U.S. Firms Come to China's Aid

Amway, Wal-Mart Top List of Donors Sending Disaster Relief

U.S. companies have pledged at least $54 million in cash, goods and services to victims of the earthquake that devastated the Sichuan province of China two weeks ago, the third-largest international aid package ever assembled by American businesses.

About 19 businesses -- including consumer goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble, beer brewer Anheuser Busch and pharmaceutical company Merck -- have pledged $1 million or more. Two of the largest donors are Amway, a direct-sales company, with $4.3 million, and big-box retailer Wal-Mart, with more than $3 million.

"The magnitude of U.S. corporate contributions indicates the level of concern for the victims of the tragedy," said Stephen Jordan, executive director of the Business Civic Leadership Center at the Commerce Department, which compiled the figures.

Corporate giving is expected to continue to grow as the death toll rises. According to the official New China News Agency, the number of deaths reached 67,183 yesterday afternoon. More than 360,000 people have been injured and nearly 21,000 remain missing. In addition, the deadly cyclone that struck nearby Burma, also known as Myanmar, has spurred about $3.7 million in assistance from U.S. businesses, according to the center.

China has become vitally important to U.S. corporations as both a producer of goods and an increasingly voracious consumer of them. Wal-Mart operates a global procurement office there, for example, but also runs about a dozen stores under the name Trust-Mart and its namesake banner in the region affected by the quake. Chevron, which donated $1.4 million to relief efforts, also has a stake in developing natural gas production in the region.

"It's well-intentioned and has a philanthropic pulse to it," said Patrick Rooney, director of research at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. But, he added, "a lot of the U.S.-based corporations are doing business in China now, and they recognize they have a strategic interest and relationship that's important to maintain."

According to the Business Civic Leadership Center, the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia prompted $566 million in U.S. corporate aid, the largest amount on record for an international disaster. The earthquake in Pakistan a year later garnered about $100 million from American corporations. A spokeswoman for the center said giving for the Chinese disaster could eventually outpace that response; the U.S.-China Business Council estimated that corporate donations were already as high as $72 million.

Rooney said companies typically do not budget for disaster giving but treat their donations as special one-time allocations. The record outpouring of help following the 2001 terrorist attacks, the tsunami in 2004 and hurricanes Katrina and Rita the next year have raised public expectations of American businesses, he said. Now, $1 million has become a standard donation for big companies.

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy's division in China donated $1.4 million to relief efforts, including 80,000 walkie-talkies to help with search-and-rescue operations. Employees of Best Buy China and its holding company, Five Star Appliances, also voluntarily organized a blood drive after learning of a shortage.

At several of Wal-Mart's Chinese stores, merchandise toppled off shelves and electricity cut out during the earthquake, prompting 15 locations to shut down, according to a spokesman. All but one of those stores has reopened, and workers suffered only minor injuries. However, about 550 of the company's more than 5,000 employees in the region had homes that were lost or severely damaged.

The world's largest retailer responded with 30 truckloads of supplies including water, food, tents and sleeping bags. It also worked with more than 200 of its suppliers to hold a charity sale outside of its Wal-Mart and Trust-Mart stores across the country to support victims.

At Amway, about half of the company's roughly 14,000 employees work in China, though none were directly affected by the earthquake. Most of Amway's $4.3 million contribution was in cash, but the company also has provided home-care products, food supplements and antibacterial soap to victims.

The donation is the largest Amway has made toward disaster relief. Vice President Dana Boals said the company's large presence in the country and the scale of the tragedy sparked its unprecedented response.

"We are here in so many more ways than just to be a business," Boals said. "This feels very natural to us. How could we not?"