Local Philanthropy Mobilizes for Haiti

In the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, GWP members have generously assisted with relief efforts. Members have notified GWP of the following:

· Alcoa Foundation has made a $100,000 donation to American Red Cross.
· American Eagle Outfitters is making a $50,000 donation to MercyCorps.
·The fate of the earthquake victims in Haiti has moved both Bayer and its employees. Over €250,000 has been raised in the company’s first worldwide call for donations.Bayer will now donate an additional €100,000. The Bayer Cares Foundation will use the funds to support projects that will make a sustainable contribution to reconstruction in the disaster areas. Taking the more than €660,000 in the form of medicines already donated, total assistance to Haiti exceeds €1 million.
· Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield will establish a microsite for employee donations with the American Red Cross specifically for the Haiti Relief Effort. As a corporation, it will match, dollar for dollar, employee donations to this site. Employees wishing to donate to another nonprofit can access the employee matching gifts program to maximize those donations.
· BNY Mellon is immediately donating $100,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) for Haiti relief efforts. In addition, the company will set aside $200,000 to match in full individual donations of up to $500 made by employees to any combination of several Powering Potential charities – the IFRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross, CARE, Doctors Without Borders (Medicines Sans Frontieres), Oxfam America and Save the Children. An additional $50,000 will be available to Community Partnership (volunteer program) teams formed to raise funds for Haiti relief. Donations to the charities named above or to any other Powering Potential charity involved in Haiti relief efforts will be fully matched. Donations to other charities will be matched at 50 percent.
· Buncher Family Foundation has made a grant to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti.
· Eat’NPark Hospitality Group conducted fund drives in all its restaurants, partnering with KDKA Radio, to benefit the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund. An Eat’NPark manager serves on the board of the Functional Literacy Ministry (FLM) school and clinic outside Port-Au-Prince, and the company’s facility is regularly used to package and send supplies to FLM. After the earthquake, 60 volunteers worked at Eat’NPark’s facility to repackage medical supplies to send immediately to Haiti; volunteers are also assembling and sending water filtration kits, using recycled Eat’NPark icing buckets and purchased filters.
· The EQT Foundation will match an individual employee gift of $100 or more to eligible 501(c)(3) organizations, provided the employee has not exceeded his/her combined maximum allowable matching contribution per calendar year.
· The NiSource Charitable Foundation (owner of Columbia Gas) will be donating $50,000 to the American Red Cross's Haiti Relief Effort. There is also a communications effort encouraging employees to donate to the Red Cross International Response Fund at www.redcross.org or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS.
· The Pittsburgh Foundation will cover all credit card transaction and processing fees for donations to local organizations supporting the relief effort including American Red Cross, Brother’s Brother, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer and Global Links. In addition, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer has been awarded $35,000 and Brother’s Brother and Doctors without Borders have each been awarded $15,000.
· PNC Foundation will make a direct donation of $100,000 to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer. For eight weeks, it will also match employee gifts to American Red Cross International Relief Fund, Unicef and MercyCorps Haiti Earthquake Fund up to a total of $100,000. For this specific relief effort, the PNC Foundation also lowered the minimum gift eligible for matching to $25, and gifts made for Haiti relief will not count toward an employee’s annual matching gift limit.

All GWP members are encouraged to notify GWP of responses to the earthquake in Haiti. Additional background on philanthropy’s overall response to this disaster is at the links below:

The Foundation Center is mapping grants awarded for relief and recovery at http://foundationcenter.org/focus/haiti/
The Chronicle of Philanthropy lists funds raised as of early February at http://beta.philanthropy.com/article/Haiti-Donations-Exceed-644/63887/