Corporate America Digs Deep

[udon]

By chance I found that the small co I deal with for reg'ing domnames has donated at least $250,000 to the disaster appeal, I just hope it and other US donations goes to the Red Cross and or Medicines San frontiers and not the UN.....

Any other news on this subject and what coverage is the disaster getting on USTV?

Thanks,

udon

[Darknight]

just posted usa new pledge in the discussion forum

[RDN]

$350 million aid contribution - well done USA!

[usatrader]

It is indeed a small but compassionate world despite some limited vision views to the contrary.

A 1 minute search list:

Episcopal Relief and Development Emergency Fund is receiving more than one donation every minute.

For some small groups, such as International Medical Corps, the response is so intense that staff members are having trouble keeping up. Operation USA, which usually gets four to five daily online donations, received 1,400 on Tuesday alone. The $450,000 it has received this week is half of the group's annual budget.

Oxfam America had tallied $3.5 million by Thursday in Internet donations. It sent a plane with water, sanitation equipment, latrines and food kits to the hard-hit region Wednesday.

Mercy Corps set a record Wednesday, with nearly $1 million raised in one day.

Save the Children, which has been working in the area for 30 years and plans a long-term relief effort, logged $2.3 million in Internet donations, plus $500,000 by mail and $150,000 by phone.

UNICEF already has raised $7.5 million over the Internet from individuals. Online corporate donations have totaled $3.5 million. Its initial goal of $12 million will be increased.

At CARE USA's headquarters in Atlanta, as of Thursday afternoon, the organization had accumulated nearly $7 million to aid the earthquake and tsunami victims. It took the agency more than six months to raise $8.3 million for the crisis in Kosovo.

Finns lined up in the cold in Helsinki to contribute. The country of just 5 million people quickly raised $US4 million ($A5.8 million).

Italians raised $US17 million ($A22.0 million) by sending special text messages on their mobile phones.

Even Amazon.com collected $US4.8 million ($A6.2 million) in donations from online shoppers at its website.

The government of Britain led the field with a pledge of $US96 million ($A123.3 million)

US Government pledge has now reached $350 million as situation assessment teams on the ground in the affected area report the extent of what is needed. Also 2 naval task forces are steaming to the area with over 5000 men to offer assistance.

The World Bank also announced it would release $US250 million ($A321 million) to help tackle the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

The American private companies (partial list)

Drug company Pfizer Inc has pledged $US10 million and $25 million in medical supplies;

Johnson & Johnson $US2 million ($A2.6 million) plus supplies;

J.P. Morgan Chase up to $US3 million ($A3.9 million), including matched employee contributions,

Abbott Laboratories is donating $2 million in medical supplies,

Citigroup $3 million,

xxonMobil $5 million,

Cisco $2.5 million,

Wal-Mart $2.5 million,

Altria $1 million or more,

Bristol-Myers Squibb is donating $1 million in cash and $4 million in drugs, ExxonMobil is contributing $5 million and will match donations by its employees. The oil company employs about 5,000 people in the affected countries,

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a not-for-profit founded by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, is giving $3 million,

The Starr Foundation, an organization affiliated with AIG, is contributing $2.5 million, General Motors is donating $1 million and is matching employee donations,

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are donating thousands of cases of bottled water, Kimberly-Clark is donating diapers, surgical gloves and other health care products, FedEx is shipping supplies to several affected countries on behalf of a number of relief agencies,

Starbucks in addition to a $100,000 contribution, says it will begin donating $2 from the sale of every pound of Sumatra coffee it sells to the relief effort,

Amazon.com contains an appeal for contribution and allows visitors to make a direct donation to the American Red Cross.

The British telecoms firm Vodafone pledged nearly $US2 million ($A2.6 million),

the Dutch financial services group ING pledged $US1 million ($A1.3 million)

German utility firm E.ON donated $US1.4 million ($A1.8 million).

The American Red Cross said today it has received $US18 million ($A23.1 million) and CARE USA more than $US3.5 million ($A4.5 million) from the public, and the donations are expected soon to match the $US35 million ($A45 million) pledged by the US government.

British charities under the umbrella of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said their appeals had netted £20 million ($A49.5 million) in aid in 48 hours.

Two Canadian provinces set aside aid worth $US10.8 million ($A13.9 million) for Asian tsunami victims, bringing Canada's total government aid package to $44 million ($A47 million).

In Italy, a media campaign reportedly netted more than 11 million euro ($A19.3 million) from mobile phone users while the Italian foreign ministry has set aside three million euro ($A5.3 million) for immediate relief.

A similar campaign in the Netherlands, launched by aid groups including UNICEF, the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres, had already brought in 9.3 million euro ($A16.3 million) by today.

The governments of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the United States have all dramatically increased their pledges of aid in the last few days.

The French government has now pledged a total of at $US56 million ($A71.9 million), including its portion of a 20 million euro ($A35 million) European Union aid program.

Other leading government contributors were Japan at $US40 million ($A51.4 million),

the Netherlands at $US36 million ($A46.2 million),

Canada at $US32.8 million ($A42.1 million),

Germany at $US27 million ($A34.67 million),

Australia at $A35 million,

Portugal at $US11 million ($A14.1 million),

Saudi Arabia at $US10 million ($A12.8 million),

and Arab Gulf neighbour of Qatar at $US10 million ($A12.8 million).

Smaller contributions from 15 other countries, most of them European nations but also China, Iran and Kuwait amounted to more than $US25 million ($A32.1 million), according to figures compiled by AFP.

The Hong Kong Red Cross said it received $3.3 million in donations. Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, pitched in $3.1 million.

The Danish Red Cross said it received $641,600 from private donations in a 24-hour period.

That is just a tip of the iceberg example of the world’s humanity!

[udon]

WOW! Thanks Trader.

Many Aussies, who can afford it, are donating a days pay, next payday.

Lets hope the other Western nations can match that.

US chinooks are desperately needed in Aceh and Sri Lanka

Cheers

[usatrader]

No doubt, the Aussie are indeed, as always, a generous people.

I am sure there are many, many more source of humanity in every country and nation attempting to do what has to be done under these circumstances.

After all, it is not about how big one pretenses themselves to be, its about how big they are, in their acts and deeds, that carry the most weight as to their humanity.

That is all!

[sbk]

Any idea on how much local rich people have donated here in Thailand? Just curious if all the really wealthy people in this country have been as equally helpful.

[The_Moog]

SBK - many of the megawealthy in Thailand have suffered cashflow losses already from the obliteration of their resorts.

They'll be avidly eyeing the aid 'pot'.

Remember it was the PM who said 3 months ago that luxury hotel building would help reconstruct the 3 Southern Provinces.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

McDonalds would have lost their 'restaurant' on Patong beach road so that's probably their excuse for not donating anything from the trillions of dollars of cash they are sitting on.

[The_Moog]

Billionaires that have lost businesses obviously won't be able to get hold of international humaritarian aid, but for domestic Government reconstruction aid, they'll be looking to get some of that. (Even if their Insurers do agree to pay out on policies)

Soft loans, but preferably outright grants, on the supposition that reconstruction will provide jobs locally. There's a certain grim logic to it.

Just one of those facts of life.