Improving Lives and Communities

As the nation's leading healthcare services and information technology company, McKesson is dedicated to building healthier communities. Every day, our products and services enable our customers to improve patients' lives worldwide.

McKesson is America's oldest and largest healthcare services and information technology company, with our pharmaceutical wholesaling roots dating back more than 175 years.  In fact, we created the first national drug distribution system.  We're dedicated to delivering vital medicines, medical supplies and healthcare information technology solutions that touch the lives of patients in every healthcare setting.

As a Fortune 14 company, in addition to our commitment to improving the lives of patients, we impact communities through sheer economic opportunity.  Headquartered in San Francisco, California, McKesson provides employment to more than 32,500 people across the nation and around the world.  We bring business into the communities where we operate and provide fair compensation and generous benefits for our employees.

 

Supporting Small and Diverse Businesses

McKesson recognizes the outstanding contributions made by small and diverse businesses to the economic health and diversity of communities throughout the United States. Supplier Diversity is a critical component of McKesson's plan to deliver the best products and services to its employees and its customers. We are committed to expanding partnership opportunities and engagement with minority, women, veteran-owned and service disabled-owned small businesses as McKesson suppliers.

McKesson also offers small, diverse and veteran-owned businesses the opportunity to enter into a mentoring relationship. Since 1994, these relationships have provided small business suppliers with extraordinary marketing and business management guidance, enabling them to expand their business expertise within the nation's healthcare supply chain. In addition, McKesson supports our nation's military veterans – veteran-owned businesses represent some of our most trusted suppliers and partners. McKesson was a Diamond sponsor of the 6th Annual National Veteran Small Business Expo and the Title Sponsor of Keeping the Promise.

Building Healthier Communities

McKesson also gives back to communities in ways that go well beyond the economic impact generated by our business operations. Established in 1943, the McKesson Foundation invests in nonprofit organizations working to improve the communities where we live and work. In FY10, the McKesson Foundation donated $5 million, primarily to nonprofit organizations focused on chronic disease management and to support our employees' community involvement efforts.

With the start of FY10, the McKesson Foundation refined its strategic focus. In addition to our continued commitment to supporting our employees' community involvement efforts, the Foundation's grant making program supports chronic disease management, with a three-year emphasis on diabetes management (FY10-FY12).

By focusing on chronic disease management, we are able to invest in innovative nonprofit programs, lend our institutional expertise to our partner organizations and track the specific health impacts of our community investment efforts.

To create more synergy between our community investment programs, we have also focused our employee involvement programs on diabetes. Most notably, in addition to ongoing support for employee involvement in the community, we have aligned our annual Community Days event with the McKesson Foundation's focus area. Our annual walk events around the country also support the diabetes cause.

McKesson Foundation Brings Volunteering to the Masses Through a Grant to the American Diabetes Association

As a volunteer-driven organization, the optimization of the American Diabetes Association's volunteer recruitment, training and retention infrastructure and standard operating procedures is mission critical.

In FY10, the McKesson Foundation granted funding to create an online web portal for volunteer recruitment and training, allowing the Association to increase their capacity exponentially. The new web portal will launch in 2011 and will support ongoing volunteer recruitment & training activities with the following objectives:

• To connect and enhance relationships with new and existing volunteers;
• To create a communications channel to extend invitations to get involved;
• To facilitate an exchange of information that helps to match the individual interests with volunteer opportunities that are convenient and timely; and
• To recruit and train volunteers to task.

"McKesson's generous support of this project presents the Association with a unique opportunity to revolutionize the way we recruit, manage and engage with our volunteers," said Greg Elfers, Chief Field Development Officer, American Diabetes Association. "The ultimate goal is to establish a volunteer online community that complements existing engagement activities to foster more meaningful, long-term relationships with current and prospective volunteers."

Community Days: A Long Tradition of Service

Our hallmark volunteering event, Community Days, is a McKesson tradition that began more than a decade ago. In the spring each year, thousands of our employees gather to work on projects in service to their communities. Our FY08 project benefited foster youth and our FY09 project supported pediatric oncology patients. In FY10, Community Days focused on a project supporting hospitalized military veterans.

We are pleased to see continued employee interest in participating in Community Days, with strong growth over the past several years, when we formally launched an expansion beyond our headquarters location in San Francisco.

Caregiver Kits: Another Way to Help End Suffering

As a healthcare company, McKesson is in the unique position of operating within an industry that aims to make and keep people healthy. Since 2006, McKesson has partnered with humanitarian organization World Vision to assemble and donate more than 263,500 World Vision Caregiver Kits to local community caregivers who care for those living with AIDS in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The Caregiver Kits include items AIDS caregivers say they need most, from gloves to cotton balls to antibacterial soap, washcloths, petroleum jelly and antifungal cream. In the 263,500 kits that have been provided, 50 pair of gloves in each kit have allowed for 13,175,000 "compassionate touches" throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Our company's expertise and infrastructure in distributing medical-surgical supplies have allowed us to negotiate dramatic discounts with our suppliers on the contents of the kits. We pass these savings on to the community groups — schools, churches and businesses — that purchase materials and assemble the kits for World Vision to distribute in remote areas of developing countries.

In addition to securing deep discounts on the medical supplies within the kits, McKesson has supported World Vision's Caregiver Kit program by hosting kit assembly events. At events such as our national sales conference or smaller department outings, thousands of McKesson employees have had the opportunity to directly participate in this unique effort. At McKesson's National Sales Conference in 2010, the team assembled 10,250 Haiti caregiver kits, achieving the largest kit-build event in the history of World Vision.

Response to Haiti Earthquake

In the days following the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, McKesson responded to the crisis with cash and product donations of more than $700,000, not including McKesson employees' personal donations.

McKesson Medical-Surgical provided supplies, to the relief organization World Vision International, including crutches, orthopedic braces, gauze, masks and mosquito nets.

The McKesson Foundation pledged initial cash donations of $15,000 to the Red Cross and $15,000 to World Vision for disaster recovery, and McKesson Canada pledged $10,000 to the Canadian Red Cross.

Employees across the country also contributed to relief efforts. In McKesson's Arizona businesses, employees supported Project C.U.R.E. In Alpharetta, GA., employees held a fundraising drive to benefit the Red Cross' Haiti relief efforts. McKesson Automation partnered with Parata Systems to send in-kind technology donations.

As part of McKesson's work with the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, we supported HHS response teams by fulfilling orders of vaccines and medicines bound for Haiti.

The McKesson Foundation matched U.S.-based employee donations to any 501(c)3 charity assisting with Haitian quake recovery efforts that met the Foundation’s standard guidelines.  Donations made by employees to eligible 501(c)3 nonprofits were matched dollar for dollar by the Foundation for a total of over $90,000.

McKesson Canada also matched donations from employees in Canada up to a total of $10,000.

Throughout the disaster in Haiti, McKesson quickly and efficiently responded to the tremendous need through generous donations, intricate coordination, collaboration with suppliers and customers and an outpouring of time, money, and care from our employees.

McKesson plays an important role in helping our customers deliver critical medical supplies and pharmaceuticals during emergencies and natural disasters. In support of our customers' lifesaving missions, we are proud that our world-class distribution services, our dedicated employees and our commitment to our ICARE shared principles can come together in service of communities during times of need.