Representatives from PepsiCo Inc., the Harvard Kennedy School, Global Giving and NetHope spoke this afternoon at the Business Civic Leadership Council’s 2010 Global Corporate Citizenship Conference in Washington about harnessing technology as a means of providing humanitarian relief.
Frank Schott, who heads the emergency response sector for NetHope, talked about how setting up Internet service providers in Haiti following the earthquake allowed for other aid organizations to communicate with those needing aid.
“We were able to build a 30 kilometer ISP connection within seven days to set up communications to get what was needed to Haiti,” Schott said.
While Schott focused on using technology to react to disasters, Donna Callejon, chief business officer at Global Giving, pointed out that technology can also be harnessed to get employees of companies in the giving mood before disasters happen.
“There is an intense desire within multinational corporations to engage their own employees, and to break down barriers among their own employees.”
Callejon explained that by creating social networks for staff, an organization can foster an atmosphere of giving – and volunteering may become contagious.
“If you engage your own employees to track volunteer hours, disaster giving and donations, it can be a one-stop shop that can be seamless,” Callejon explained. “If you create this culture and take the power out of the human resources department and put it into hands of stakeholders, you will have people making donations at the end of the year instead of taking a company sweatshirt.”
AnaMarie Irazabal, director of marketing for PepsiCo’s REFRESH campaign, explained that branding a company as one that helps others can be good for business.
“Yes, we are trying to sell soda, but if you make your product the product that helps people at a local level, then people may buy that instead of some other cola company. For those people you help at the local level, you may have gotten their brand loyalty and helped them at the same time,” she said.
According to Irazabal, PepsiCo’s REFRESH campaign has allowed for people to propose thousands of ideas for providing aid, of which 250 have been voted into the grant stage.
