Living Our Mission

At the individual and institute level, RTI is deeply committed to living our mission—not just in our work but through donations and volunteer efforts in support of charities around the world and through our dedication to environmental stewardship.

Giving Back to Our Communities

The commitment of RTI’s staff members to our mission extends beyond work and into their personal lives, donating time and resources to support organizations that work to better the communities where we work and live. The institute supports this commitment through our Community Partnerships Program, United Way campaign, Red Cross blood drives, and other fundraising and volunteer initiatives.

This year, RTI donated more than $152,000 in corporate contributions to support 57 charitable organizations and efforts—each nominated by one of our employees—through our Community Partnerships Program. These organizations serve communities across the United States where we maintain offices, as well as Jakarta, Nairobi, and San Salvador, home of our international regional offices. Our donations help provide food, housing, and other basic needs as well as educational programs for children and services for victims of domestic violence.

The Community Partnership Program also supported employee teams that participated in numerous fundraisers, including the Tunnel to Towers Walk/Run in North Carolina in support of first responders and veterans, the American Heart Association Triangle Heart Walk in North Carolina, and Project Bread’s annual Walk for Hunger in Boston.

In our annual United Way campaign, staff members pledged more than $362,500. Coupled with our corporate match donations, we raised a total of more than $463,000. In addition, and many employees volunteered at our United Way drop-in event in April to create flash cards for school children, make blankets for hospice patients, and package food for people in need.

Staff members demonstrated their strong volunteer spirit at other events throughout the year, including the Food Bank Sort-a-Rama in May as well as an event in support of Stop Hunger Now—where more than 60 staff volunteers at our headquarters campus packed nearly 10,000 nutritious, vitamin-rich meals to help feed families around the world.

Always quick to respond to international relief efforts, this year our employees donated more than $36,000 to the American Red Cross Relief Fund for Nepal earthquake victims. Together with the institute’s matching donation, we contributed more than $71,000.

In recognition of our longstanding support, in June 2015 the Durham Literacy Center honored RTI with a Leaders in Literacy award for our support of the center’s programs and our promotion of literacy both locally and globally. Our staff members have served as tutors, and RTI as an organization has donated funds and materials in support of the center’s mission to break the cycle of illiteracy.

Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling

RTI embraces the principles of environmental stewardship and sustainable operations, always seeking opportunities to boost efficiency and reduce consumption of resources everywhere we work.

As presented in our most recent Sustainability Report, recent initiatives and infrastructure improvements enabled us to further reduce water use and greenhouse gas emissions and to improve energy efficiency at our North Carolina campus. In FY2015 we continued a transit subsidy program that encourages employees to use public transportation, and we supported renewable energy through NC Green Power, a nonprofit program working to improve the environment in North Carolina.