Corporate America has already pledged more than $40 million in donations to support earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Corporate pledges for Haiti have tripled in the past 24 hours, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

By Friday, 22 U.S. companies had already pledged $1 million or more apiece to international relief organizations working in Haiti. They include Amgen (AMGN, Fortune 500), Microsoft , and Coca-Cola. Time Warner  the parent company of Fortune and CNNMoney, is also raising funds for the relief effort.
“We just decided this was the right thing to do,” said Lowe’s spokesperson Maureen Ricks. In addition to its gift to the American Red Cross, all 1,700-plus Lowe’s stores will serve as donation centers for the American Red Cross, Ricks added.

The scale and speed of the pledges has surprised disaster relief veterans. “I wouldn’t have expected this level at all,” said Stephen Jordan, executive director of the Business Civic Leadership Center at the U.S. Chamber, which is helping to coordinate relief efforts between the business community, the U.S. government and aid organizations on the ground in Haiti. “People are recognizing that this is bigger than Haiti.”

Jordan expects total corporate donations to surpass $80 million. This would put the Haiti effort in the top five U.S. corporate relief efforts of all time.

source:  cnn money

Categories: Market News, US Markets
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