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In Our Partner’s Words...

The Coca-Cola Foundation has a long and generous history of giving to The Ohio State University. In addition to the Buckeye Kids Club and the 4-H program, the foundation has supported the Critical Difference for Women program since 1994, with giving now topping $2.6 million and scholarships awarded totaling 428. Scholarships through the Critical Difference for Women program support women seeking undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees who previously interrupted their education due to financial constraints and family obligations. Ingrid Saunders Jones, chair of The Coca-Cola Foundation, is a key proponent of the relationship between Coca-Cola and Ohio State. She shares her thoughts about this partnership.

With Coca-Cola being a global company how do you determine your strategic philanthropy and where you want to focus your attention?

The business world is constantly transforming itself to become better, more strategic and more efficient … whether it’s in marketing, finance, or IT. The same is true in the area of community engagement. Recently, Coca-Cola leaders from around the world came together and carved out a set of global community investment priorities that we believe will yield the highest good for the communities where we operate: water stewardship (conservation and sanitation), fitness and active lifestyles (physical fitness and nutrition), and sustainable packaging (community recycling). In addition, we determined that there are a couple of local priorities that we must continue to support. We asked each operating group to designate that local priority area. In Africa, they chose  HIV/AIDS prevention, while North America chose education and diversity.

A fourth priority, though not a global priority, is education. Our consumers, our constituents, and our key leaders around the world have said education is a priority for them. Whether people are in Bogota or London or Barcelona, everyone agrees that education is important. It is what helps people become productive citizens all over the world. It is what helps with the sustainability of the family. It is the same story that may be executed in a slightly different format all over the world. 

This is how Coca-Cola came upon the Critical Difference for Women program at Ohio State. When we first engaged with Critical Difference, it was a program that had high aspirations. We saw the possibilities in the Critical Difference program and decided to increase our original donation from $250,000 to $500,000. Part of that was due to the fact that everyone on campus was engaged in the program. That engagement started at the top and has continued from Presidents Gordon Gee to Brit Kirwan to Karen Holbrook and full circle back to Gordon Gee.

How would you characterize your relationship with Ohio State?

The Coca-Cola Company and Ohio State have a very special partnership. Critical Difference for Women is just one part of the philanthropic partnership that Coca-Cola has with the university.

However, Critical Difference goes to the core of Ohio State’s mission—to make a difference in the lives of citizens. University leaders have never taken their eye off the ball and for all intents and purposes, the land grant university has stayed true to its mission of educating as many and as broadly as possible. Critical Difference allows the university to go deeper by saying there is something happening with women that needs to be addressed.  

That’s why our relationship is special. Ohio State looked at the consumer and felt something was needed. Rather than continue with business as usual, the university made adjustments and came up with a specialized program to help non-traditional female students resume the college education that was interrupted to meet other responsibilities.

Many people talk about Critical Difference’s spring luncheon with scholarship recipients. How would you describe the event to someone who has never attended? What does it mean to you?

The spring luncheon is where you see the power of this program. It is at this luncheon that you see how the words on a grant application are transformed into a powerful program that has impacted hundreds of people and lives.  It’s powerful to see how families change when parents achieve their goals of a higher education.

You said that you saw the potential and the possibilities in Critical Difference. How has the program delivered, and where could the program evolve to do even more?

The program did what it said it was going to do. There were no missteps or back stepping. No conceptualized resources were put against it, but rather just the resources of thought and people. It didn’t happen by happenstance and it didn’t grow so quickly that it became ineffective. It paced itself with what it discovered along the way.

The components of Critical Difference are diverse, and then within the components you have a lot of diversity. You’ve got people studying physics, education, performing arts, or design. The program did not become narrow so as to eliminate people; it instead remained inclusive in terms of professional aspirations, nationalities, and race of the women who participate.

What suggestions do you have for Critical Difference for Women?

First, I would like to see the Critical Difference program never go away. I think the program can continue to do good things in terms of changing the lives of women and their families. When we think about what makes a viable middle class, we know education is the key. We help these families move into the middle class and change the trajectory of their lives.

On a more practical level, I would like us to think about an alumni organization so we can really understand the impact of the program. We have anecdotal data because there are women still around and active with the program so we benefit from hearing their stories. Going forward, we ought to create a repository of some kind that speaks to who was helped by the program.

I meet with a wide variety of women’s groups and I often talk about the Critical Difference program. I tell them there’s an incredible program offered at Ohio State University that is an example of a very effective and powerful program for women.

Ohio State has demonstrated a commitment to the Critical Difference for Women program, which has strengthened our partnership and connection. I give a lot of credit to Gordon Gee and his staff who have worked hard to make this program what it is.

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