Originally published on Forbes.com
Mr. Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mom would say to me ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” And that can be no truer than now. I live in the Bay Area where there has been a mandatory shutdown. It is bizarre to see the grocery store ransacked, the schools empty, and the explosion of mass hysteria on social media. Most people’s lives have been completely upended by the Corona Virus or COVID-19 sweeping the world. That said, today I’m highlighting 50 helpers. When the pressure is on, and governments are overloaded, it is up to businesses large and small to do things that will better their employees, customers and the community at large, until this difficult time passes. We’ve even seen famous musicians like John Legend, Keith Urban and Pink play free concerts for people isolated at home. From a business and government perspective, what we have seen in the last few weeks and days, is how fast we can move and make decisions when we want to affect change as a society. But let’s get to the recognition.
Here are 50 Examples of Companies Doing Good For The World During This Corona Virus Pandemic:
1. Microsoft announced that they will keep paying the hourly workers who support their campus.
2. Google established a COVID-19 fund that enables all temporary staff and vendors, globally, to take paid sick leave if they have potential symptoms of COVID-19, or can’t come into work because they’re quarantined. They have also made their video conferencing service, Hangouts Meet, available for all G-suite customers until July 1, 2020.
3. Loom, a video recording and sharing service has made Loom Pro free for teachers and students at K-12 schools, universities, and educational institutions. They have also removed the recording limit on free plans and have cut the price for Loom Pro in half.
4. Mark Cuban announced that any of his employees (including those who work for the Mavericks) will be reimbursed for any lunch and coffee purchases from local, independent small businesses.
5. Forbes8 is hosting a free digital summit on March 20, 2020 under the theme of Business Resilience: Thriving in Crucial Times. The speaker roster includes top experts and best-selling authors such as Chris Brogan, Rohit Bhargava, and Dorie Clark. Many of the speakers were slated to speak at the cancelled SXSW this year.
6. Shine Distillery in Portland started making and giving away hand sanitizer in an acute shortage.
7. The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy’s in-house team of literacy and education experts has created a toolkit of high-quality online resources that can be used anytime, anywhere, helping parents navigate the vast amount of available options.
8. LinkedIn is opening up 16 of its learning courses for free. Courses that provide tips on how to stay productive, build relationships when you’re not face-to-face, use virtual meeting tools and balance family and work dynamics in a healthy way.
9. Jamm, an audio-visual communication tool used by remote and distributed teams is offering it free of charge.
10. Adobe is giving higher education and K-12 institutional customers of their Creative Cloud apps the ability to request temporary “at-home” access for their students and educators. This is being granted through May 31, 2020 at no additional cost and is available globally.
11. Meero, a file transfer service, is offering free large-file transfers to ease remote working.
12. OneDine is offering a free Tap & Pay Touchless Payment system to restaurants during the COVID-19 crisis.
13. Amazon is hiring 100,000 more workers and giving raises to current staff to deal with coronavirus demands.
14. Chef José Andrés of LA set up shop in California earlier this month to feed cruise ship guests quarantined from the outbreak. Andrés announced this week he will transform eight of his New York and Washington, DC, restaurants into community kitchens for those struggling during the pandemic.
15. Sweetgreen has announced it will start dedicating Outpost operations and teams to support “those on the front lines” (meaning hospital workers and medical personnel) by delivering free salads and bowls to hospitals in the cities it serves.
16. &Pizza’s CEO Michael Lastoria notified employees last week that the company is offering free, unlimited pizzas to them and their immediate families, as well as to hospital workers who show identification. The company is also raising hourly pay by $1 and 14 days of “health and safety pay” to employees who have tested positive or who have come in contact with someone with coronavirus.
17. Everytable, a Los Angeles-based café launched a helpline to ensure that everyone in its market has access to healthy meals during this time.
18. Starbucks has extended its mental health benefits. In partnership with Lyra Health, Starbucks is offering its partners personalized, confidential mental health care, 20 free in-person or video sessions every year for partners and each of their eligible family members, online scheduling with most providers available within two weeks, and access to a provider network of mental health therapists and coaches.
19. UberEats and DoorDash have waived commission fees for independent restaurant partners, while Postmates has launched a pilot program for small businesses that temporarily waives commission fees for businesses in the SF Bay Area.
20. Dolce & Gabbana announced that it has partnered with Humanitas University to fund a coronavirus research project.
21. Giorgio Armani has donated $1.43 million dollars to four hospitals in Rome and Milan, as well as to the Civil Protection Agency.
22. French luxury group Kering, which owns brands like Gucci and Bottega Veneta, has donated 2 million euros to help the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
23. Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the CEO of Prada, came to the region’s aid by donating two full intensive care and resuscitation units each to three Milanese hospitals.
24. Alphabet (Google’s parent company) created a COVID-19 fund to provide sick leave to affected workers globally, including all temporary staff, contractors, and vendors.
25. Amazon just announced that it will offer unlimited paid sick leave over the next month, but only for those who test positive for COVID-19.
26. Apple is now offering its retail staff unlimited paid sick leave to anyone experiencing coronavirus systems.
27. Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, others) has announced paid sick leave for all of its hourly workers not currently covered by a corporate policy.
28. McDonald’s has stated that it will cover sick leave for any employees at corporate-owned locations who are asked to quarantine for two weeks.
29. Walmart has deployed an Emergency Leave program, which provides time-off for employees depending on various coronavirus threat levels.
30. Uber announced they will provide 14 days of sick pay for drivers or delivery workers – technically considered independent contractors who have not previously qualified for paid leave or benefits – who are sick with the coronavirus or are required to be isolated.
31. Amazon created a $25M fund to help its delivery drivers and seasonal workers cope with coronavirus, and a $5M dollar fund to help affected small businesses in Seattle.
32. Amazon and Microsoft have each pledged $2.5 million, with the possibility of more, to help out those afflicted by the disease in Seattle.
33. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and Wells Fargo have stopped all stock buybacks for the 2nd quarter in order to maintain their solvency and liquidity for customers during the outbreak.
34. Comcast, Charter, Verizon, Google, T-Mobile and Sprint have signed a pledge to keep Americans internet-connected for the next 60 days, even if people cannot afford to pay.
35. Delta’s CEO is forgoing his salary for the year to try and diminish layoffs.
36. Disney has closed its parks and cruises in response to coronavirus. They have promised to continue paying their employees during the closure, and will give refunds to all those who had planned on visiting.
37. Hilton is waiving cancellation fees to their hotels for people in coronavirus infected countries.
38. Salesforce has created a $1.5 million dollar coronavirus fund for affected citizens in San Francisco.
39. Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly has taken a 10% pay cut as a preliminary measure to offset the decreased demand for flights.
40. U-Haul has announced 30 days of free self-storage to all college students who have been impacted by schedule changes at their universities.
41. United’s CEO and President said they would forgo their base salaries until at least June 30.
42. Workday is giving their employees an additional 2 weeks of pay in order to help them during the coronavirus fallout.
43. Apple has closed all of its stores outside of Greater China, and will re-open in several weeks after an extensive deep cleaning. All employees will be paid for the duration of the closure.
44. Lululemon is closing all of their stores in North America and Europe for the next two weeks. Their employees will be paid for all of the hours they were scheduled to work.
45. REI is closing their stores until March 27th, and all of their employees will be paid during this temporary closure.
46. Starbucks has moved to a “to-go” model until the end of March in all of their U.S. and Canadian stores. They will also close stores in heavily infected areas.
47. VF Corp is closing all of their stores until April 5th. All of their employees will continue to get paid through the closure.
48. LVMH, the parent company of Christian Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy, wants to help French health authorities by manufacturing hand sanitizer and providing it to them for free. LVMH said it will use all the production facilities of its perfumes and cosmetics brands to produce large quantities of hydroalcoholic gel, or hand sanitizer, starting Monday.
49. NBCUniversal is now offering its newest movies including The Hunt and The Invisible Man for affordable rates on demand.
50. Restaurants like Ideal Bite Community Kitchen are donating food to organizations like Cass Community Social Services (CCSS), a nonprofit organization working with at-risk communities in Detroit.
Let these fifty examples of giving back inspire you to see how you can help people in your community, or in your business. Helping and being of service to others is a positive way to counter the anxiety and negativity swirling around in the media constantly. Look around and consider how you can step up and be a leader during this challenging time for the world.
