Grande Communications was founded on a strong value system that guides how we work with our investors, partners and vendors and how we serve our community. Since our founding in 1999, our value system has been a key driver of our success with our customers, investors, employees and neighbors.

Community

Our community involvement is based on our pledge to “serve our customers and communities with passion and commitment.” As Texans, we take this pledge seriously and strive to make a positive impact in each market we serve.

Grande Communications is home to an energetic corporate outreach program and a compassionate employee-based giving program, the Passion & Commitment Investment Club (P&C Club). Through these two programs, Grande and our employees seek to enhance the communities where we provide our services and where we are proud to live and work.

Corporate Outreach

Grande’s corporate philanthropic efforts are designed to use our resources– funds, volunteers and services - to support events and activities in our local communities. Grande reaches out to non-profits and schools as well as civic and neighborhood groups to sponsor and participate in initiatives such as local festivals, partnerships in education, youth activities and neighborhood cleanups to help local residents strengthen the sense of community and connectivity within their neighborhoods.

Grande also uses its telecommunications assets and expertise to support the community. For example, Grande donates free airtime on its cable network for public service announcements, hosts Web sites for numerous community organizations and in 2006 launched a Community Calendar. The Calendar gives non-profit organizations a free and open opportunity to list community events and activities on Grande Interactive TV enjoyed by Grande Digital Cable customers.

Since 2001, Grande has also provided free home Internet access to more than 2,000 underserved students and their families in partnership with programs such as Computers for Learning, Partners in Education and Communities in Schools for school districts in Austin, Corpus Christi and San Marcos - with plans to expand to all Grande markets. The retail value of these donated Internet services exceeds $1 million but the return on investment in the education of disadvantaged students is priceless.

For information about our corporate outreach program, contact the Community Relations Manager in the local Grande market.

Passion & Commitment Investment Club

Even before Grande laid the first mile of broadband fiber or sold our first product, our founding leadership team committed to strengthening the communities we serve. In response to this corporate goal, our employees established The Passion & Commitment Investment Club (P&C Club) as their way to give back.

The P&C Club is governed by Grande employees and funded by employee donations with support of a corporate match. The P&C Club Community Chest is a 501(c) (3) organization that makes grants of up to $5,000 to non-profit organizations in our business footprint to address the following needs:

  • Basic human services – food, clothing, shelter, healthcare and safety
  • Education through access to computer technology
  • Positive initiatives for at-risk youth

In addition to grants, the P&C Club drives much of Grande’s culture of giving through an annual company-wide summer food drive and holiday outreach initiatives in each local market. Since the founding of the P&C Club in 2000, we have awarded more than $1 million in grants, donated thousands of holiday gifts to those in need and collected tons of food for dozens of food banks and pantries in our Texas hometowns.

The P&C Club also encourages Grande employees to volunteer their personal time to their communities outside the normal Grande workday. Through the Valued Volunteer program, employees can “earn” small grants for their favorite non-profit organizations based on their personal community service. Numerous athletic teams, scout troops, youth programs and shelters are among the organizations that benefit from this program each year.

The P&C Club established a Grande Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund to honor deceased employees by awarding college scholarships to selected high school seniors in one Grande market each year. To date, scholarships have been presented in Austin, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and San Marcos. The 2007 scholarships will be awarded in Midland/Odessa.

* These above liks require a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the documents.