PEORIA, Ill., Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar
Inc. (NYSE: CAT) employees and retirees have pledged a record more
than $6.4 million to the United Way
this year. Add the Caterpillar Foundation dollar-for-dollar match,
and United Ways across the nation will receive a combined total of
more than $12.8 million. The United
Way has been Caterpillar's only annual solicitation for funds to
its employees and retirees for more than 60 years.
"I'm proud that our employees and retirees dig deep each and
every year to support their communities, their neighbors, sometimes
even their families and friends through United Way programs," said
Caterpillar Foundation President Michele
Sullivan. "About half the money raised will go to the Heart
of Illinois United Way in Peoria,
Illinois. Outside of Peoria, our employees and retirees give just
as generously and their contributions are from Nashville, Tennessee, to Corinth, Mississippi, to San Diego, California, and more."
Since Caterpillar began investing in the United Way, employees
and retirees are able to designate their contributions to the
United Way of their choice.
"The United Way is a great way to invest your money in charities
where you live," said Sullivan. "It assesses the community needs,
finds efficient programs that deliver measurable outcomes and works
to eliminate those needs in the future by identifying the causes
and creating long-term solutions. That's done through the Boys
& Girls Clubs, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for
Children, The Salvation Army or the hundreds of other United
Way-funded agencies."
Employees and retirees pledged more than $6.4 million, a 3 percent increase from last
year. Caterpillar's overall employee participation in 2014
reached 44 percent, a 16 percent increase from 2013.
"I want to congratulate Caterpillar on an impressive employee
giving campaign and corporate match for 2014," said Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way
Worldwide. "The United Way network is proud to partner with
Caterpillar not only in local U.S. communities, but globally as
well. It is clear that Caterpillar cares about community impact and
helping people live to their fullest potential."
Caterpillar is part of the United Way's Global Corporate
Leadership Program, which includes 95 corporate partners that raise
more than $1 billion annually. There
are more than 1,110 local United Ways in the U.S., and
Caterpillar's annual campaign supports more than 500 of these local
United Ways where the company's employees live and work.
About Caterpillar:
For nearly 90 years, Caterpillar
Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving
positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar
to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource
assets. With 2013 sales and revenues of $55.656 billion, Caterpillar is the world's
leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel
and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and
diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates
through its three product segments - Resource Industries,
Construction Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also
provides financing and related services through its Financial
Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To
connect with us on social media, visit
caterpillar.com/social-media.
Forward-looking Statements:
Certain statements in this
release relate to future events and expectations and are
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe,"
"estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate,"
"plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar
words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All
statements other than statements of historical fact are
forward-looking statements, including, without limitation,
statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend
descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance,
and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking
statements.
Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those
described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a
number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global
economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we
serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and
infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component
price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or
significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or
volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of
liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers;
(v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events
beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi)
failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting
increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost
of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital
markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated
with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest
rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in
delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's
customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services
regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing,
all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures
or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their
impact on demand for our products and our competitive position;
(xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products
that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly
competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and
pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits
from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash
flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a
failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or
future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management
decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM
customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and
regulation; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or
anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense
or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat
Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased
pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other
employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings,
claims, lawsuits or investigations; (xxvi) compliance requirements
imposed if additional carbon emissions legislation and/or
regulations are adopted; (xxvii) changes in accounting standards;
(xxviii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxix) adverse effects
of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxx) other
factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in
our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February
18, 2014, for the year ended December
31, 2013, and in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on
August 1, 2014, for the quarter ended
June 30, 2014.
SOURCE Caterpillar