Aetna Granted $17,500 to Three Utah Nonprofits

HARTFORD, Conn., August 08, 2011 — Aetna (NYSE: AET) awarded $17,500 in grants and sponsorships to three nonprofits in Utah during 2010 to help them further their work addressing a variety of health and human services issues.

The three Utah recipients were:

• Special Olympics Utah;
• The National Alliance on Mental Illness Utah; and
• Utah Families Foundation.

“Aetna is pleased and proud to support nonprofit organizations here in Utah that are working to make a difference on key health and wellness challenges we face in our communities,” said Kay Thompson, Aetna’s local market president for Utah.

The Special Olympics Utah received a $10,000 grant for the Winter Sports Season, where competitors received sports training and the opportunity to compete in the Snowball Classic, the Winter Games, and the Fall Sports Classic.

Utah Families Foundation received a $5,000 sponsorship for a fund-raising event designed to benefit various charities throughout Utah. 

The National Alliance on Mental Health Illness Utah was awarded a $2,500 sponsorship for its annual NAMIWalk, which aims to educate the public about mental illness. 

Nationwide during 2010, Aetna and its charitable giving arm, the Aetna Foundation, gave $15.6 million in grants and sponsorships. In addition, the Aetna employees, retirees and directors donated an additional $6.9 million through the company’s matching gift program, bringing combined giving in communities where Aetna employees and customers live and work to $22.5 million. And, Aetna’s employees donated more than dollars, generously giving nearly 335,000 hours of their personal time and talents in communities nationwide. Since 2003, Aetna employees have logged more than 2.3 million volunteer hours.

“During 2010, Aetna and the Aetna Foundation were pleased to provide grants and sponsorships to 661 nonprofit organizations nationwide, and to match the generosity of our employees to another 9,492 organizations within our communities,” said Anne C. Beal, M.D., M.P.H., Aetna Foundation president. “We also made significant progress toward our goals of concentrating our grants on specific health issues of national concern, giving nearly $2.35 million to the fight against obesity, $1.24 million to improve racial and ethnic equity in health and health care, and more than $1 million to support better integrated health care in America.”

More information about Aetna’s and the Aetna Foundation’s 2010 efforts to help improve the health of children and adults and to make our health care system more equitable and effective can be found online in the multi-media annual giving report Investing in Our Future. 

About the Aetna Foundation
The Aetna Foundation, Inc. is the independent charitable and philanthropic arm of Aetna, Inc. Since 1980, Aetna and the Aetna Foundation have contributed $394 million in grants and sponsorships, including $15.6 million in 2010. As a national health foundation, we promote wellness, health, and access to high-quality health care for everyone. This work is enhanced by the time and commitment of Aetna employees, who have volunteered more than 2.3 million hours since 2003. Our current giving is focused on addressing the rising rate of adult and childhood obesity in the U.S.; promoting racial and ethnic equity in health and health care; and advancing integrated health care. For more information, visit www.AetnaFoundation.org.

About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 36.5 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.