With the disconcerting increase in catastrophic
global
and
regional
disasters and ongoing humanitarian
crises
around the world in the past few years has come a welcome rise in corporate
contributions to relief efforts in various forms — and the wildfires that
engulfed much of Maui last week are no exception. While the devastating
fires — which have mainly affected the historic
Lāhainā area in
West Maui — have been mostly
contained,
they have decimated the island community and killed at least 106 people, as of
press time. These wildfires are now considered the worst natural disaster in the
state’s history, and the deadliest US wildfire in over a
century.
Here are some of the companies that have stepped up to contribute to relief for
the affected community.
Intrepid
Travel,
the world’s largest B Corp-certified travel company, has partnered with the
American Red Cross to offer relief to communities affected by the wildfires.
Through its not-for-profit Intrepid Foundation, the company has launched an
emergency Hawaii Wildfire
Appeal and
committed to match up to US$50,000 in donations — Intrepid Travel covers all
administrative costs, so all donations will directly benefit the Red Cross.
B Corp-certified footwear brand OluKai — founded on the idea that anyone, anywhere, can “live Aloha” — has a decade-long history of supporting the Hawaiian community through its Ama OluKai Foundation; a portion of proceeds from every pair of shoes sold benefits the foundation. Now, the Foundation has set up a Maui Fire Relief Fund and will match the first $200,000 in donations.
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Airbnb.org will provide free, temporary
stays
for at least 1,000 people displaced by the Maui wildfires. The nonprofit arm of
Airbnb will work with nonprofits including Maui Economic Opportunity and
Global Empowerment Mission to connect people to stays. Airbnb says anyone
with a home or spare room in the state of Hawaiʻi can help by making it
available to survivors for free or at a discount by signing up with Airbnb.org;
and that anyone, anywhere can donate to Airbnb.org to help fund emergency stays
during this and future crises.
According to
Forbes and Hawaii Business,
local businesses jumping in include shipping company
Matson — which is transporting emergency response
equipment and other supplies to Maui for FEMA and the Hawaii Food Industry
Association, and working with a number of its customers and nonprofit
organizations to send shipments of relief supplies to Maui; First Hawaiian
Bank— which donated $250,000 to
the “Aloha for Maui” campaign and waived ATM fees at all Maui banks; and Dole Food Company and its O‘ahu-based subsidiary Dole Fruit Hawaii have donated
$50,000 to the American Red Cross Hawaii and $50,000 to the Maui Food Bank to
help with relief and recovery efforts.
A number of airlines have added more flights and slashed fares to help locals
and visitors evacuate; Alaska, American and Southwest Airlines are
among those to have ramped up their outbound services, according to
CNBC.
For its part, Hawaiian Airlines is contributing on a number of fronts — it
has increased the number of flights overnight to help people get off the island
and been offering $19 Main Cabin fares out of Maui to facilitate urgent travel
needs, according to local
news.
The airline has also donated $50,000 each to Hawaiʻi
Foodbank, Maui Food
Bank and the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation’s
Maui Strong
Fund
to further support the organizations’ wildfire relief work. And Hawaiian also
established the Mālama Maui Desk to respond more efficiently to the many
organizations and individuals seeking flight, cargo or volunteer support.
Hotels in West Maui have temporarily stopped accepting bookings of future
reservations as they are housing their employees and families, evacuees and
first responders. Hawaii’s Highgate Hotels have
launched a Love Maui fund, where
anyone can donate to support Maui families impacted by the wildfires. The hotel
chain is also donating $10 from every upcoming hotel booking to the Highgate
Charitable Foundation, with the goal of raising $1M for Maui. And
‘Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach is donating net proceeds from its second
Amplified
benefit concert on Saturday, August 26 to Maui relief efforts.
And thanks to a partnership with Microsoft's AI for Good Research
Lab,
which is using sophisticated AI models and satellite imagery to analyze the
extent of the damage, the Red Cross says its preliminary damage assessment
process is days ahead of its normal timeline.
Other ways to help Maui include:
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Aug 16, 2023 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST