One thing this pandemic showed us is that people and businesses do come together to help and support one another in difficult times. Social responsibility isn't just a toss about the phrase, but it is increasingly becoming a part of many company cultures—and that is a very good thing. Several companies have stepped up in some truly big ways. Below are a few of the highlights.
Fill the Lunchbox
Partnering with Feeding America, Welch's Fruit Snacks launched the Fill the Lunchbox campaign. Essentially, the campaign was committed to giving over one million children much-needed meals. The company also pledged to donate $1 to Feeding America every time someone submitted their photo of a Welch's Fruit Snack. This was done across all of their social media platforms.
It Gets Better
This was a campaign started by Doritos. The effort was initiated to help inspire LGBT youth. Offering a special rainbow bag of chips, Doritos asked consumers to purchase this item for 10.00 and also in doing so, provide a quote of support. Using the hashtag #boldandbetter, the campaign became the company's most successful charitable initiative, raising nearly 200k.
Ride for Adoption
This was a partnered effort by Wendy's and Uber. The aim was to find homes for those kids in foster care who hadn't been placed. Uber, on their end, offered a free ride for those who'd never used the service before when they registered with the code 4Adotpion. And then Wendy's consequently donated five dollars to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, an organization that finds permanent homes for kids in the foster system.
Veterans to Work
SAP decided to launch a program that would help veterans transition back into civilian life. Many often lack specialized skills that today's workforce demands. Software company SAP thus began this campaign which lets veterans engage in a 17-week course; the course is designed to train them on SAP database technology as well as for analytics. They also get career coaching and assistance as far as job placement.
Flying Kites
Alex and Ani partnered with Flying Kites, an organization that runs an academy for orphaned kids in Kenya to raise money for the nonprofit. They sold a blue kite charm called Inspiration in Flight. Twenty percent of the profit from these charms went to Flying Kites to help improve their program in Africa.
DoorDash Delivers
In partnering with the United Way, DoorDash launched an effort to deliver meals to the most vulnerable during the pandemic. Among those that received such meals were the elderly, disabled individuals as well as several lower-income households. In light of the partnerships that United Way currently has with food banks across the country, the process of getting meals out as facilitated by DoorDash went fairly smoothly.
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