Greetings, and welcome to the Tapestry, Inc. 2021 annual meeting. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Ms. Joanne Crevoiserat. The floor is yours, ma'am.
Thank you. Good morning. My name is Joanne Crevoiserat, and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Tapestry, Inc. I will be serving as chair of this meeting and hereby call the 2021 annual meeting of stockholders of Tapestry, Inc. to order. I welcome you to our virtual annual meeting. We believe that holding this meeting virtually allows for greater participation and increased safety for all parties and the opportunity to join the live online meeting from any location convenient to you. If you encounter any technical difficulties accessing or participating in the meeting, please refer to the information provided in the conduct of meeting guidelines for information on how to reach the technical support team. Before I begin, I must point out that my remarks today will include certain forward-looking statements, including projections for our business in the current or future quarters or fiscal years.
Future results may differ materially from our current expectations based upon a number of important factors, including risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our latest annual report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a complete list of risks and important factors. Now turning to an overview of our fiscal year 2021, the period covered in our proxy statement. We are very pleased with Tapestry's results in fiscal 2021, a transformational year for the company. Through our multi-year growth agenda, our Acceleration Program, we sharpened our focus on the consumer, leaned into digital and data, and became a more agile organization. We reached customers in new ways and adapted to a rapidly changing environment, fueled by the power of our brands and passionate teams. Importantly, the traction of our strategy is clearly evidenced by our financial performance.
We achieved a record annual operating margin since establishing our current house of brands and becoming Tapestry, Inc. in fiscal year 2018. We collectively outperformed our expectations across Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman while investing for our future. The year was capped by a successful fourth quarter, highlighted by revenue exceeding pre-pandemic levels led by digital and China. As we look ahead, although the macro environment remains volatile, we believe we are in a position of strength, supported by our clear strategy, compelling brands, and differentiated platform. As we announced in August 2021, we reinstated our quarterly dividend and share repurchase program, underscoring confidence in our ability to accelerate growth and profitability across our portfolio long term, thereby enhancing values for all stakeholders. In addition to our strong financial results, we progressed on many of our purpose-led, people-centered ESG initiatives throughout the fiscal year.
Our corporate responsibility program, which we call Our Social Fabric, unites teams across our business in working toward meeting our 2025 corporate responsibility goals and other strategic initiatives. To that end, we announced several bold commitments during fiscal year 2021 on top of our previously announced 2025 goals. We committed to procure 100% renewable energy in the company's stores, offices, and fulfillment centers by 2025. We also implemented one paid day off per year for all employees to volunteer, supporting our goal to complete 100,000 employee volunteer service hours by 2025. We are very excited that our dedicated teams completed over 40,000 volunteer hours towards this goal as of the end of fiscal year 2021.
We also announced that starting in fiscal year 2022, we will begin to tie 10% of leadership's annual incentive compensation to equity, inclusion, and diversity measures. In early fiscal year 2022, we announced that we signed the Science Based Targets initiative business ambition for 1.5 degrees Celsius. Under this commitment, we will set science-based emissions reduction targets, which aim to reduce the destructive impact of climate change in the short and long term. We regularly evaluate our ESG goals and activities and look forward to sharing more information about our initiatives and accomplishments. Now, before proceeding to the business of the meeting, I will make certain introductions.
Before recognizing my fellow members of our Board of Directors, who are also standing for re-election and are all present today telephonically at the meeting, I'd like to take a few moments to recognize Susan Kropf, who after 15 years of service as a director, most recently as Chair of our Board, has decided to retire and not stand for re-election at this year's annual meeting. Susan has had a tremendous impact on our Board and our company, and we are grateful for her many contributions. Susan, your presence, knowledge, and vast experience will be missed in the boardroom. On a personal note, your support during the past year has been invaluable. Thank you, and we wish you all the best in your retirement. I will now introduce our independent directors who, along with myself, are standing for re-election.
John P. Bilbrey, retired Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of The Hershey Company. Darrell Cavens, retired founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zulily, Inc. David Denton, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Lowe's Companies, Inc. Hanneke Faber, President, Foods & Refreshment, Unilever PLC. Anne Gates, retired President of MGA Entertainment, Inc. Tom Greco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advance Auto Parts. Pam Lifford, President, Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experiences. Annabelle Yu Long, Founding and Managing Partner of BAI Capital. Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive and Director of Diageo plc. We are indeed proud to propose this slate of directors. We are your representatives. Also present today are Tony Goncalves and Greg White of Deloitte & Touche, Tapestry's auditors. If questions arise during the discussion period that auditors should appropriately address, they will be glad to respond.
Peter Descovich of Broadridge Financial Solutions is present, acting as the independent inspector of elections for this meeting. The Inspector of Elections has taken the oath of office, which will be filed with the records of the company. David Howard, General Counsel and Secretary, is joining me. David will act as secretary and will record the proceedings of this meeting. The board of directors fixed the close of business on September seventh, 2021 as the record date for purposes of this meeting. Only stockholders of record as of the record date are entitled to vote at this meeting. David, let's proceed with the formalities. Will you please advise as to the mailing of the notice for this meeting?
Joanne, I have received an affidavit from Broadridge stating that a notice of Tapestry's annual meeting was mailed on September twenty-fourth, two thousand twenty-one to each stockholder of record as of the close of business on September seventh, two thousand twenty-one. I am inserting this affidavit in the company's records. We are conducting this meeting in accordance with our bylaws and the conduct of meeting guidelines. The meeting guidelines and agenda are available on the meeting website. We are committed to ensuring that our stockholders have substantially the same opportunities to participate in the virtual annual meeting as they would at an in-person meeting. We have established clear processes around submitting and responding to stockholder questions, and members of executive management and the board will be available for questions today.
The polls are open, and stockholders attending the virtual meeting can vote their shares online through the closing of the polls by logging into the meeting website as a stockholder and clicking the Vote Here button on your screen. If you have previously voted by proxy and do not wish to change your vote, your vote will be cast as you have previously instructed and no further action is required. Your proxy card will count even though you are attending the meeting today. At this time, I will advise the meeting regarding the existence of a quorum for the transaction of business. As of the record date, 278,320,419 shares of common stock of the company were outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting.
I am pleased to report that the Inspector of Elections has informed me that there are present at this meeting, in person or by proxy, the holders of not less than a majority of all the votes entitled to be cast at this meeting. Since a quorum is present, this meeting is duly constituted for the transaction of business. I will now review the procedures for this meeting. The proposals described in the proxy statement will be brought up for consideration and voted upon. After the proposals have been presented, we will pause to answer questions received regarding the proposals. We will then announce the preliminary results for each proposal. After the meeting is adjourned, there will be a period for general questions regarding the company in accordance with the rules of conduct posted on the annual meeting website.
Stockholders attending this webcast will be able to submit questions by typing them into the text box on the meeting website. Please submit any questions regarding a specific proposal while the proposals are being presented. Only questions directly related to the proposals will be addressed at that time. You can submit general questions regarding the company's business through the end of the Q&A session. Only our stockholders are able to submit questions, and all questions and comments should relate to the company's business. In the interest of time, questions relating to the same subject may be consolidated and responded to as one.
Thank you, David. I believe that this concludes all of the preliminary matters, and we can now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. David, please proceed with presenting the proposals.
The first item of business at the meeting is the election of 10 directors of the company, each to hold office until the 2022 annual meeting of stockholders and until his or her successor is duly elected and qualifies. The board of directors has nominated John P. Bilbrey, Darrell Cavens, Joanne Crevoiserat, David Denton, Hanneke Faber, Anne Gates, Tom Greco, Pam Lifford, Annabelle Yu Long, and Ivan Menezes. A majority of the votes cast at this meeting is required to elect each director. Our board of directors unanimously recommends that you vote for each of the directors. No other nominations have been received in accordance with the requirements of company's bylaws. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year ending on July 2, 2022.
A majority of votes cast at this meeting is required to approve this motion. Our board of directors unanimously recommends that you vote for this proposal. The third item of business is the approval on a non-binding advisory basis of the company's executive compensation as described in our proxy statement. A majority of votes cast at this meeting is required to approve this motion. Our board of directors unanimously recommends that you vote for this proposal. As a reminder, the polls are open for voting on each of the proposals presented to the stockholders. If you intend to vote, please do so now. There were no questions received from the stockholders directly on the proposals. The polls are now closed, and I will present the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections based on the proxies received as of the opening of the polls at today's meeting.
The voting results I'm about to announce are subject to further checking, but we believe they are unlikely to change. Each of the 10 nominees for director received at least a majority of all votes cast. A majority of eligible votes were cast, and at least a majority of those votes cast were voted in favor of proposal number 2, the appointment of Deloitte & Touche, and proposal number 3, the non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation. Since each of the nominees has received at least a majority of all the votes cast, I declare that each is elected a director of Tapestry until the 2022 annual meeting of stockholders and until his or her successor is duly elected and qualifies. I also declare that proposals number 2 and 3 have passed.
A more detailed report on the voting may be found in a Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC within four business days. This concludes the formal business of the meeting, and the formal meeting is hereby adjourned. We now invite you to ask questions regarding the company in accordance with the conduct of meeting guidelines posted on the virtual meeting website. Andrea Shaw Resnick, Chief Communications Officer, will join us to provide the questions received by our stockholders.
Thank you, David. Our first question: What measures is Tapestry taking to address sustainability and environmental measures? What new, if any, corporate social responsibility plans is Tapestry implementing? Joanne.
Thank you, Andrea. Let me start by saying we believe shaping a world that is inclusive, sustainable, and safe is a responsibility we share. As I discussed in my prepared remarks, our corporate responsibility strategy, Our Social Fabric, unites teams across our business to work towards meaningful and measurable change. We're very proud of our recently formed Tapestry Foundation, which has an endowment of $50 million and a mission to advance access and equity initiatives and to combat climate change, all of which are an important focus areas in our overall corporate responsibility program. Across Our Social Fabric strategy, we focus on three pillars, our people, our planet, and our communities, with measurable goals under each pillar.
For example, we have goals to source 90% of our leather from silver and gold-rated Leather Working Group tanneries and to trace 95% of our raw materials by 2025. Under our people pillar, we're focused on enhancing ethnic diversity among our leadership and making sure all employees feel included in our culture. We've also made commitments to help the communities where we live and work. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we are well on our way to achieving our goal of 100,000 employee volunteer service hours by 2025. We also have a goal to provide access to empowerment programs to 100,000 workers at factories crafting our products.
Our focus has resulted in tangible progress and recognition, including being listed on the Forbes 2021 Best Employers for Diversity and Best Employers for Women list and achieving our seventh consecutive score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. We're committed to continuing this work and look forward to sharing our activities with our stakeholders.
Thanks, Joanne. Our next question: Do you think you will be reinstating a dividend anytime in the near future?
Well, while we temporarily suspended our dividends starting in March 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were pleased to announce in our August earnings release that our Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per common share, which was payable on September 27, 2021, with an expected annual dividend rate of $1 per share. We simultaneously announced that we're reinstating our stock buyback program. Reinstating our capital return programs highlight our ability to drive long-term sustainable growth and our commitment to enhancing value for all stakeholders.
We received several questions on similar topics, and in accordance with our meeting guidelines, we're grouping them together. We received questions regarding our short- and long-term performance and total shareholder return, as well as how our current management team is executing and/or building upon our strategic playbook.
Well, first, I'm confident that we have the right strategy to drive accelerated growth and profitability for our company. We have three powerful brands, and Tapestry provides a differentiated and enabling platform that enhances opportunities for each of our brands. Our strategy, which we call our Acceleration Program, was developed and implemented by our management team collectively, and the full team is galvanized around a shared commitment to realize fully Tapestry's growth potential across brands, as well as a passion for building a purpose-led organization with empowered, inclusive, and highly collaborative teams. Fiscal year 2021 was a transformational year for the company, and we are proud of our progress and the value created for our stockholders. Our total stockholder return increased over 200% during fiscal year 2021 from the prior fiscal year. Despite the volatile economic backdrop, we drove strong financial results.
We ended the fiscal year with fourth quarter revenues ahead of pre-pandemic levels. Our annual operating margin was at record levels, a record level since establishing our current house of brands and becoming Tapestry in fiscal year 2018. As I mentioned earlier, we also reinstated our capital return programs, which we had temporarily suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic. We successfully adapted to a rapidly changing environment and advanced our Acceleration Program, making foundational changes across all areas of the company, sharpening our focus on the consumer, leaning into digital and data, and becoming a more agile organization.
We also received several questions on our compensation actions during the year, including on the following topics. One, fiscal year 2021 salary increases. two, payouts under our annual incentive plan in relation to performance. Three, why we provide stock incentive awards to directors and executives rather than paying in cash, as well as whether executives and directors are able to vote their shares.
To address the first part of the question, we have designed our compensation program to have a high degree of alignment between pay and company performance. Our annual incentive plan targets were set in August of 2020 and were not modified during the course of the fiscal year. Ultimately, Tapestry and all of our brands outperformed the targets during the fiscal year and payouts were made based on the financial performance. This is in contrast to the prior fiscal year, fiscal year 2020, where our AIP performance thresholds were not met due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we did not make any payouts, again, demonstrating a strong pay for performance alignment.
To respond to the question regarding merit salary increases, we did not make any merit salary increases during the fiscal year, and in fact, we implemented salary reductions for our named executive officers and all corporate employees paid above a $100,000 threshold through November 1, 2020. The salary increases reflected in our proxy statement are for executives taking on new roles in the company during the fiscal year, including my appointment as CEO, Todd Kahn's appointment as CEO and Brand President of Coach, and Andrea Shaw Resnick's role as interim CFO during the fiscal year. To address the portion of the question regarding equity compensation. Equity compensation is an important part of our overall compensation program and pay for performance philosophy. We benchmark our compensation program regularly, and the use of stock awards is in line with market practice.
We believe these awards support alignment of employee interests with those of our stockholders, reward employees for enhancing stockholder value, and support retention of key employees. In addition, as we stated in our fiscal 2021 Q4 earnings release, our stock buyback program is expected to offset dilution from such awards. To address the question of whether directors and executive officers may vote their stock, our stock awards do not have voting rights until they vest, and in the case of option awards, until they are exercised for common stock. At that time, the awards become regular common stock and all stockholders, whether or not they are affiliated with the company, have the right to vote their shares.
This isn't a question, it's a comment to express my approval. This is a question of your board's 50/50 male-female split, plus good diversity otherwise. It was refreshing and gratifying to open the proxy statement and see that the two people running this company are women. Joanne?
Well, thank you for this feedback. Equity, inclusion, and diversity is something that is very important to us as a company overall. While there's still much work to do, we are pleased with our progress. As the comment mentioned, our director nominees are gender-balanced and 40% are ethnically diverse. Our U.S. employee population is approximately 56% BIPOC, and approximately 60% of our Tapestry leadership are women. As I noted in my prepared remarks, we are now tying 10% of our leadership's annual incentive compensation to equity, inclusion, and diversity measures. We believe this will help hold leaders accountable for supporting inclusive behaviors and further incentivize them to create a diverse and inclusive culture.
Does management have a China Plus One manufacturing plan? China Plus One is the business strategy to avoid investing only in China and diversify business into other countries.
Tapestry maintains a globally diversified supply chain and has very low manufacturing exposure to China overall. We are continuously evaluating our manufacturing base to make sure we're appropriately diversified. The level of products manufactured in each country may change as our brands continue to further diversify their supply chains globally. I'd point you to our 10-K for further details on our manufacturing base across brands. Andrea, do you have another question for us?
Yes. How much money has Tapestry, Inc. donated to the Black Lives Matter movement? How much money has Tapestry, Inc. donated to police unions? Does Tapestry, Inc. support the Blue Lives Matter movement?
Tapestry is committed to supporting organizations working to achieve racial and social justice. We believe in access and equity, and as I mentioned earlier, formed a new Tapestry Foundation during fiscal year 2021 to advance initiatives that are important to our community. Our brands and foundations have made commitments to nonprofits working at the forefront of addressing racial equity, including those involved in voting rights, educational opportunities, and mental health. Our employees can also make an impact on nonprofit organizations that they wish to support through our volunteering program and our matching gifts policy. Through our foundation, employees in North America can match up to $10,000 in personal charitable giving each year with up to $1,000 double matched. Since its inception in 2010, we've donated over $4 million through the matching gift program.
Tapestry's employee matching gift program has also activated special two-for-one matching programs to provide critical funding to causes aligned with COVID-19 relief and racial and social justice, donating to over 50 organizations tackling racial and social inequity, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Equal Justice Initiative, and Black Lives Matter.
Does Tapestry or any of the board members donate to politicians that supported the insurrectionists? Are all employees vaccinated against COVID? David?
Tapestry has a political activities and contributions policy that is posted on tapestry.com, which states that we do not make or allow any funds or assets of the company to be used for political contributions, including contributions to any PAC, political party, or candidate. Individuals remain free to make any personal contributions to candidates or parties of their choice, but not through use of any company resources. Regarding the second part of the question, Tapestry is requiring all corporate employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to return to its corporate offices, subject to legal exemptions, but we do not disclose information regarding the vaccine status of employees generally.
Thank you. At this time, we have not received any additional questions. Joanne, I'm gonna turn it back to you for closing remarks.
Thank you, Andrea. Thank you, David. Thank you to our shareholders for your questions and for your interest in the company. We will now conclude the Q&A session.
Thank you everyone for joining today. That does conclude today's conference. At this time, you may disconnect your lines. Thank you.