The personal face of a strong UNICEF partner
Rhonda Mims
Rhonda Mims is President of the ING Foundation, a generous U.S. Fund donor. This piece was originally published in the latest issue of Every Child. Download the complete issue to read other supporters' stories and reports on UNICEF's lifesaving work around the world.
Why we partner
I grew up in the South. My parents, my grandparents, and great-grandparents were all heavily involved in community service. I became a head of prosecution for the South Carolina attorney general’s office and, later, I worked for the Department of Justice. I guess I kind of emulated my parents and my grandparents and great-grandparents — their strong commitment to community.
When I came to ING, I worked in government affairs, litigation and, ultimately, with the Foundation in the Americas. In the early 2000s, I was part of a project to identify ING’s global partner for our ING Chances for Children program. We wanted an organization that would make sense for every ING employee — so if you were in India, our corporate philanthropy strategy would resonate with you as much as if you were in New York. We chose children’s education as the main focus. After looking at a host of worldwide organizations, we decided that UNICEF would be the best partner.
UNICEF's holistic approach to saving children's lives
The ING Foundation in the Americas started out funding School-in-a-Box kits. But we had ING employees volunteering with UNICEF programs in India and Brazil and when they came back, they related that, yes, it’s good to provide kids with a quality education — but what happens in war-torn areas or after a natural disaster when children don’t even have food or clean water? So we began tapping into the broad range of what UNICEF can do. We started to think of UNICEF whenever a natural disaster occurred — like a flood in Mexico or an earthquake in Peru — and funneled financial support to help those afflicted communities. UNICEF is the perfect organization for a holistic approach to preserving the life of a child.
ING partners with UNICEF through its foundations, but we also have an Employee Giving Campaign, and UNICEF is a big component of that. As a financial services company, we like to see that our investment is actually delivering. The U.S. Fund’s administrative costs are very low, meaning a maximum percentage of our investment goes toward helping children. It’s important to us from a branding, visibility, and good corporate citizenship standpoint. But what’s really the most important is that we know our dollars are being used wisely.
