Caterpillar Gives Record $12.8 Million in United Way Campaign

PEORIA, Ill., Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) employees and retirees have pledged a record more than $6.4 million to the United Way this year. Add the Caterpillar Foundation dollar-for-dollar match, and United Ways across the nation will receive a combined total of more than $12.8 million. The United Way has been Caterpillar's only annual solicitation for funds to its employees and retirees for more than 60 years.

"I'm proud that our employees and retirees dig deep each and every year to support their communities, their neighbors, sometimes even their families and friends through United Way programs," said Caterpillar Foundation President Michele Sullivan. "About half the money raised will go to the Heart of Illinois United Way in Peoria, Illinois. Outside of Peoria, our employees and retirees give just as generously and their contributions are from Nashville, Tennessee, to Corinth, Mississippi, to San Diego, California, and more."

Since Caterpillar began investing in the United Way, employees and retirees are able to designate their contributions to the United Way of their choice.

"The United Way is a great way to invest your money in charities where you live," said Sullivan. "It assesses the community needs, finds efficient programs that deliver measurable outcomes and works to eliminate those needs in the future by identifying the causes and creating long-term solutions. That's done through the Boys & Girls Clubs, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children, The Salvation Army or the hundreds of other United Way-funded agencies."

Employees and retirees pledged more than $6.4 million, a 3 percent increase from last year.  Caterpillar's overall employee participation in 2014 reached 44 percent, a 16 percent increase from 2013.

"I want to congratulate Caterpillar on an impressive employee giving campaign and corporate match for 2014," said Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way Worldwide. "The United Way network is proud to partner with Caterpillar not only in local U.S. communities, but globally as well. It is clear that Caterpillar cares about community impact and helping people live to their fullest potential."

Caterpillar is part of the United Way's Global Corporate Leadership Program, which includes 95 corporate partners that raise more than $1 billion annually. There are more than 1,110 local United Ways in the U.S., and Caterpillar's annual campaign supports more than 500 of these local United Ways where the company's employees live and work.

About Caterpillar:
For nearly 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2013 sales and revenues of $55.656 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments - Resource Industries, Construction Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

Forward-looking Statements:
Certain statements in this release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and regulation; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or investigations; (xxvi) compliance requirements imposed if additional carbon emissions legislation and/or regulations are adopted; (xxvii) changes in accounting standards; (xxviii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxix) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxx) other factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 18, 2014, for the year ended December 31, 2013, and in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 1, 2014, for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

SOURCE Caterpillar

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