Caterpillar Foundation Invests $1 Million in ONE to Advance Ebola Advocacy

PEORIA, Ill., Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of the Ebola crisis, the Caterpillar Foundation announced today that it will provide an additional $1 million to the $7.5 million investment made to The ONE Campaign for its advocacy work in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease in Africa, particularly to boost the organization's response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.  

"Our work to address extreme poverty and its symptomatic ills will be deeply affected if Ebola is not stopped," said Caterpillar Foundation President Michele Sullivan. "As a foundation, we feel there is a human and economic imperative to help ensure that health systems in Africa are strong and resilient. ONE is one of the best organizations advocating on global health issues and has recently been at the forefront of Ebola policy and advocacy efforts.  This investment will leverage those skills to ensure the urgency of the Ebola crisis and its damaging effects on global health systems remains a top priority for political leadership and the public.  The outcomes will help government officials put healthcare policies and measures into place aimed at protecting the citizens and stopping the spread of Ebola."

ONE has responded vigorously to the Ebola crisis, with a particular focus on: resource mobilization and donor accountability; communications and advocacy messaging and social mobilization among its two million African members. (RED), a division of ONE, helps to amplify this work through creative and innovative storytelling platforms.

"As this crisis unfolds, this partnership will allow ONE to continue to advocate for short- and long-term responses to Ebola, acknowledging the effects the disease is having on every sector of society," said Michael Elliott, ONE president and CEO. "Ebola has not only taken more than 4,000 lives—it has also broken down health systems, closed schools, shut down agricultural markets and hampered economic growth. There's much to be done to support the countries affected in the short term and then helping them rebuild stronger than before."

The Caterpillar Foundation has invested $30 million in Africa since 2010.

About the Caterpillar Foundation:

Caterpillar Inc. supports the philanthropic efforts of the Caterpillar Foundation. Founded in 1952, the Caterpillar Foundation has contributed more than $550 million to help make sustainable progress possible around the world by providing program support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to education and basic human needs. To learn more about the global impact of the Caterpillar Foundation, please visit www.caterpillar.com/foundation.

About Caterpillar:

For nearly 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2013 sales and revenues of $55.656 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments - Resource Industries, Construction Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

Forward-looking Statements:

Certain statements in this release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and regulation; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or investigations; (xxvi) compliance requirements imposed if additional carbon emissions legislation and/or regulations are adopted; (xxvii) changes in accounting standards; (xxviii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxix) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxx) other factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 18, 2014, for the year ended December 31, 2013, and in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 1, 2014, for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

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SOURCE The Caterpillar Foundation

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http://www.caterpillar.com/foundation