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Brands Rally to Bolster Maui in Wildfire-Relief Effort

Here are some of the companies and organizations that have stepped up to contribute to relief for the affected community.

Published 1 year ago | About a 6 minute read

Image: Maui Food Bank

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:

Donating to organizations including the Maui Food Bank and Mercy Chefs — which are providing meals on the ground to displaced residents, first responders and others affected by the wildfire; and Chef Hui, which is partnering with World Central Kitchen and Common Ground Collective to establish food hubs on Maui to “create restaurant-quality meals that sustain our lāhui during this time of need.” The Salvation Army’s Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Division is also providing food to those in Maui emergency shelters.
Maui Rapid Response’s aid fund is distributing proceeds “to vulnerable Ohana in need, kupuna, persons with physical disabilities, renters and those who have no insurance or are underinsured,” per the group’s Instagram.
The Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund is providing resources for disaster recovery.
The Maui Humane Society is accepting donations and supplies for shelter animals displaced by the wildfires.