GE

September 14, 2001 12:48 PM

GE pledges $10 million to a fund that will assist the families of the firefighters, police officers and emergency rescue personnel who perished while responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. Cisco Systems has made gifts to key relief and support organizations serving the New York City and Washington D.C. areas, including a $6 million donation. Microsoft is making a donation of $10 million in cash and technical services. Know of any other companies that are doing something similar?
posted by riffola (23 comments total)

Ferrari will be racing without any sponsor or partner logos. Just plain red, with a black nose cone. To show that this weekend is just a sporting event with no commercial gain. AOL Time Warner is making a $5 million donation that will be distributed among six relief organizations.
posted by riffola at 12:52 PM on September 14, 2001

McDonald's is basically giving $2 million, feeding search and rescue tems, donating cookies and juice to blood donation centers, and for one month all the money that normally goes into the Ronald McDonald canisters gets contributed.
posted by magnetbox at 1:01 PM on September 14, 2001

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and co-founder of Broadcast.com, donated $1 million for the families of firefighters, policemen and emergency workers who have been killed.
posted by moosedogtoo at 1:05 PM on September 14, 2001

Amazon.com's disaster relief fund is approaching $5 million... I have to admit, I am impressed with that.
posted by phunkone at 1:31 PM on September 14, 2001

Sears has committed to donate $1 million for disaster relief in their already existing partnership with the American Red Cross. Sears lines of business are also donating useful items such as generators, work boots, and clothing.
posted by MeetMegan at 1:36 PM on September 14, 2001

I forgot today was payday, and when the secretary handed me a check, the first thing that entered my mind was "Cool! A bonus!". After being glad about it for a minute or two, I decided that since I just got a big chunk of free money, I should donate some of it. I decided 25% of it was good...so, I went over to Amazon's Red Cross donation page and put in a hefty chunk of that check, adding to what I had donated yesterday.

Half an hour later, I realized that it was not a bonus, but rather, my paycheck. I'm not upset about it at all, it's just a funny story.
posted by skwm at 1:38 PM on September 14, 2001

To help maintain confidence in financial markets, Cisco has also announced that they are re-purchasing up to $3 billion of Cisco stock over the next two years. (crashes happen when everyone panics and wants to sell because they think that there will be no one willing to buy if they wait. Re-purchase plans like this are very expensive for the company, but prevent panic selling by assuring stockholders that there will be a ready buyer of their stock in the future).
posted by dchase at 1:40 PM on September 14, 2001

Walmart donated $2 million. HP has contributed $3 million to the American Red Cross, also plans to match company employee donations up to an additional $2 million. GM & Ford will donate $1 million each to the Red Cross. United Way (Mercedes) will be donating $100,000.
posted by riffola at 1:43 PM on September 14, 2001

HOLY COW! Taiwanese chipmaker VIA offers US$100 Million. Anyone heard more info on this? This sure ups the ante for US companies. ( spotted on stomped )
posted by curiousg at 1:50 PM on September 14, 2001

VIA Technologies is donating $100 million (courtesy Fark).
posted by internal at 1:50 PM on September 14, 2001

The Washington Redskins have started a relief fund, and have seeded it with $250,000 and will collect money at their remaining home games.
posted by owillis at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2001

I am an employee at WorldCom, and in an email from the head cheese, we were informed of this:

Worldcom is donating $250,000, free phone cards, office space, pagers, long-distance service, data and internet services, and are donating switches (which can cost as much as $1 million each)

At first I thought this was a pittance compared to what other companies are giving, but those services all add up one way or another.
posted by da5id at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2001

Now I know it is a pittance after seeing the VIA offer.
posted by da5id at 2:00 PM on September 14, 2001

The Big Ten athletic conference is contributing $1 million and my firm's parent company (Royal Bank of Canada) is also donating $1 million (though I don't know whether that's US or Canadian dollars).
posted by hootch at 3:06 PM on September 14, 2001

Ernst & Young (my employer) is matching up to $2 million in donations. Remarkably we didn't lose anyone, although apparently Deloitte & Touche and KPMG may have.
posted by PeteyStock at 3:47 PM on September 14, 2001

Sony will donate $4 million, of which $3 million will go to the Red Cross.
posted by riffola at 3:48 PM on September 14, 2001

I work for a fairly direputable credit card company with serious image problems. We were told yesterday that, aside from suspending outgoing sales and telemarketing calls, the corporation also gave.....$100,000 in funds. This is pretty pathetic, considering they gave several million, I believe, to India last year. Embarassing.
posted by akmonday at 3:51 PM on September 14, 2001

My company, JP Morgan Chase is donating $10 Million and matching dollar for dollar employee contributions.
posted by brent at 4:43 PM on September 14, 2001

Media company Tribune Entertainment will match 50% of donations up to $5 million. On the Earth: Final Conflict site.
posted by curiousg at 4:58 PM on September 14, 2001

Let's not keep score, huh? Every dollar will help. It doesn't matter whether one company contributes less than another. If someone thinks $100,000 isn't a significant and useful amount of money, I suggest they simply send it to me in small, unmarked bills.
posted by kindall at 5:07 PM on September 14, 2001

I don't feel it is exactly keeping score. I agree every dollar counts, but I feel my company's contribution is somewhat pathetic compared to others :-(

I applaud all these companies contributing significant amounts, I just wish mine would do the same :-(

equipment, space, and other physical donations are fine and dandy, but cash is the #1 need of all people directly affected by this (families of victims, firefighters, police officers, etc...)
posted by da5id at 11:09 PM on September 14, 2001

VeriSign is planning to donate $1 mil and has seeded $500,000 to start things off.
posted by celmatic at 1:04 AM on September 15, 2001

I was asked to stay late last week to put up the message that's currently on my corporation's homepage. It's insensitive and horrible, like some sick Onion headline: National Disaster Causes Mail Delays. The text of the message asks people to please pay their bills early so they don't incurr late charges. I and everyone in my department objected strongly but were shot down. I assured them they'd have to retract it and put up something decent on monday. Today I came in to a work order that included a much more sensitive message. What the hell is wrong with people?
posted by akmonday at 11:54 AM on September 17, 2001