How We Serve Others: A Reflection of Our 2020 Community Initiatives

At Dollar General, our mission of Serving Others is the foundation on which our business was built and continues to operate each and every day. During the holiday season and as an unprecedented year comes to an end, we reflect on our mission and how we have been able to live it out in the communities we proudly serve in 2020.

Since the beginning of the year, Dollar General, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and the Dollar General Employee Assistance Foundation have donated a combined $28.4 million to charitable efforts.

Natural Disaster Support

In the aftermath of this year’s tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires, Dollar General awarded more than $150,000 to the American Red Cross as well as product donations to our neighbors and communities impacted by natural disaster. The Company also accepted in-store collections to benefit the American Red Cross.

Pledge to Support Racial Justice and Education

Dollar General and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation announced a combined $5 million pledge in support of racial equity. The funds will be distributed to national and local organizations focused on literacy, education and racial and social justice.

Dollar General Literacy Foundation Community Support with Save the Children

In late May, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation contributed $2 million to support Save the Children’s coronavirus response efforts across rural America.  These efforts were dedicated to ensuring children continued to learn, had access to nutritious food during the nationwide school closures and helped prevent wide-scale learning loss. Save the Children’s programs also supported by this donation helped to maintain reading achievements and academic progress made during the current school year, provide resources to families to begin or continue at-home learning processes and distribute educational games and toys, as well as hygiene materials and shelf-stable foods.

Beyond Words Grants

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) have presented $60,000 to four schools in 2020. Provided through the organizations’ joint Beyond Words grant program, the funds aim to support schools’ library recovery efforts following natural disasters that includes purchasing books and technology.

Reading Revolutions

This year, Dollar General donated $200,000 to twelve schools to support schools’ library and literacy programs, which included purchasing books, technology programs, computers and/or other education supplies or resources. Since its inception in 2013, Dollar General has donated more than $3 million to schools through its Reading Revolution program.

Dollar General Literacy Foundation

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation announced the award of more than $15.1 million year-to-date, including its largest one-day grant announcement in May.  The grants provide financial support for summer, family and adult literacy programs to organizations within a 15-mile radius of a Dollar General store or distribution center.

Since its founding 27 years ago in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $186 million in grants to schools, libraries and organizations to support adult, family, summer and youth literacy.  These funds have helped positively impact more than 12 million people by providing funding and resources to help individuals take their first steps toward learning to read, learning English, or completing their high school equivalency.

To learn more about the 2021 Dollar General Literacy Foundation grant cycle, please visit the link here.

Dollar General Employee Assistance Foundation

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year, Dollar General awarded the Dollar General Employee Assistance Foundation with $5.25 million to support employees in their times of need. 

Launch of the Yellow Glasses Project

To shine a light on literacy and foster a brighter future for those in need, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation launched a colorful awareness campaign – the Yellow Glasses Project. Beginning on July 20, customers at each Dollar General store across the country had the opportunity to purchase a pair of yellow sunglasses for $2 each. For every Yellow Glasses Project purchase, 100 percent of the proceeds supported the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

DG Kindness

Whether it is providing exceptional customer service or supporting their favorites causes or organizations, our team members are the fabric of the communities we call home. To recognize their commitment to Serving Others, the Company began a new DG Kindness campaign aimed at highlighting employees’ positive impacts in communities across the country.

This year, our team members joined cleanup efforts and provided supplies to families who lost their homes to the devastating fires in California; partnered with local food banks to distribute essentials to those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; and even organized a surprise birthday party for a special customer. To support the heartwarming, important and thoughtful efforts of employees, the Company made a $1,000 donation to an organization within their local community. In total, the Company has donated $14,000 to organizations in employees’ local communities as part of the DG Kindness Campaign.

To learn more about Dollar General’s DG Kindness honorees, please visit the link here.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Thanks and Giving

In 2020, Dollar General is commemorating its 15th anniversary of partnering with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Thanks and Giving® campaign.  To further support St. Jude, the Company will provide a $125,000 donation and collect in-store donations from November 20 through December 18. Since 2005, Dollar General and customers’ in-store donations have provided more than $26.3 million to support childhood cancer research.

Additionally, DG plans to help make the holidays brighter by extending cheer and donating Santa’s Workshop presents to children and their families at St. Jude this season.

Holiday Drives

DG also plans to support families this holiday season through its annual in-store toy drives.  Between November 20 and December 4, customers may donate toys at each DG store to benefit a local toy drive or the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.  Store managers at each store chooses the recipient organization of the toy drive so that items donated are distributed in the local community.  Dollar General is also providing a $100,000 donation to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation to support and further their work.

For more than 80 years, Dollar General has been guided by our mission of Serving Others. Our service-minded mission supports the Company’s future and will remain inherent in our culture.  Through these collective efforts of 2020, we continue to remain committed to serving our customers and the communities we call home.