| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982 |
| Headquarters | Westport, Connecticut, United States |
| Key people | Paul Newman (co-founder) A.E. Hotchner (co-founder) Nell Newman (Newman's Own Organics) |
| Products | Drinks, Pasta sauce, salad dressing, snacks, salsa |
| Website | Newman's Own |
Newman's Own is a food company and for-profit corporation founded by actor Paul Newman and author A. E. Hotchner in 1982. Newman received all of the profits from product sales and donated 100% of the proceeds, after taxes, to various educational and charitable organizations of his own selection.[1] Newman's Own has inspired other business, including Give Something Back Business Products, to adopt his social enterprise model.[2] In 1982 Newman summarized his initial intentions regarding distribution of his company's profits:
My profits will be divided between a number of tax-deductible charities and causes, some church-related, others for conservation and ecology and things like that.[3]
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The brand started with a home-made salad dressing that Newman and Hotchner prepared and gave to friends as gifts.[4] The successful reception of the salad dressing led Newman and Hotchner to commercialize it for sale.[5] After that initial item, made with $40,000 of Newman's own funds as seed money,[6] pasta sauce, frozen pizza, iced tea, lemonade, limeade, fruit cocktail juices, popcorn, pretzels, salsa, cookies, coffee, grape juice, dog food, cat food, condiments, and other products were produced. Newman's Own Lemonade was introduced in 2004 and Newman's Own premium wines in 2008.[7] Each label features a picture of Newman, dressed in a different costume to represent the product. The company incorporated humor into its label packaging, as in the label for its first salad dressing in 1982, "Fine Foods Since February".[6]
In 1993, Newman's daughter Nell Newman founded Newman's Own Organics as a division of the company, later to become a separate company in late 2001. It produces only organic foods. Her father posed with her for the photographs on the labels.[8]
Newman and Hotchner co-wrote a memoir about their company and the Hole in the Wall Camps, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good (ISBN 0-385-50802-6), published in 2003. Newman and Robert Forrester had arranged for the continuation of the distribution of Newman's Own profits to charity after Newman's death through the establishment of the Newman's Own Foundation.[9] After Newman's death on 26 September 2008, some feared that the company would become defunct, but as of 2010[update] it is expected to continue to prosper.
Over US$300 million as of November 3, 2010, according to the Newman's Own website had been generated for charity since 1982.[10] The company co-sponsors the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, which is presented annually to a United States resident who has fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word.
A sampling of grantees is available at the Newman's Own Foundation website[11] along with the distribution of funds by program area. From 2006 to 2008 the largest portions of funding went to human services, health, education, arts, and culture.[12] One beneficiary of his charity is the Hole in the Wall Camps, residential summer camps for seriously ill children, which he co-founded in 1988. Today, there are eleven member camps around the world with additional programs in Africa and Vietnam. Over 135,000 children have attended a Hole in the Wall Camp free of charge, and it is expected that over 17,000 children will attend a Hole in the Wall Camp in 2009. While proceeds from Newman's Own financed the startup of the camp, it now receives funding from many other sources. Other beneficiaries of the profits from Newman's Own have included The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund (from 1983 onwards),[13] the George Washington Carver Community Center (Norwalk),[14] the Safe Water Network,[9] Women of Worth,[15] Stars for Stripes,[16] the Sun Youth Organisation (Montreal),[17] and the Breast Care Centre at Singleton Hospital through the Swansea National Health Service Trust.[18]
Newman's Own Organics pays a name licensing fee, directed to the Newman's Own Foundation, to Newman's Own.