How Corporations Are Giving Back During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Written by Sara Uffelman
Fact checked by The Brain Blog Team
How Are Corporations Giving Back During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
If there’s one thing that this first global pandemic has brought to the forefront, it’s the extensive corporate philanthropy efforts throughout the world. Many corporations and organizations are putting forth both significant efforts and cash donations to help fight the COVID-19 virus. There are incredible, heartwarming efforts happening everywhere, with companies donating personal protective equipment (PPE), manufacturers retooling their factories to make ventilators, restaurants jumping in to feed the frontline healthcare responders, and others giving a percentage of their sales to an organization that needs extra assistance.
Getting involved in helping others during this challenging time is a smart business move.
In fact, 56% of consumers have positive feelings toward brands that are helping respond to the coronavirus pandemic, based on a survey by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (also known as the 4As).
Creative Ways Companies are Making a Difference During COVID-19
What a specific organization can do to help is typically dictated by their capabilities and resources. You may be surprised by the creativity of some of the efforts by corporate teams. Here are just a few examples:
Ford Motor Company is lending their engineering and manufacturing capacity to an effort to build ventilators is directly helping address the need on the front lines.
Serta Simmons Bedding is donating 10,000 mattresses to hospitals and medical facilities in New York City and calling out their competitors to do the same thing.
Crocs Shoes is donating 10,000 pairs of their popular shoes, every day, to healthcare frontline workers. The program, called Sharing a Free Pair for Healthcare, allows frontline responders to request a pair in their size on the company’s website.
Large scale and small distilleries are donating their labor and ingredients to make much-needed sanitizer for hospitals and consumers, since these supplies are waning.
Medallia.org, a customer experience platform, is offering their service for free for six months to non-profit organizations to help them continue to bring in donations during the current challenging business climate.
Even toilet paper brand Cottonelle is donating $1 million and one million rolls to the United Way Worldwide COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund. They’ve also created a tongue-in-cheek social media effort - #ShareASquare - to encourage consumers to tag examples of toilet paper sharing to unlock additional donations to the fund.
Corporations Giving Back to Help Alzheimer’s Causes
During times of financial downturn, like we’ll continue to experience with the coronavirus, the need for crisis-related dollars can cause other fundraising initiatives to suffer. However, there are several companies supporting ongoing initiatives to help provide funding for the Alzheimer’s Association. Here are a few high-profile organizations that continue to provide funding for Alzheimer’s education, research and patient/caregiver support services.
The founder of inspirational jewelry company, Lokai, learned that his grandfather had Alzheimer’s when he was in college. Steven Izen found that it helped him realize the importance of staying hopeful during good times and humble during times when things are going exceedingly well. To help remember this important lesson, he created the Lokai bracelet as a physical reminder to find balance. The company now donates $1 to the Alzheimer's Association for each Alzheimer’s theme bracelet that they sell.
Deluxe Corporation, known as a printer of personal checks and business accessories, is in the midst of a three-year cause marketing effort, involving an Alzheimer’s Association branded personal check. It raises awareness, plus 10% of sales of these branded checks goes toward the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Amazon Smile allows consumers to purchase their items through the smile.amazon.com portal and designate a charity to receive a percentage of their sales, at no extra cost to the shopper. There are currently over 1,350 Alzheimer’s organizations that can be chosen by the consumer as their beneficiary.
Memory Health LLC has been contributing to fund research and assistance for Alzheimer’s patients since the company's inception.The company donates $2 per box to the Memory Health Foundation, which provides grants to independent research for Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Following the impact of COVID-19, in April 2020 Memory Health LLC also began donating 15% of all sales dollars to First Responders First, a fundraising effort that works to provide essential supplies, equipment and other resources to help protect frontline healthcare workers and their patients from getting infected with COVID-19.
There are so many options for making a difference during this coronavirus epidemic! TELL US - What new, different or interesting fundraising initiatives have you noticed?