sponsorship and charity
Through sponsorship and charity, TMK seeks to foster a favourable social climate and create an environment for sustainable development of the regions hosting our plants.
TMK implements its charity projects in the Urals region via the Sinara Charity Foundation, a professional operator. The Foundation’s projects seek to support social initiatives by non-profit and public organisations in health, education, culture, sports, and social security. Key formats of charitable activities: targeted aid; personal endowments; grant contests; corporate citizenship.
In 2015, the Sinara Charity Foundation used TMK’s funds to hold the 12 Civil Initiatives of the Urals Federal District Open Competition of Social Programmes designed to address social issues and enhance social stability.
The Foundation focuses on promoting grant extensions as an important tool for improving the social climate in Russia. In 2015, 104 non-profit organisations benefited from the Company’s financial support, with 21 of them winning various grant competitions.
TMK also supports personal endowment projects of the Foundation, including:
- Tochka Opory (Foothold), a programme for support to educational institutions aimed at promoting employment opportunities at industrial facilities among young people and raising the level of training for blue-collar positions. In 2015, over 500 events (tours, “live lessons”, TV programmes dedicated to basic trades) were held, attended by 1.5 thousand students from 36 schools of the Sverdlovsk Region
- Rostochek (Little Sprout), a programme for support to pre-school institutions: in 2015, we supplied healthcare equipment to 29 pre-school institutions of the Sverdlovsk Region
- Together with the Sverdlovsk State Philharmony, we are implementing a social and cultural project, Great Music for Little Hearts. The Classics and Children: Live Communication programme was developed as part of the project and provides for 32 concerts to be held in orphanages
- Demidov International Contest for Young Violinists DeMUKS, a qualification round for the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Over 120 young musicians took part in the contest in 2015.
for 20 yearsTAGMET has run an annual campaign, Marathon of Kindness, with the proceeds directed to those families of metallurgists who have disabled children
The Company continues promoting its Corporate Citizenship project which involves employees of TMK’s entities in projects to provide free donor aid to children with serious blood diseases and raise funds for parentless children.
All Russian facilities of the Company run charitable programmes and campaigns and consistently provide aid to veteran organisations, as well as to children’s and healthcare institutions. For as many as 20 years, TAGMET has run an annual campaign, Marathon of Kindness, with the proceeds directed to those families of metallurgists who have disabled children. The company also takes part in the nationwide campaign Under the Flag of Kindness!, which seeks to raise funds for children who need expensive health treatment.
The Volzhsky Pipe Plant actively develops volunteer initiatives by its young employees. The Council of Young Pipe Manufacturers of the Plant provides aid to the Volzhsky Baby House, the Nadezhda Centre for Rehabilitation of Children and Adolescents with Disabilities, the Cheremushka Childcare Centre for Visually Impaired Children, and to WW2 veterans.
In 2015, the Volzhsky Pipe Plant won an award of the Twelfth Industry Contest Mining and Metallurgical Enterprise of High Social Efficiency in the Relations with the Youth category. The contest was held by the Association of the Russian Mining and Metallurgy Industrialists and the Central Council of the Russian Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union, in conjunction with the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.
To promote sports values TMK provides sponsorship support to the Russian Ski-Jumping and Nordic Combined Federation, the Russian Olympians Foundation and the Futsal Association of Russia, and a number of professional sports clubs in the regions where TMK operates, including
- The Ural Football Club of the Russian Premier League, based in Yekaterinburg
- The Sinara Mini-Football Club, based in Yekaterinburg, a two-times Russian champion
- The Dinamo-Sinara Women’s Handball Club, based in Volgograd, a twelve-times Russian champion
- The TMK-TAGMET Tennis Club based in Taganrog.
We also sponsor amateur teams representing TMK’s entities competing in various sports, including children’s and youth sports.
In 2015, TMK took part in the Leaders in Corporate Philanthropy project organised by the Donors Forum, the Vedomosti business newspaper, and PwC, an international network of audit firms and consultancies. TMK ranked 10th in the overall rating of the project participants and won the contest’s award in the Concept and Strategy of Corporate Philanthropy category. The Sinarsky Pipe Plant, Volzhsky Pipe Plant, and Seversky
Tube Works were awarded certificates for debut contestants.
Over five consecutive years, the American division of TMK has supported the activities of United Way charitable organisation in local communities and a number of other charitable institutions, including: the Emergency Management system of Beaver County, Pennsylvania; the American Cancer Society Annual Relay for Life in Blytheville, Arkansas, and the Food Banks for disadvantaged families in the Canadian province of Alberta. During the Christmas holidays, TMK IPSCO employees participated in the collection of presents for children from disadvantaged families in Houston, Texas.
In 2015, TMK-ARTROM (TMK’s European division) continued its cooperation with, and support to, cultural and humanitarian projects of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bucharest, including the launch of Rossotrudnichestvo’s representative office in Romania and projects of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Bucharest.
A company of TMK’s Middle East division, GIPI, Oman, provides support to local non-profit organisations and to social initiatives run by the Municipality of Sohar. It is also involved in financing educational institutions of Sohar and Liwa, and the football team of Sohar.