Some of the world’s largest companies have pledged millions of dollars of cash and food supplies towards the relief effort in Haiti as international aid agencies scramble to cope with the mounting humanitarian crisis in the earthquake-stricken Caribbean nation.
Many companies, some with staff based in Haiti, have also pledged to match donations made by their employees in an echo of the corporate response after the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in south-east Asia in 2004.
On Friday evening corporate donations to Haiti in cash and other aid known to the FT totalled about $21m.
General Electric, the US conglomerate, on Thursday said it was giving $2.5m towards the relief efforts in Haiti, while the banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Crédit Agricole, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale and Jefferies made donations worth millions of dollars.
In an internal memo sent to Citigroup staff, Vikram Pandit, the bank’s chief executive, said: “I am deeply saddened to inform you that a few of our colleagues were among those who lost their lives in Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Haiti. While we cannot disclose their identities at this point, our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends”.
Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets Equity group announced it will donate all of Friday’s net agency equity trading commissions to the disaster relief. In addition, Deutsche Bank is offering its US staff an expanded and expedited matching gifts programme.
“Rapid action is needed to enable the people of Haiti to emerge from this tragedy,” said Robert Karofsky, Deutsche’s co-head of global markets equity. “We encourage our clients to join our efforts today and help the victims of this disaster, as they have so many times before.”
Douglas Rouse, Corporate Partnerships Director at Save the Children, said the strength of the corporate reaction matched that of the tsunami in 2004. “We have already been given $1.25m by companies in only two days, which is fantastic. We are expecting to see not just cash but more gifts in kind, such as medical supplies”.
Mr Rouse said Reckitt Benckiser, First Group, Pepsico, Goldman Sachs and Toys R Us had all donated to Save the Children.
Virgin Atlantic said it was flying key medical workers and relief agency staff to Haiti in its flights to Miami, Orlando and Jamaica during the coming days, while British Airways said it was preparing a Boeing 747 with capacity for up to 50 tonnes of cargo to fly to Haiti on Saturday.
International aid agencies have estimated that up to 50,000 people had been killed in Tuesday’s earthquake, with thousands of others affected in the western hemisphere’s poorest country. René Préval, Haiti’s president, said on Thursday that 7,000 people had been buried in a mass grave on the island.
Other corporate donations include bottled water from Nestlé, medicines from drugmaker AstraZeneca, and a $500,000 pledge from Unilever to the United Nations’ World Food Programme. Deutsche Post DHL said it had deployed a disaster response team to provide logistical support, while Ericsson said it would send telecom equipment to assist relief work.
Toby Webb, managing director of Ethical Corporation, a consultancy on corporate social responsibility, said he saw the corporate reaction towards the Haiti quake as “a real, human desire to help, rather than an attempt at getting purely reputational capital out of disaster relief”.
“These events can actually change the strategies and attitudes of companies,” Mr Webb said. “Hurricane Katrina, for example, is credited with bringing about big changes in Wallmart’s sustainability strategy. New Orleans was as close to home as it gets in the US. Haiti is also close enough to the US to potentially have a long term impact.”
The rush of corporate donations to Haiti comes as governments across the world have begun to marshal aid to the island nation. Barack Obama, the US president, promised $100m from the US, alongside a further contribution of $100m from the International Monetary Fund, while Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, said the US would collaborate with international partners to rebuild the country.
The UK has said it will provide £6m, while the Queen made a private donation and offered her “profound sympathy’’ to the people of Haiti.
