Marketers of all shapes and sizes are pitching in to help individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Healthcare products provider Henry Schein Inc. has reopened its disaster relief hotline for dentists, physicians and veterinarians who have operational, logistical or financial issues. The toll-free number — 800-999-9729 — is operational and is being staffed from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST.
QVC and its vendors have pledged to raise $3 million for the American Red Cross Hurricane 2005 Relief Fund. For the next seven days, participating vendors will donate a portion of their sales to the fund and QVC will match that donation. All vendors and their products that are part of the initiative will be identified with an American Red Cross logo on-air and on QVC.com. The shopping network has also implemented a matching employee donation program.
Music venue Preservation Hall — itself in the devastated French Quarter and closed indefinitely — is also raising donations. Visitors to its e-commerce Web site http://www.preservationhall.com who click on the store link are being directed to make a donation to a fund to aid local musicians.
MediaSpan Online Services / First MediaWorks has begun two initiatives to help the hurricane victims and media properties in the Gulf Coast area that serve affected communities. Free Web site hosting and FTP server access is being offered to any local media property whose current site has been short-circuited due to the disaster. The company has also created a free hurricane relief application that can be integrated directly into radio station Web sites. The application will securely deliver funds to the Red Cross Hurricane relief effort, and allow stations to individually track and mange local donations. Contact Mike Gibbs at 949-369-5900 x209 or [email protected] for more information.
The U.S. Postal Service is reaching out to reconnect with its employees in affected areas through a toll-free number, 1-877-477-3273. Employees in a work location closed due to Hurricane Katrina will receive a prompt to connect with a USPS call center agent, who will collect the employee’s information.
Information Refinery Inc. is offering nonprofit organizations, government agencies and other humanitarian groups data from its Construction Marketplace master file at no charge to assist with recovery efforts. The offer applies to 190,000 postal records within a 500-mile radius of New Orleans. Additionally, the firm is offering to donate more than 6,000 e-mail records for the same geographic area derived from various e-mail files. The company is also offering to transmit e-mail campaigns for such groups to the affected region at no charge.
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