Doing Well by Doing Good

By Anne Ready

 

LOS ANGELES – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

During the Civil Rights Movement, the goal was to achieve one great ideal: equal rights.

The goal today is for corporations to show creative compassion and care for employees and customers.

Forbes reported that, in the wake of the pandemic, Starbucks extended its mental health benefits by  offering its partners personalized, confidential mental health care. Including 20 free in-person or video sessions every year for partners and each of their eligible family members through access to a provider network of mental health therapists and coaches.

 
Courtesy of Peanuts Wiki
 
Comcast, Charter, Verizon, Google, T-Mobile and Sprint signed a pledge to keep Americans internet-connected for the next 60 days, even if people cannot afford to pay.
 
Adobe gave 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. 
 
U-Haul  announced 30 days of free self-storage to all college students  impacted by schedule changes at their universities.
 
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. 
 
Hilton waived cancellation fees to their hotels for people in coronavirus-infected countries.
Refunds
Disney closed its parks and cruises in response to coronavirus. They promised to continue paying their employees during the closure, and will give refunds to all those who had planned on visiting.
 
Lululemon closed all of their stores in North America and Europe for the next two weeks. Their employees will be paid or all of the hours they were scheduled to work. 
 
Courtesy of MNN – Mother Nature Network
 
Apple offered its retail staff unlimited paid sick leave to anyone experiencing coronavirus systems.
 
NBCUniversal offered its newest movies including The Hunt and The Invisible Man for affordable rates on demand.
 
Amazon hired 100,000 more workers and gave raises to current staff to deal with coronavirus demands.
 
LinkedIn opened 16 of it learning courses for free to provide tips and how-to’s. Stay productive. Build relationships when you’re not face-to-face. Use virtual meeting tools. Balance family and work dynamics in a healthy way. 
 
PepsiCo Foundation offered a two-to-one match for all employee charitable contributions to a group of nonprofits providing COVID-19 relief globally.
 
Amen.