Beyond Store Leadership — A Legacy of Giving Back


Levi Strauss & Co.
September 26, 2022

Last week, during the Field Leadership Conference (FLC), we celebrated our Levi’s® store leaders in the U.S. for their passion for making an impact in their communities.

Over the past four years, retail leaders have given over $200,000 in donations and more than 19,000 volunteer hours in support of community organizations. And what is even more admirable is that these leaders have engaged their colleagues in over 400 giving back events.

FLC always brings together our people to reflect on their accomplishments and look ahead at what’s to come. Because of the pandemic, FLC has had to shift to a virtual setting, but that has not stopped our retail colleagues from keeping their giving back spirit alive.

At FLC in 2021, retail leaders rallied their teams to provide an additional $100,000 to organizations in their communities, and through the year they’ve continued to lead with passion.

Here are some examples:

  • Marla Murbach led a successful fundraising campaign for veterans that led to establishing LS&Co.’s first ever veterans employee resource group.
  • The Southwest District team, led by Rendon Bradford, shared their own stories and skills to further the career growth of refugees and to support children in early education.
  • The Great Lakes and New England districts, led by Jessica Pokrajac and Thomas Stark, assembled feminine hygiene kits to donate to local women’s shelters.
  • In New York, even when inventory is rescheduled and coincides with a giving back event in support of the AIDS Walk, Marc Pendell and team still showed up for their community while managing a shifting workload.
  • Tanya Kaawa enlisted Levi’s® colleagues and other mall employees to support Hawaii’s largest food drive.

Beyond giving their own time and money to the causes they care about, they are also leaders in their communities. That’s why LS&Co. is going beyond providing 5 hours a month of paid time off to volunteer, building on a pilot program established in 2021 called Retail Community Impact Grants to make an even bigger difference in their local markets. We’ll share more about that program and how retail teams in the U.S. are leading the charge on issues impacting their local communities in the months to come.