corporate aide in south asia

pfizer will donate $35 million in cash, medicine, and other supplies. amazon.com will give $3.5 million. aol is donating and matching employee contributions up to $50,000. starbucks will donate $2 for every pound of sumatra coffee it sells. the list goes on.

tonight i learned (on cnn) that u.s. corporations have pledged more than double the aide, in money and supplies, that the us government has already to asian victims of the tsunami. it’s difficult to say yet whether uncle sam or corporate entities will give more in the end, but these early numbers are encouraging for private enterprise.

corporations are probably given generous tax breaks for donations, but this significant level of generosity cannot be due to the desire to lower tax bills alone. other significant encouragement mechanisms exist in the free market. tonight cnn listed the largest corporate donors and the amounts they had given, and that’s a powerful commercial. knowing cnn, that will be looped for quite a while. corporations can use their charity as a selling point in their ads and to their stockholders as well – some could use some good pr these days. i know i’m now a happier pfizer stockholder and will probably hold onto it longer than i should if it takes a dip.

you’ve already donated to the rescue and clean-up efforts through your taxes and business transactions with the above corporations. to donate more, visit red cross or another aid website. also check out the tsunami blog for more ways to help. they can use all you can give!

update: a great list of corporate donations at cnn.

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