RYE BROOK, N.Y. – Xylem announced that the Safe Water project it is supporting in Bangalore, India, garnered more than 450,000 votes from players, partners and football fans around the world – earning top ranking in Cityzens Giving’s fifth annual campaign.
Cityzens Giving is the global community initiative of Premier League champion football team and Xylem partner, Manchester City. This year’s campaign distributed £400,000 donated by City Football Group, parent of Manchester City, and its partners to six urban football projects run by young people, for young people.
Fans around the world voted for how the funding should be divided between the six projects. Bangalore’s Safe Water Project, Water Goals, which focuses on improving access to safe, clean water for over 5,000 children in the area, was the most popular project and will receive £92,000 in grant funding.
Xylem’s corporate citizenship program, Watermark, is providing further support for the project through employee volunteers and water filtration equipment. The announcement caps a record year for Watermark, which engaged around 45 percent of Xylem’s global employee base who collectively logged more than 53,000 volunteer hours giving back to local communities. Watermark also exceeded its three-year goal to log 100,000 employee volunteer hours.
“We’re honored to have participated in the Cityzens Giving campaign, which is creating social impact by bringing together the power of football with the power of social good to tackle critical challenges and help youth around the globe,” said Patrick Decker, Xylem president and CEO. “As part of our mission to solve water, our company is deeply committed to creating economic and social value. Over the past three years, Xylem colleagues showed a strong and united effort to make water safer, more accessible and more affordable for people and communities around the world. Now we will be building on this foundation with ambitious plans for our Watermark program in 2019.”
“It’s very encouraging to have fans support our Safe Water project because it reflects growing awareness and concern about the impact of water challenges on children and communities around the world,” said Joseph Vesey, Xylem chief marketing officer and chair, Xylem Watermark Committee. “We look forward to partnering with Cityzens Giving on this important effort, while building on the achievements of our Watermark employee volunteer program.”