When I lived in Australia, I was amazed at the strong sense of community in my son’s school and the area where we lived. Working and living in Silicon Valley, it is easy to get caught up in our busy lives and not have time to volunteer and give back to the communities where we live and work.  I am fortunate that Spansion has a Corporate Social Responsibility program where our employees can make a difference in the communities we do business – from Sunnyvale, Austin and Bangkok to Munich, Tokyo, Penang and Shanghai.

Even in challenging times, it is important for corporations to continue supporting corporate social responsibility (CSR) to build stronger communities, engage with customers and build stronger brands. A 2011 CR Global Best Practices study by Corporate Responsibility (CR) Magazine, the Corporate Responsibility Officer Association (CROA) and NYSE Euronext revealed more respondents are committed to corporate responsibility than in 2010 and a growing number of companies continue to implement programs.

I recently had the opportunity to present Spansion’s donation to the Sunnyvale School District to help fund their Beyond the Bell program. Beyond the Bell is a Winter Camp enrichment program that the Sunnyvale School District and the city of Sunnyvale created to keep students interested in education during winter break. Most camps, such as ones my son has attended in the past, focus on fun or sport activities.  Sunnyvale’s Beyond the Bell features classroom lessons in the morning at Columbia Middle School and hands-on learning experiences at various sites in Santa Clara County in the afternoon. The enrichment program is the only of its kind for public middle school students in the area. Beyond the Bell Winter Camp directly links activities such as golf and dining out to classroom lessons in vocabulary and math. Activities are designed to take education to the next level; for example, math is used to calculate the distance of a golf ball or to double a recipe.

Our customers around the world are increasingly asking about our CSR programs so we will be sharing more about what we are doing in the areas of community involvement, environment, health and safety, and developing innovative products that are energy efficient, easy to use and environmentally friendly.