Audi cause of honor: getting down to business for a good cause

Audi – A good neighbor, all over the world

From donations via education, culture, and sports to volunteering: As a good neighbor, Audi has been assuming social responsibility at all its international production sites for many decades. To maximize its impact, Audi’s international corporate citizenship strategy focuses on three key principles: Engage, Educate, and Empower.

With its Engage activities, Audi supports nonprofit institutions at its locations as well as sponsors regional mass and elite sports and cultural projects. An array of training and educational activities either offered or supported by Audi run under the area of education. Here, the company’s focus goes beyond individual employees to society as a whole. Empowerment represents the idea of helping others help themselves. For example, the company supports employees who want to volunteer. In this way, Audi creates a strategic framework that brings social engagement to life in a way that is tailored to the respective region.

Corporate citizenship officers at Audi’s locations ensure that aid and engagement arrive exactly where they are most urgently needed. At the same time, all involved benefit from close networking, exchange their know-how, and implement projects on an international scale. Audi’s clear commitment to corporate citizenship also helps in the exchange with regional contacts, while leaving enough leeway for local distinctions.

Engage

With donations, for example, the company supports social projects throughout the year or provides disaster relief, such as in the case of the 2021 European floods or the 2022 Ukraine war.

One way that Audi shifts the focus to the volunteer efforts of its employees is the “Team Spirit Initiative”, which gives employees the opportunity to campaign for donations for “their” club or “their” social organization. With each initiative running under a different motto, the program covers a wide range of social topics – from sports via culture to education.

Audi is also involved in a wide range of regional mass and elite sports. At the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites, this engagement ranges from sponsoring top regional sports such as FC Ingolstadt, ERC Ingolstadt, TSG Hoffenheim, and the women’s Sport-Union Neckarsulm handball team via highlight events such as the Audi Triathlon Ingolstadt, the Triathlon Heilbronn, the Trollinger Marathon in Heilbronn, or the Ingolstadt half marathon to promoting the fitness and health of Audi employees. At other Audi locations, the athletic focus lies elsewhere: Audi Hungaria, for example, has a tradition in handball – the site has supported the internationally successful Győri Audi ETO KC handball team for many years.

Audi is also an active partner in the area of cultural engagement, providing access to art and culture. Audi ArtExperience enriches the Ingolstadt site with a wide range of initiatives and collaborations. For example, Audi’s own formats such as the Audi Summer Concerts, the Audi Christmas Concert, and performances by the Audi Philharmonic Wind Orchestra are mainstays of the cultural calendar in Ingolstadt.

In addition to music, Audi’s cultural engagement also includes long-standing cooperations, for example with the Stadttheater Ingolstadt, the Ingolstadt Museum and Foundation for Concrete Art and Design, and the 20minmax international short film festival.

Educate

The annual “Girls’ Day” gives girls an opportunity to get to know technical professions not only at Audi in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, but also at Audi Hungaria in Győr, Audi Brussels in Belgium, and Audi México in San José Chiapa. Girls from the sites’ respective surrounding areas learn about the automotive industry and environmental protection through fun on-site activities. Just one of many examples of Audi’s activities in the area of education, Girls’ Day is a significant global company event. It is intended to promote the integration of female skilled workers and provide participants with information about various vocational training and dual study programs at AUDI AG.

Audi is also strengthening the childcare infrastructure at its locations: The company is constantly adjusting the number of places for employees’ children in daycare facilities to meet demand. With the “Audi Summer Kids” program, the company offers holiday care to ease the burden on working parents.

The Audi Schanzer Football Academy run by FC Ingolstadt is also “on tour” at all production sites worldwide. Its soccer camps offer boys and girls an athletic, varied program for the holidays. In Ingolstadt, the “Schanzer Inclusion Camp” brings together children with and without disabilities, helping break down barriers in their minds by playing soccer together.

Empower

Audi is the right place for all employees who want to volunteer. The “Audi Volunteers” program supports and motivates employees to get involved in volunteer work – on their own, together with colleagues in team campaigns, or across departments at company-wide project days such as the Audi Social Day at locations worldwide. Through their participation, Audi employees help to strengthen social cohesion and improve the quality of life in their respective regions.

Audi has been holding so called volunteer days, on which Audi employees get involved with social causes in their regions, for more than ten years. Employees give lectures, help with language learning, or beautify social facilities. In 2023, Audi employees got involved in a global volunteer day, the Audi Social Day, for the first time. Around 1,000 Audi employees at the Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, Győr, Brussels, and San José Chiapa production sites, as well as colleagues from ABI (Audi Business Innovation) in Munich and AIA (Audi Interaction) in Berlin and Potsdam, took part and once again helped to strengthen social interaction and improve the quality of life in their respective regions.

In the future, Audi employees will have no shortage of ideas for supporting human welfare, animal rights, or social institutions: Since 2021, employees been able to use the company’s engagement platform audi.vostel.de to browse numerous volunteering projects.

A history of engagement

Social engagement is a tradition at Audi. For example, the company’s orchestra, known today as the Audi Philharmonic Wind Orchestra, already celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2022. Audi employees who initially got together in the canteen to play music together just for the joy of music itself laid the foundation for a cultural scene that has become influential not only within the company, but also in the towns the company is located in and the surrounding regions. The Audi Summer Concerts have been the Ingolstadt region’s largest music festival for more than 30 years. The festival, held at Audi ArtExperience, follows the guiding principle of giving people a fresh dynamic and opening up access to classical music. Alongside world renowned stars, ensembles from the region such as the Audi Philharmonic Wind Orchestra or the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt also take the stage.

Moreover, the company has also been supporting welfare institutions in all the regions where the brand with the four rings is located for decades. Volunteering has been encouraged within the company for ten years now: The company organized its first volunteer day under the motto “Audi Volunteers” in 2012, when employees spent day volunteering for social projects in their regions. Since then, that singular event has grown to encompass a large portfolio of different offerings.