Volkswagen has dug deep and splurged around $43 million (£35m) on vital medical equipment from China, which will be shipped to hospitals and clinics in Germany. The automaker has also pledged to explore how its 125 3D printers could help make ventilators and is even encouraging its staff to get involved. Volkswagen has agreed to pay full wages to any employee with medical qualifications who wishes to volunteer for the country's health service for up to 15 days.
Electric car manufacturer Tesla went all out to meet the fierce demand for ventilators. As well as agreeing to open the company's Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York in order to fabricate the crucial devices, CEO Elon Musk is donating hundreds of ventilators sourced from China to hospitals at the epicentre of the global pandemic in New York City, and in other hotspots elsewhere in the US, along with tens of thousands of N95 masks. The CEO's generosity hasn't been without controversy however, as governors in California said that the state's 1,000 ventilators have yet to arrive a month after they were promised. In response, Musk tweeted out details of the numbers of ventilators delivered across the US, with 197 noted for California hospitals. More controversy has followed and on 11 May Musk announced he would be reopening the Tesla factory in California in defiance of local public health orders. This came after Tesla sued Alameda county, claiming that its local orders were in violation of California's constitution.
Elon Musk's other famous business SpaceX is 100% committed to the fight against coronavirus too. The company, which is in the process of manufacturing hand sanitisers and face shields, has presented staff at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with Tyvek hazmat suits, and is hosting blood donation drives at its Californian HQ and key locations.
Read more about Elon Musk, the most maverick billionaire on Earth
Europe’s largest industrial manufacturing company has formed a COVID-19 aid fund to help relieve and combat the coronavirus pandemic. Siemens will match all donations made by employees, and all of the money raised will go to Caring Hands, a community-serving non-profit set up by the company. Siemens CEO and president Joe Kaeser got the ball rolling with a €1 million ($1.1m/£880k) donation, and he hopes that more donations will help Caring Hands to provide medical and social aid to those who need it.
Cisco Systems hasn't been stingy either when it comes to funding the fight against COVID-19. On 22 March the San Jose-based tech company pledged a staggering $225 million (£181m). The donation, which CEO Chuck Robbins said is “in cash, in-kind and planned-giving”, will go towards supporting local and international efforts to combat the disease.
Many countries around the world are grappling with a shortage of COVID-19 test kits. The US in particular is struggling to address demand. Fortunately, a number of firms are offering help, including China's Alibaba, which via its charitable foundation is gifting the US a total of 500,000 test kits and one million face masks, and donating millions of test kits, face masks and other essentials to scores of nations worldwide.
As we've all discovered, hand sanitising whether it's done using soap or an alcohol-based gel, is one of our best weapons against the virus. The world's biggest soapmaker, British-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever, has ramped up production and is giving away soap, hand sanitiser, disinfectant and food worth more than $109 million (£88m).
Procter & Gamble is in as good a position as any to produce hand sanitiser given the American consumer goods company already makes the product, and as expected, the firm has increased production of the essential. P&G is also making face masks and along with the hand sanitiser, is distributing them to health authorities, hospitals and relief organisations.
Alcohol is a key component of hand sanitiser, a fact that hasn't escaped the drinks companies of the world, which are busily handing over their supplies of ethanol, or tweaking distilleries and factories to manufacture the hygiene essential. Diageo, the maker of Guinness and Smirnoff, has donated two million litres of alcohol, enough for more than eight million 250ml bottles of hand sanitiser.
France's Pernod Ricard is donating ethanol and manufacturing the end product too. The parent company of Absolut vodka and Perrier-Jouët Champagne is donating 70,000 liters of pure alcohol to make 1.8 million individual 50ml vials of hand sanitiser and repurposing distilleries in Spain and Ireland, which will serve as hand sanitiser factories.
The maker of Bombay Sapphire gin, Patrón Tequila and the eponymous rum, Bacardi clearly has plenty of ethanol stashed away. The Bermuda-based booze company has already supplied pure alcohol to make 1.7 million bottles of hand sanitiser, and is planning to make 1.1 million bottles at distilleries in the US, UK, Mexico, Italy and France. The spirits firm has also donated $3 million (£2.4m) to support the "debilitated" bars industry during the crisis through its campaign Raise Your Spirits, as well as an additional $1 million (£800k) to hospitality-focused charities to help workers in the industry through the pandemic.
Ethanol is produced in colossal quantities by the biofuel industry. For the time being Germany's CropEnergies is keeping on top of demand, partly shifting from producing fuel alcohol to a more refined neutral alcohol that can be used to make hand sanitiser and other disinfectant cleansing products. The company has stepped up production to make enough alcohol to produce 10 million litres of disinfectant, which will then be distributed to hospitals and other institutions battling the virus.
While the company isn't manufacturing a product to help slow the spread of coronavirus, Shell Chemicals, the petrochemicals arm of Royal Dutch Shell, has made 550,000 gallons (2.5 million litres) of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) free-of-charge to the Dutch healthcare sector. Meanwhile Shell Canada has donated 27,5000 gallons (250,000 litres) of IPA to the Canadian government to help during the pandemic.
Companies around the globe are falling over each other to produce or donate protective face masks and other personal protection equipment (PPE). DuPont produces the Tyvek hazmat suit, a PPE essential that has been in high demand throughout the pandemic. Doing its very best not to let customers down, the US biotech and chemicals behemoth has got staff working overtime to keep its nine global manufacturing facilities running 24 hours a day, seven days per week.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has joined the good fight by giving companies and research organisations access to its vaccine adjuvant platform technology, an innovation that boosts the potency of a vaccine, reducing the amount required per dose. The British firm is also planning to share manufacturing space to help scale up vaccine production, and has donated $10 million (£8.2m) to the UN's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
British-Swiss pharma and biotech company AstraZeneca has all hands on deck too. The drugmaker has donated nine million face masks to countries around the world, with the first shipment sent to Italy on March 25. The company has also come to an agreement with Oxford University and Vaccitech for the mass-production and distribution of any vaccine that they manage to develop. The initiative began human tests in the last week of April.
A Kering brand, Gucci donated €2 million ($2.2m/£1.8m) to a fund set up to provide medical equipment to healthcare workers in the country. The Florentine fashion house has also has agreed to make 1.1 million face masks along with 55,000 pairs of medical overalls for use in Italy.
Ralph Lauren has mounted a strong response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition to donating millions of dollars to coronavirus charities and funds, the all-American fashion company is supporting healthcare professionals by producing 250,000 face masks and 25,000 hospital gowns in the US.
Best known for its deluxe skiwear, Moncler has written a fat cheque towards the construction of a new hospital in Milan, the city where the company is based. The €10 million ($11m/£8.9m) donation went a long way towards providing the additional 200 intensive care beds the new facility houses.
On top of sourcing 100,000 face masks for the NHS, Burberry is funding research into a coronavirus vaccine and donating to charities working to alleviate food poverty in the UK. On top of that, Britain's biggest high-end fashion retailer is retooling its trench coat factory in the Yorkshire town of Castleford to make face masks and non-surgical gowns, and so far has donated 100,000 pieces of PPE to the NHS.
The Hut Group comprises an array of health, beauty and wellness brands, including MyProtein, Zavvi, and Mankind, and it has donated the equivalent of £10 million ($12.4m) to the fight against COVID-19. As part of this donation, £5 million ($6.2m) will go to the city of Manchester, where the company is based. The Hut Group is also allowing police officers and NHS staff members to use the rooms of its Manchester-based hotel accommodation.
As 3D printing technology is super-versatile, the process is ideal for producing medical equipment quickly and cheaply. For this reason US insole manufacturer Superfeet is offering manufacturers and inventors access to its HP Multi Jet Fusion printers, and is creating a production line devoted to medical products.
Investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs has made a donation of 600,000 N95 face masks, 400,000 of which went to the states of New York and New Jersey and 50,000 of which went to the UK's NHS. The Wall Street company is supporting the fight against COVID-19 on a global level too, having donated $300 million to supporting communities and small businesses during the pandemic.
In March, multinational financial company Wells Fargo announced that it would be donating $175 million (£140m) towards coronavirus aid. The goal of the fund is to help struggling people in their day-to-day lives in providing housing stability, as well as assistance for small businesses and general financial health. Hunger relief organisation Feeding America will receive $1 million (£800k) of the grant.
Facebook has opted for a multifaceted approach to battling coronavirus. On top of investing $100 million (£81m) in the news industry, the world's most popular social media company is channelling the same amount of cash into supporting small- and medium-sized businesses, has given millions to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and donated 750,000 protective face masks.
Microsoft is fighting coronavirus by combining deep-pocketed philanthropy with intelligent initiatives. The tech giant has donated millions of dollars as well as critical equipment to battle the pandemic, and has done everything from setting up collaborative data projects to creating a live disease tracker for its Bing search engine. It is also providing tech expertise to the CoVig-19 Plasma Alliance, which is encouraging cured coronavirus patients to donate their plasma to the research of virus treatments.
After donating around $10 million (£8m) to various coronavirus relief organisations, Intel has now pledged $50 million (£40m) in pandemic-response technology. The resources should speed up equipment used for patient care, accelerate scientific research and ensure high quality online learning facilities are available to students.
It isn’t only US-based tech companies that are pulling their weight in funding efforts to conquer coronavirus. Japanese conglomerate Sony has put together a Global Relief Fund for COVID-19, which is worth around $100 million (£80m). The cash has gone towards three goals: helping frontline medical work, supporting those being educated remotely, and providing financial stability for employees in the tech industry.
Video sharing app TikTok has pledged aid worth $375 million (£305m) to help in the fight against coronavirus. Out of that, $250 million (£203m) went to frontline organisations inclduing medical, education and community workers. On top of that $10 million (£8m) was allocated for matching donations made by app users, while $50 million (£40.3m) went towards the TikTok Creative Learning Fund, giving grants to educators to support distance learning.
Hearst Foundations announced a grant of over $50 million (£40.3m) to help a variety of medical, humanitarian and cultural organisations in the US. The fund’s parent company Hearst Corporation has also promised that there will be no job losses, furloughs or pay cuts for any of its writing staff, who span 24 daily publications as well as magazine giants like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Harper’s Bazaar.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has not only provided coverage of the coronavirus developments day and night, it has also made a monetary donation to support those suffering financially as a result of the pandemic. The BBC has put £700,000 ($880k) aside for The Film and TV Charity, which assists people in the film, TV, and cinema workforce. The corporation has also donated fully-functional medical equipment, such as ventilators, that had been used as pieces of set in some of its hospital-based TV dramas.
While the media keeps our brains occupied, supermarket retailers are busier than ever keeping us from going hungry. The world's largest supermarket chain is helping less affluent Americans during the crisis by donating $3 million (£2.4m) to ensure food banks around the country are stocked up and children who qualify for free school lunches continue to have access to nutritious meals. On top of that, at the beginning of May the company announced it would be donating 200,000 gallons (91,000 litres) of milk to food banks in the US until the end of August.
Walmart is hoping to make a difference with drive-thru coronavirus testing sites, with two opening in store parking lots in the Chicago area to date. America's biggest retailer has partnered with the US government to deliver the project. Bolstering its effort, the grocery chain has already pledged $25 million (£20.2m) to coronavirus-related charities.
Now read about the world's biggest employers hiring staff right now
Supermarkets in the UK have reacted to the outbreak in a similar way. Waitrose opens its stores exclusively to older customers, vulnerable people and “those who look after them” for an hour a day as well and has set aside a quarter of online delivery slots for people in these groups. Charity-wise, the supermarket chain has created a £1 million ($1.2m) Community Support Fund to help ordinary people through the crisis.
Tesco is another one of several UK supermarkets to announce big payouts to help to fund needy causes during the pandemic. The groceries store has offered £30 million ($37m)-worth of support across the UK, which includes £25 million ($31m) for food donation schemes. It is also using its partnership with the British Red Cross to help community projects.
Online shopping is key at this time of crisis. Amazon has created 100,000 new jobs to cope with the jaw-dropping demand and is prioritising deliveries of medical supplies, household staples and other essential items. The e-commerce behemoth is also helping to deliver test kits in the US and has offered its cloud customers free credits and is putting aside $7 million (£5.7m) to support local communities in the country. It was also revealed on 23 April that Amazon was the "mystery" donor behind a £250,000 ($310.6k) donation to help UK booksellers survive the pandemic.
Read about Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, who is making millions from the pandemic
Other companies are fighting the disease by making sure health workers are well fed. Food delivery service Deliveroo has made 500,000 free meals available to employees of the UK's NHS, provided courtesy of Pizza Hut, Itsu, Neat Burger and other fast food and casual dining chains. Uber Eats is also waiving delivery fees to allow smaller independent businesses to carry on selling food on a takeout basis.
In America, &pizza is treating healthcare workers to free pizzas and best of all, the company's offer is unlimited. To take advantage of the initiative, hospital staff simply need to show their work ID at any one of the fast casual dining chain's restaurants in Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania or Washington DC.
Fast casual dining chain Sweetgreen is providing front line medical staff with free salads and warm bowls. The service is available to hospital and clinic employees in US cities with Sweetgreen locations, including New York and Chicago.
The Starbucks Foundation was established in 1997 to support community projects all over the world, and its most recent commitment has been tackling coronavirus. Globally the Starbucks Foundation will be donating $1 million (£800k) to help get patients the care they need through essential supplies and information, as well as contributing to the development of vaccines, tests and treatments. On top of that, Starbucks has donated $10 million (£8.1m) in grants to staff in need at stores worlwide.
Disney Parks has announced that it donated hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment to the pandemic efforts. In addition to masks, frontline staff across the US have received the rain ponchos usually worn around their parks, such as Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World. Disney also announced that the food no longer needed due to the parks’ continued closures would be donated to food banks in California and Florida.
Airbnb has come to the aid of the UK's key medical workers and carers by offering them a place to crash free of charge. The online accommodation marketplace, which is listing available properties on its Open Homes platform, set itself the goal of putting up 100,000 healthcare professionals, first responders and relief workers.
Read about how Airbnb grew from one bedroom to a global business
Key medical workers in New York City who are looking for a place to stay can make their way to the splendid Four Seasons in the heart of Manhattan, free of charge. The chain is offering complimentary rooms in the five-star hotel to doctors and nurses working in local hospitals.
Elsewhere in Madrid, Hotel Mario, which is part of the Room Mate group and boasts 54 good-sized rooms, is housing essential medical workers free-of-charge and was indeed the first company in Spain to provide this service. All in all, 40 hotels are now offering hospitals and other healthcare organisations use of their rooms and amenities.
Now read about how the world bounced back from the last global pandemic