As of last week, $24.4 million in corporate aid had been pledged by the U.S. business community for Pakistan flood response efforts.
100 different companies stepped up with aid pledges in response to the historic, devastating floods, according to the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Many of these companies don’t even have significant operations in Pakistan, making the scale of the private sector response even more compelling.
Some firms pledged in-kind contributions. Four companies pledged $1 million or more in cash — The Coca-Cola Company, GE, Microsoft, and P&G.
Companies have the specific resources to address the many specific needs of disasters like the Pakistan floods. “A lot of this is self-selecting — that is the beauty of the private sector,” said Stephen Jordan the executive director of BCLC. “Individual companies are great at individual things. So a lot of the pharmaceutical companies, a lot of the health care companies are going to focus on the health care issues,” he said.
“The engineering, construction and heavy equipment companies are going to focus on dams, roads and those kind of things. The financial services companies are going to help say with small business capacity building, (and) micro-finance,” Jordan said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says Pakistan ranks as the third largest recipient of disaster assistance from the business community over the past five years, behind Haiti and China.
For a list of all corporations and their generosity, visit BCLC’s Corporate Aid Tracker.