What It Really Means to Be Here for Georgia

When most people think of Georgia Power, they think of electricity or lineworkers in a bucket truck working near their home. While providing clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy is the reason we’ve been in business for more than 140 years, our purpose runs deeper than keeping the lights on.

I have spent nearly 28 years at Georgia Power, and the last nine leading the Georgia Power Foundation which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. What’s energized me to stay at the same organization for almost three decades is our longstanding commitment to communities across the state. Since 1927 when Georgia Power’s first President Preston Arkwright coined our motto, A Citizen Wherever We Serve, we've been here for Georgia, maintaining our commitment to the wellbeing and future of the places where we live and work, regardless of external pressure or corporate trends.

That consistency has proven meaningful in ways all Georgians, not just Georgia Power customers, can benefit from in every part of the state. Last year alone, Georgia Power, the Georgia Power Foundation, and our employees invested $33.7 million in communities statewide, supporting more than 1,000 organizations and logging more than 88,000 volunteer hours in their own communities.

Those numbers are significant, but underneath them, there are stories about lives changed and futures supported across Georgia.

More Than a Philanthropy

When people think about corporate responsibility work, they usually imagine posed handshake photos, a big check handed to a charity, or a volunteer day filled with company logos.

But for us, serving our communities runs deeper than that.

As the largest energy provider in Georgia, we see our role as a privilege and a responsibility. Beyond keeping energy reliable and affordable, we use our resources, people, and influence to empower community, education, and environmental initiatives across the state that allow us to work with others to make our state stronger and help those in need.

According to United Way’s research on Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed Households (ALICE), 44 percent of Georgia households are either currently in poverty or fall into this category, meaning their income is above the federal poverty line, but they still can't cover the basic costs of housing, childcare, food, transportation, and health care where they live. And according to Feeding America, one in seven Georgians faces food insecurity, including one in five children. These aren’t just numbers, they're people, working families—often with someone employed in jobs essential to our communities—who remain one unexpected expense away from a real crisis. At Georgia Power, we see the weight on families when impossible choices arise, like putting dinner on the table or paying an essential bill. That’s why we're working with organizations across the state to respond and meet in specific ways.

Through Project SHARE, our longstanding emergency assistance partnership with The Salvation Army, Georgia Power customers can choose to add a few dollars to their monthly bills, and we match every donation at 150 percent. Every dollar given within a ZIP code stays in that exact ZIP code, meaning any dollar donated by a customer goes directly to their neighbor in need. Since the program’s inception in 1985, Project SHARE has reached more than 1.1 million Georgians and distributed more than $84 million in aid to those who need it, regardless of whether they are a Georgia Power customer.

Last year in addition to Project SHARE, we partnered with Feeding Georgia to help fill food banks across Georgia as more families visit them for the first time amid rising food prices. We also helped Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia move into a new $40 million facility which will serve 21 counties, opening the door to help more Georgians when they’re in need.

Our community commitment is also evident in how we're dedicating resources and supporting organizations through workforce development. Since the launch of Workforce for Georgia in 2020, we have awarded more than $3.6 million through approximately 95 grants to College and Career Academies and CTAE programs, reaching more than 12,000 students statewide and helping connect classroom learning to real careers close to home.

 

Georgia Power further supports workforce development through multiple non-profits like the nsoro Educational Foundation, which supports young people aging out of foster care to successfully transition to adulthood. We were the first major funder of the program, nsoroWORKS, which connects foster youth to apprenticeships in high-demand fields like solar energy. The program's inaugural cohort planned to serve 12 participants, but ended up serving 34, each leaving with a credential, paid experience, and a career path that promises stability and opportunity.

Our commitment to building a better future for Georgia is further seen in our philanthropic investments to protect land and water across the state. The Waters for Georgia program, started in 2019, has invested nearly $4 million into improving watersheds statewide. In 2025, we supported the restoration of the Flint River headwaters, an area just south of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport where decades of development had disrupted natural water flow. That project rebuilt wetland habitats and reconnected residents to the river through new trails. Another investment located at the Coahulla Creek in Whitfield County helped reinforce Prater's Mill, a 19th-century landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, while restoring the streambank and reconnecting more than 150 miles of upstream aquatic habitat.

These and more stories detailing some of the organizations Georgia Power supports can be found in our 2025 Community Impact Report.

Why This Work Belongs to All of Us

People sometimes ask me why an electric utility company invests so deeply in our communities, our state's economic future, and the natural resources we all share. The answer for me is simple: we are not separate from Georgia's communities—we’re very much a part of them.

Georgia Power has been a fixture of life in Georgia since 1883, growing to serve Georgians in 155 of the state’s 159 counties. Georgia Power employees can be found across the state, living in the same cities and towns and sending their children to the same local schools as the customers they serve. As employees, we are all part of our volunteer corps, Citizens of Georgia Power, and even in retirement, we are able to join any of our 19 retiree groups across Georgia to stay connected to our mission of serving Georgia through volunteer work, mentorship, and community engagement. community engagement. While our employees navigate through many roles throughout their careers, they remain dedicated to safety and community service, our top core values.

For nearly 100 years, our motto, A Citizen Wherever We Serve, has been embraced by each new generation of Georgia Power’s employees. It is a part of our culture and can be seen in our regional presence and how we volunteer, serve on civic and philanthropic boards, and show up for the community with both human and financial resources.

What I find meaningful about that phrase is the word, “citizen.” Not “donor” or “sponsor.” A citizen is someone who belongs to a place, who has obligations to it, and who shows up because they are a part of the fabric of community. That’s our standard. We were doing the work of supporting our communities before terms like corporate responsibility existed and we are here for our communities during disasters and blue skies, in times of prosperity and through recessions.

This work is part of our DNA. It always has been and always will be.