March 25, 2020  #6 in the series

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.

We are going to post the individual organization’s actions for ease of reference for our readers.

See the first post in the queue for details about this series.

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NASDAQ Supports Relief Organizations, Makes Commitment to Clients

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman notes: “As a responsible corporate citizen, we strongly believe Nasdaq can contribute in important ways to support our communities as we manage through these challenging times together.

“This means support government authorities and global health organizations in their response efforts, increasing our philanthropic support to organizations focused on supporting small businesses, and providing funds to groups working tirelessly on the front lines of this pandemic to keep our communities safe.”

Walking the Talk: Cash and in-kind donations (US$6 million) are being provided, with $5 million cash in these commitments:

• Opportunity Fund’s Small Business Relief Fund to support small business owners;
• the World Kitchen’s #ChefsForAmerica relief efforts to provide meals to students, seniors, vulnerable communities;
• World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund to help front-line health workers and their patients to get essential supplies and to accelerate efforts to develop vaccines, tests and treatments.
• The Greater New York Hospital Association is receiving 12,000 face masks from Nasdaq and the firm’s clients, partners and vendors are encouraged to donate more.
• Nasdaq employee contributions to global COVID-19 relief/response efforts are being double matched through the Nasdaq GoodWorks program. Info at: https://www.nasdaq.com/GoodWorks
• Employees are now volunteering “virtually” as part of the effort to keep employees and partners’ employee safe in the crisis.
• An estimated $1 million in advertising time on the Nasdaq MarketSite Tower in New York City’s Times Square has been reserved for PSAs (public service announcements) related to the concept of “social distancing” (stay away from each other!) and efforts to #flattenthecurve.
• And – corporate clients’ philanthropic and PSAs will be included in Nasdaq campaigns (such as in outdoor advertising, social media, digital campaigns).

Important: All Nasdaq operations – products – services will remain operational through the global remote workforce and splitting of team deemed to be essential for the on-site staff.

The company is asking for U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (its regulator) permission to suspend price-based and shareholder equity rules for listed companies to give those public companies breathing room to adjust to the crisis — and for other adjustments.

Nasdaq is one of the world’s leading global technology companies, serving the global capital markets with data, analytics, software and a range of services. 120 market operators are served globally.

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Bravo, Nasdaq team – and thank you for your efforts. We are all looking forward to the recovery and upward bound quotations on the Nasdaq global platforms on the post-crisis period.

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G&A Institute Team Note:
We continue 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 will be posted at the top of the blog post and the items today 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 — info@ga-institute.com.