The mission of Piedmont’s Corporate Responsibility and Piedmont Purpose - Charitable Giving Program is not only to provide the highest quality services and experience to our tenants on daily basis, but also to engage with the local community. Our Piedmont Purpose initiative is focused on volunteering and/or financially supporting programs related to medical or human needs and children’s programs that improve the overall quality of life (particularly through charities tied to the real estate industry or our tenants).
In 2015, Piedmont created the Piedmont W. Wayne Woody Foundation in honor of our late Chairman of the Board, W. Wayne Woody through which charitable contributors are distributed to various nonprofit
organizations. Recipient organizations are 501(c)(3) entities that fit our charitable giving categories and
demonstrate fiscal/administrative stability, including being non-discriminatory and non-political.
In honor of our first responders, the Piedmont W. Wayne Woody Foundation has made donations to various charitable organizations that are directly assisting in the battle against COVID-19 in each of our markets as follows:
Minneapolis/Chicago
Dallas/Houston
Orlando
NYC/NJ
Boston
Washington, D.C
Atlanta
Piedmont is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion within our own workforce and the broader commercial real estate industry. We strive and are committed to developing, hiring, and supporting a diverse workforce that is reflective of the communities in which we operate and motivates people to work together to deliver results for our investors.
In efforts to further this commitment and encourage a broad applicant pool, Piedmont is investing in the education and the career development of scholars from two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) including Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA) and Howard University (Washington, DC) by introducing the needs-based Piedmont Office Realty Trust Scholarship Program. The program provides scholastic support to rising sophomore students seeking an Economic, Finance, Accounting, Engineering, or real estate specific degree and is renewable based upon scholastic achievement for up to three years for each Piedmont Scholars’ Sophomore, Junior and Senior years. The scholarship also offers each student the opportunity to intern with Piedmont and acquire firsthand experience in commercial real estate.
We believe that developing a diverse, talented, and skilled pipeline of future candidates for Piedmont and the commercial real estate industry begins with supporting the education and career paths of students today. Our hope is the Program provides career success and an expanded knowledge of commercial real estate for participating students.
In addition to financial contributions through the PWW Foundation, Piedmont recognizes the value and benefit of employee volunteerism and fully appreciates its positive impact on the community, the employees, and ultimately, the Company by promoting team building, collaboration, and unity. To promote volunteerism among Piedmont employees, the Company provides a matching program whereby an employee may request time away from work to support a community service project or activity. Preference is given to those organizations that are tied to real estate industry programs or that have a major tenant sponsorship. Our employees have partnered with Piedmont to donate thousands of dollars and hours annually to numerous organizations. Here is just a sampling of the many organizations we have supported: