Today is Community Day at Levi Strauss & Co., our annual day of service where employees around the world come together to give back to their communities. Employees across retail, corporate and distribution centers in more than 50 cities around the globe are spending today volunteering, and the company is granting more than $500,000 to global nonprofits.
This year is especially memorable as we celebrate Community Day’s 25th anniversary and recognize the more than $5 million LS&Co. has granted to over 1,600 projects across the past quarter-century. In honor of the anniversary, LS&Co. is proud to unveil “These City Walls,” an initiative to commission 25 new murals across San Francisco. The project is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to support the city’s revitalization by making grants to local organizations, mobilizing employees for volunteering and partnering with like-minded companies and nonprofits.
“San Francisco is woven into the very fabric of Levi Strauss & Co. — from our first jeans, which were made to handle the wear and tear of the Gold Rush, to the products we sell around the world today, which still proudly bear the city’s name,” said Michelle Gass, president and CEO of LS&Co. “For over 170 years, San Francisco has inspired our creativity, our values and our commitment to make a difference. We’re going to do our part to ensure the city’s future is as bold and bright as its past — and these murals are just one step in that larger effort.”
Painting and Revitalizing the City
LS&Co. is launching “These City Walls” in partnership with 1AM Projects and local artists, transforming blank and blighted areas into living works of art that reflect the rich resiliency, diversity and culture of the city. The new murals will be created in collaboration with local artists, nonprofit organizations, Community Benefit Districts (CBDs), small businesses and community members to celebrate and transform San Francisco neighborhoods. Artists will work closely with the communities before they begin painting, integrating residents’ ideas into their efforts to beautify neighborhoods.
The first 10 murals will be located in the Financial District, Union Square, Tenderloin, SOMA, East Cut, Potrero Hill and Japantown neighborhoods of San Franisco, starting with a project that involves refurbishing “West Coastin,’” a mural originally painted in 2011 in Potrero Hill. This well-known mural, which captures the spirit of California and the Bay Area, will stand 85 feet wide by 25 feet tall and be visible to roughly 150,000 drivers on the 280 freeway every day, along with residents of Potrero Hill and the Dogpatch.
An extension of LS&Co.’s longstanding commitment to our hometown, “These City Walls” builds off of other local philanthropy and volunteerism efforts aimed at making a difference in our communities. Over the past two years, LS&Co. has provided more than $1.2 million to nonprofits and organizations supporting the city’s arts, culture and revitalization, and our employees have volunteered nearly 4,700 hours. In 2024, LS&Co. also worked with Gap Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Visa Inc., and Wells Fargo and Co. to launch the Downtown Volunteer Coalition with the goal of revitalizing downtown through employee volunteerism.
Coming Together for Our Communities
Today, thousands of LS&Co. employees are participating in Community Day by volunteering around the world at projects that have been core to their communities for more than 25 years. In addition to kicking off the mural project in our hometown, nearly 600 San Francisco-based employees are continuing the tradition and volunteering with 20 different nonprofits across the city, and the company is distributing more than $150,000 in grants to those organizations. Many projects include working with longstanding partners that employees have supported since Community Day first launched, including AIDS Memorial Grove, San Francisco Unified School District and San Francisco Recreation and Parks.
LS&Co. also encourages employees to give back to their communities and support local organizations year-round through paid time off for volunteering (up to five hours per month) and a charitable donation match program (matching individual donations up to $2,000 per year).
“At LS&Co., we believe in being a positive force for change in the communities we know and love, and we’ll continue working with our partners, employees and organizations to make a real difference in the places we call home,” said Alexis Bechtol, director of Community Affairs at LS&Co.
