Companies take philanthropic approach to ease coronavirus-related woes

14 / 03 / 2020

By Silicon Valley Business Journal - -

Companies in Silicon Valley seem to have begun a coronavirus pivot from “what do we need to do about our employees” to “how can we help the broader community.”

On Friday, two companies — social media giant Facebeook and educational resource company Study.com — announced different ways to give back in ways that extend beyond the Bay Area.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the Menlo Park-based company would match $20 million in donations to support relief efforts around the world connected to the coronavirus known as COVID-19. The money would divided with $10 million going to the United National Foundation and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund while another $10 million to the CDC Founation.

By 3 p.m. PDT on Friday, the fundraiser for one of those efforts, the one aimed at the U.N. Foundation and the World Health Organization, had raised more than $513,000.

“Thanks to everyone who is working to minimize the impact of the pandemic. More to come soon,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook.

At Mountain View-based Study.com, the company is responding to the wave of school closures around the country and is donating 100,000 licenses through the end of the school year to help K-12 schools provide education without too much interruption. The total number of licenses equals an $18 million donation, a company spokesman said.

To take advantage of the program, school administrators can register their schools at this site: https://study.com/coronavirus-relief.

“We acknowledge the support that so many others are doing as part of this global movement to provide relief to those in need and we’re humbled to be in a place where we can make education more accessible,” Adrian Ridner, CEO and co-founder of Study.com, said in a release.