The Role of Big Brands in Raising Funds for Japan

In addition to international aid agencies rushing to raise funds for Japan’s disaster response, many big brands too have jumped in to raise millions. By leveraging their brand power and the massive user base, these big names are helping nonprofits heighten their fundraising message and greatly increase collections.

Below are Few of the Brands Involved and their Roles

Apple is promoting American Red Cross on their website and on the iTunes stores allowing their over 200 million subscribers to donate with just a simple click

Groupon, the daily deals company is supporting International Medical Corps . They are promoting the campaign on their website and via emails to their subscriber base of over 51 million users.

LivingSocial which is in similar business as Groupon is supporting Global Giving fundraising appeal which in turn is supporting multiple aid agencies. Promoting the campaign on their website and via emails to their massive subscriber base.

Zynga is supporting Save the Children which has set-up a special fund for children affected in Japan. Zynga has introduced special virtual goods in Farmville, Cityville and other popular games to raise funds from its 250 million gamers. They have already raised a million in less than 36 hours of setting this up.

Starbucks is the latest to join, from today onwards they’ll be accepting donations across all their stores in US and Canada and planning to soon launch in stores in other countries as well. Supporting American Red Cross.

Causes.com needs no introduction to people on Facebook. They are promoting American Red Cross on their website which has set-up a fundraising campaign with the goal to raise $170,000.

Global Giving is another online giving site is using its platform and reach to raise funds. Their target is to raise 2million which they would disburse to International Medical Corps, Save the Children, and other organizations on the ground.

So in nutshell, in addition to aid agencies directly fundraising we now also have big brands fundraising for them. By using their brand power and infrastructure, these named organizations are helping spread the word far and wide and also making it really easy for people to donate.

As per the popular magazine Chronicles of Philanthropy, since the day of the disaster US charities alone have raised over $64 million for relief efforts. How all this money is going to be utilized is still unclear as the aid agencies are yet to devise their strategy for delivering aid. In the earlier article we had reported on the nonprofit response so far, do read Making Sense of the Japan Donation Frenzy to learn more on this topic read the New York Times article, A Charitable Rush, with Little Direction