Published 09-08-05
Submitted by Business Roundtable
The Roundtable members' efforts marked the first test of the organization's new disaster relief initiative, Partnership for Disaster Relief, which seeks to fully integrate the capabilities of a variety of sectors - such as health, technology, financial services, construction, transportation and communications - into a coordinated private sector response. The program, launched earlier this year, aims to facilitate the resources and expertise of U.S. businesses to enhance and accelerate on-the-ground relief and recovery activities in response to major natural disasters.
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina touched down in the Gulf Coast, Chairman of Business Roundtable and Chairman and CEO of Pfizer Inc, Hank McKinnell, asked Roundtable member companies to provide assistance to relief organizations. As relief needs evolved with the worsening crisis, the Roundtable facilitated communications about requests from relief organizations, such as the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to Roundtable members.
To date, cash donations from Roundtable members include more than $90 million in direct support and employee matching funds. Nearly $45 million in non-cash donations include:
"The U.S. business community's overwhelming response to this unimaginable disaster follows the lessons learned after last December's devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia," said McKinnell. "During the aftermath of the tsunami, our members and humanitarian partners experienced firsthand the essential role private sector support plays in disaster relief; but we also learned that business support must be a coordinated effort to be most effective."
Business Roundtable member companies donated more than $200 million in funding, services and materials to tsunami relief, part of over $450 million donated by U.S. companies.
"As we did after the tsunami, the Roundtable and its members will reassess our disaster relief program to continuously improve our ability to more effectively channel needed goods, services, financial resources and employee expertise to non-profit, government and multi-lateral agencies when disaster strikes," added McKinnell.
Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and pay nearly half of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government. Annually, they return $133 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy. Business Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with more than $70 billion in annual research and development spending é¢â‚¬â€œ more than a third of the total private R&D spending in the U.S.
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