Continuing the Series – Excellence in Corporate Citizenship on Display in the Coronavirus Crisis – Actions Taken By the Corporate Sector Leaders – #5 in the series
March 25, 2020
by Hank Boerner – Chair & Chief Strategist – G&A Institute and the G&A team — continuing the conversation about corporate and investor response to the coronavirus crisis.  From this post on, we are going to share news about the corporate sectors’ actions for ease of reference for our readers.  We’re sharing these posts through our social media and suggest you might do the same to help get the news around.
See the first post in the queue for details about this series – scan down to see that for information.

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“Guided by its family values and spirit of giving,” The Estée Lauder Companies and The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation (ELCCF) “stand with the global community” and are adjusting the traditional giving programs to provide aid to help limit the spread of the virus and help to ease economic hardships. Just announced:
The company and foundation are supporting the work of Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) with a financial grant of US$2 million. Among the many projects of MSF, the international medical humanitarian assistance has been lending aid to people in distress.
Such as in wartorn Syria, with one million people uprooted in the midst of war, suffering food shortages, lack of medical aid, and now the virus crisis. The MSF organization has to date provided specialized burn units, surgery, physiotherapy and psychological support in Syria and other regions of the world.
The Estée Lauder financial assistance will help Doctors Without Borders/Medicin Sans Frontieres in highly-impacted countries.
The company’s Melville, New York manufacturing plant (on the Nassau-Suffolk counties border) re-opens now to produce hand sanitizer for high-need organizations and populations – especially including front-line medical staff.
Note: compensated employee volunteers are doing the vital work here, as both counties are covered by the New York State “stay at home” guidance.
In New York City, where the company is headquartered, a grant was provided to support “The NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund”. This is administered by the New York Community Trust which manages hundreds of family and organizational trusts and makes targeted grants to worthy causes.
The new fund will (with at least US$75 million raised to date) support NYC’s vital social services and cultural community organizations.
The 90-year old NY Community Trust helps donors “make smart grantmaking solutions” that address the quality of life issues that align with the donors’ values. (The Trust staff is continuing their work remotely as New York City is mostly shut down.)
The various donors (individual and organizational) are typically investing in such buckets as those addressing poverty, justice, education, health, arts, environment, LGBTQ, elderly, and children and teens. More information is at: https://www.nycommunitytrust.org/
In China, over $800,000 was awarded by Estée Lauder to relief efforts – including the Red Cross Society of China, Shanghai Charity Foundation, and Give2Asia. $1.4 million was provided with in-kind donations to the China Women’s Development Foundation to support front line medical staff.
As the crisis evolves, ELC and the ELCCF will continue to align philanthropic resources based on needs – prioritizing food, medical and emergency assistance. The foundation focuses effort on health, education and the environment and makes annual grants to organizations that align with these.

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Congratulations to the global Estée Lauder team (in the USA and other nations, wherever you are working today).  These efforts reflect the values instilled early on in the firm from those earliest day by founder Estée Lauder and husband, Joseph, in New York City in 1946.  They created cleansers, oils, skin lotions, creams. Today grandson William P. Lauder is executive chairman of the global firm that makes fragrances, hair and skin makeup products, make up, and other products.   Founder Estée Lauder was named by Time magazine in 1998 as one of the 20 most influential business leaders of the 20th Century.

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G&A Institute Team Note
We are continuing to bring you news of private (corporate and business), public and social sector developments as organizations in the three societal sectors adjust to the emergency.
The new items are posted (beginning with this one) at the top of the blog post and the items then will move down the queue.
We created the tag “Corporate Purpose – Virus Crisis” for this continuing series – and the hashtag “#WeRise2FightCOVID-19“ for our Twitter posts. Join the conversation and contribute your views and news — email info@ga-institute.com. Keep up the good fight!