H&R Block’s Jeff Jones on Making Strides Toward 2025 Goals

To all our clients, partners, and stakeholders, we are excited to share our second Corporate Responsibility report that details the progress we made in supporting our people, communities, and small businesses last year.

We recognize the importance of our environmental performance, social responsibility, and sound corporate governance (ESG) to all stakeholders. In this report, we provide updates on our efforts from the past year and talk about our progress toward our stated goals, including our progress towards 1 million volunteer hours, supporting 500,000 small business owners, and 500 communities.

If there’s one thing I learned as I looked back on the last year, it’s the importance of human connection and belonging to communities. Personal connections have always been important to us at H&R Block, but now they are a top priority, for both our associates and our communities. We are uniquely positioned to champion diversity, inclusion, and belonging through our partnerships and programs that support diverse associates, minority business owners, and underrepresented communities.

• That’s why I’m so proud that we received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign 2021 Corporate Equality Index for the second year in a row, earning a spot on their list of “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality.”

• It’s why I’m proud of our partnership with the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, where Block Advisors are providing free, personalized coaching to Black-owned businesses, with a goal of increasing financial confidence and ultimately access to financial capital.
  
  
• And it’s why I’m proud of our associates who have volunteered more than 200,000 hours over the past two years, furthering the company’s goal of reaching 1 million volunteer hours by 2025.

Communities are more vibrant when neighbors connect with one another, and small businesses are thriving. That’s why we’ll continue to leverage our time, resources, and partnerships to build and foster connections within neighborhoods and support small business owners across America. As part of that commitment, we expanded Make Every Block Better this year to provide even more support for small business owners, especially in the face of challenges brought by the pandemic.

Finally, we recognize our responsibility to do something to bring an end to systemic racism. Just agreeing there is a problem wasn’t enough, so we came up with tangible actions to actively identify and help remove racism from our workplace and our communities. That is why we introduced our Racial Equity Action plan last year, and why we will continue to prioritize and invest in these efforts. While there is still lots of work to be done, I am pleased with what we’ve accomplished thus far, and I am excited to see what the future has in store.

Here at H&R Block, being a responsible corporate citizen that cares about our people, our communities, and our planet has been a part of our culture and aspirations from the very beginning. This is still true now, more than ever.

Thank you for taking the time to read our second corporate responsibility report, and we’re looking forward to continuing to share updates on our progress as we work to reach our goals, now and into the future.

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