CDM Smith Cares

The CDM Smith Cares programme en­cour­ages employee-led vol­un­teer outreach ac­tiv­i­ties that build com­mu­nity and improve quality of life through local efforts. Our em­ploy­ees have a strong com­mit­ment to helping com­mu­ni­ties—our own and those in need around the world. We are active, caring citizens who con­tribute thou­sands of hours annually to civic and char­i­ta­ble causes. We are global citizens, an­swer­ing the call of those in dis­tressed com­mu­ni­ties, helping others to help them­selves, and creating legacies of hope for future gen­er­a­tions.

The goal of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is to make an im­pact to those com­mu­ni­ties that seek help by en­gag­ing with them di­rectly to finding options for solving their prob­lems or meet­ing their basic needs. CDM Smith has been an official corporate partner of Engineers Without Borders - USA since 2007.

This part­ner­ship pro­vides sup­port in the fol­low­ing areas:

• Safer drink­ing water


• Ap­pro­pri­ate and im­proved san­i­ta­tion


• Cross­ing difficult or unsafe terrain


• Flood mit­i­ga­tion and/or ero­sion con­trol


• Im­prov­ing farm­ing and pro­duc­tion ca­pa­bil­i­ties


• Pro­vid­ing con­sis­tent, re­li­able en­ergy

This com­mu­nity-dri­ven de­vel­op­ment ap­proach by EWB-USA while fos­ter­ing our fu­ture lead­ers is an ex­cel­lent match for CDM Smith and all its em­ploy­ees. The firm and our employees support EWB-USA financially and most importantly, our employees volunteer their time and ex­pertise on pro­gramme and pro­ject teams. For em­ploy­ees that di­rectly par­tic­i­pate, they can re­ceive grant funds for their ef­forts. In ad­di­tion, our em­ploy­ees lead local chap­ters, serve on com­mit­tees, and or­ga­nise fundrais­ing events to sup­port the work.

Since the in­cep­tion of our pro­gramme in 2007, we have funded 34 travel grants to­tal­ing in $162,000 to sup­port our em­ploy­ees’ vol­un­teer ef­forts on EWB-USA pro­jects around the world.

CDM Smith and our em­ploy­ees sup­port Water for People, an in­ter­na­tional hu­man­i­tar­ian or­ga­ni­sa­tion of ded­i­cated peo­ple who rec­og­nise water as a pri­mary build­ing block of life. Each year, our an­nual giv­ing cam­paign raises funds to help de­vel­op­ing com­mu­ni­ties gain ac­cess to safe drink­ing water, bet­ter san­i­ta­tion, and pub­lic health ed­u­ca­tion.

There are more than 1.8 bil­lion peo­ple lack­ing ac­cess to safe water and 2.4 bil­lion lack­ing ac­cess to ad­e­quate san­i­ta­tion. This prob­lem di­rectly con­tributes to the end­less cycle of ex­treme poverty that has dev­as­tat­ing ef­fects on so­ci­ety. Not only do our two or­ga­ni­sa­tions share the same be­lief that every human being de­serves last­ing ac­cess to safe water and san­i­ta­tion, but our em­ploy­ees are mo­ti­vated by the same set of core val­ues. It is this align­ment of mis­sion and promise of qual­ity of life that for­ti­fies our partnership.