9.30.2003 ET

(CSRwire) BEAVERTON, OR -- Nike, Inc. today reported that it contributed $30.7 million globally in cash, product and in-kind services to more than 1,500 non-profit organizations and community partners in its fiscal year ended May 31, 2003. The total contribution represents 3% of the company's fiscal year 2002 pre-tax profits and marks the third consecutive year it has met its goal of giving 3% of the prior year's pre-tax earnings to the communities where its employees live, work and play.

Nike's grant-making efforts are focused on two key areas: increasing the participation of young people in physical activity to improve their lives; and developing and investing in innovative solutions to the challenges of globalization faced by women and girls. The $30.7 million contribution consisted of 47% cash and 53% product and in-kind donations, with 39% of the total donated to organizations outside the United States.

"In fiscal year 2003, in an effort to ensure that Nike's global community investments are increasingly strategic, we chose to focus our philanthropy on the important issues of youth physical activity and globalization," said Robert T. Speltz, Nike's Director of Global Community Affairs. "This narrowing of focus allows us to increase our learning and deepen our commitments in a way that recognizes our ability to serve as a catalyst, in both areas of giving."

Nike also released today, on www.nikeresponsibility.com, its Global Community Investment Report for fiscal years 2002-2003, which can be found under "Reports."

Increasing the Participation of Young People in Physical Activity

"We choose youth activity as an area of focus for a simple reason: Kids the world over need to move," writes the company in its new Global Community Investment Report. "Running, jumping, walking, climbing, cycling, ballet, hip hop, sports with a ball, foot bagging, Double Dutch, skate boarding, even pogo sticking - whatever and wherever, if it involves kids in motion, it's good. While physical activity is essential when brain and body are developing, kids often don't get enough. This is not merely the complaint of a sports company; it is an issue with great consequences."

• To address these issues, in the U.S. Nike has launched NikeGO, a national program offering thousands of children, ages 8-15, the support and motivation to become physically active, stay healthy and have fun. Nike jump-started the multi-year program in 2002 with grants, totaling $1.7 million in cash and products, to Boys & Girls Clubs in 16 cities.
  
• In Europe, Nike views sport as an opportunity to build social cohesion among different nationalities and ethnic groups, particularly at a time when long-settled cultures are absorbing floods of immigrants and refugees. Nike's European Region's version of the program, called Move & Include, focuses on this opportunity.
  
• In Asia and in the developing world, where huge masses of people live in dense mega-cities, the issue is one of access. The Nike Football Park, part of the Dong Dan sports facility in the center of Beijing, is available to community soccer enthusiasts for two hours daily free of charge.
  
• In Australia, Nike works with ARMTour (Athletes as Role Models), a program that takes elite athletes into the remote Aboriginal communities to help build self-esteem among indigenous youth. The athletes spend time with the kids talking to them about nutrition, health, fitness and the dangers of substance abuse.

• In Southeast Asia, Nike grants to key NGOs partners, including Opportunity International and the Vietnamese Women's Union, become small loans, generally $100 or less, to largely female borrowers starting their own business such as small livestock farms and producers of basic goods, including rice paper for spring rolls and incense sticks. Loans have reached more than 10,000 individuals in all three countries since 1997. Nike has distributed over $1 million in funds over the last five years.
  
• In Thailand, the company supports work by the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) designed to improve lives in rural areas. PDA is helping build networks of smaller factories in rural areas. With Union Footwear, a key Nike footwear supplier, they helped create "Nike Village," a collection of small stitching centers that has become a center of economic and cultural activity that in addition to micro-loans includes a vegetable and tree bank, women's development programs, a school and accompanying lunch and scholarship programs.
  
• In Europe, Nike offices partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to pilot a sports program for young girls in refugee camps in Kenya. The goal is to use sports as a tool to promote girls integration in education; sports can begin a process of opening doors and building respect.
  
• In July 2003, Nike donated 74 acres of undeveloped land near the company's headquarters, valued at $14 million, to the Nike Foundation. Plans are in development for the foundation's focus on girls' education in developing countries.

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