2017 Economic Impact Awards Philanthropic Business of the Year: Hamra Enterprises

Fast food means big business for Hamra Enterprises. For the local communities where the company operates, it also means philanthropic contributions for children’s charities.

“We believe in contributing back to the community we do business in and being a contributor to both the customers that frequent our businesses and the employees who work in the business,” President and CEO Mike Hamra says.

The company’s philanthropic mindset is even set in its charter.

“We stand for each other being empowered and engaged in moving our business forward,” a portion of the Hamra Enterprises charter reads.

In 2016, Hamra Enterprises donated $500,000 to organizations that focus on helping children in the markets where it operates more than 160 restaurants under the Wendy’s, Panera Bread and Noodles & Co. brands, as well as a Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Lewisville, Texas. The company has given nearly $2 million to charity since 2010.

Ozarks contributions tallied $209,762 last year, aiding the likes of Children’s Miracle Network, Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, the Missouri State University Foundation, Legal Services of Southern Missouri, the Springfield Little Theatre, Ozark Public Television and Diaper Bank of the Ozarks.

In Missouri, the company’s 35 Missouri Wendy’s restaurants teamed up on three fundraising campaigns for CMN, including two where employees sold $1 paper balloons to raise money for the organization that helps children from birth through age 18 gain access to medical care.

“That does a lot to raise people’s awareness and interest in wanting to contribute,” Hamra says.

Hamra Enterprises — which employs 6,275, up from 5,452 at the end of 2016 — encourages employees to volunteer, as well. That might mean elected positions, such as work on city councils, or donating their own cash to notable causes.

“We support that and encourage it,” Hamra says.

“We encourage our employees to be involved and to contribute both their time and efforts back to the community.”

Inside Hamra Enterprises is a charitable employee perk known as the Hamra Employees Reaching Out Fund.

The HERO Fund allows employees to donate to an internal emergency relief fund, and all gifts are fully matched by Hamra Enterprises.

Employees can dip into the fund – regardless of whether they have contributed – to help pay for unexpected situations, such as extended medical leave, funeral expenses, transitional housing in abuse situations and down payments for new houses.

Sarah Sharon, manager of a Wendy’s restaurant on West Kearney Street, used the fund to help cover her father-in-law’s funeral expenses.

“I was grateful for the help,” she wrote in a letter to the HERO Fund. “But to know that in my tragedy I could reach out and help others in my situation was a blessing greater than that of the grant. I am blessed to work for a company that thinks of their employees as people with lives outside of the walls.”