CART: Paul Newman to head charity effort
27 November 1999
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Actor Paul Newman, co-owner of Newman/Haas Racing, has been designated as the chairman and national spokesman of the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, a venture launched last week with the goal of generating at least $15 billion annually in charitable donations from corporate America.
Noting that a steady increase in corporate pretax profits has been accompanied by a decline in the percentage of those profits which are donated to charity, Newman called for a reversal of the trend.
"We're in the '90s; it's flush times," Newman said. "The country is waiting; it's scanning the horizon hoping for some institution to distinguish itself ... to be the standard bearer for social and civic responsibility. What an opportunity! And you only have to reach out and grab it."
Already, the committee includes current and former CEOs from such companies as ABC/Capital Cities, Bloomberg, Chase Manhattan Bank, Estee Lauder, Fannie Mae, Goldman Sachs Group, GE Capital, Hallmark Cards, Johnson & Johnson, Kmart, Lucent Technologies, Sara Lee and Xerox. More than two dozen CEOs have already joined the committee and another 25 are expected to join soon.
Newman has long been active in fund raising for charity and regularly donates all profits from his Newman's Own food products company to charitable causes.
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