Posted on November 9, 2012

Companies Step Up With Million-Dollar Donations for Sandy Relief

As communities devastated by Superstorm Sandy struggle to recover against a backdrop of gas shortages and more bad weather, additional million-dollar donations for recovery efforts from a broad spectrum of corporations were announced this week.

As of mid-week, the Coach Foundation had joined the ranks of seven-figure contributors to Sandy recovery efforts, pledging $2 million to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, while apparel company PVH Corp. announced a donation of $1 million, to be shared equally by the Red Cross, the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, and the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.

Other seven-figure corporate donors include Allstate and the Allstate Foundation, which created a $1 million recovery fund to support local nonprofits and will match up to $100,000 in employee donations to the Red Cross; Morgan Stanley, which said it would donate at least $1 million to the Red Cross and match up to $2.5 million in employee donations; investment firm Jeffries, which pledged to donate $1 million; and the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, which pledged $1 million to the New Jersey chapters of the Red Cross ($250,00) and Salvation Army ($250,000), the Community FoodBank of New Jersey ($100,000), and the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund ($100,000).

Other companies pledging at least $1 million to recovery efforts in recent days include JPMorgan Chase ($4 million in donations, $1 million in matching funds for employee donations, and up to $5 billion in loans to small and mid-size businesses); the Hess Corporation ($5 million); Prudential Financial ($3 million); Samsung Electronics North America ($3 million); Microsoft ($2.5 million); Walmart ($1.5 million); the Walt Disney Company ($2 million); the GE Foundation ($1.1 million); United Parcel Service ($1.5 million); the Verizon Foundation ($1.2 million); Abbott Labs and the Abbott Fund ($1 million); American Express ($1 million); Enterprise Holdings ($1 million); Exxon Mobil (1 million); Kohl's Corp. ($1 million); Lowe's ($1 million); Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association ($1 million); the National Basketball Association and NBA Players Union ($1 million); and the National Football League and NFL Players Association ($1 million).

In addition, the New York Times Company haslaunched a special fundraising campaign to assist victims of the storm in New York and New Jersey. Donations can be made through the Times' Neediest Cases Fund, with funds raised to be directed to the seven nonprofits supported by the fund as well as the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, and City Harvest.