CSR during the pandemic – case studies

We have already touched upon the first reactions of brands, mainly in the visual sphere, but also CSR activities. In this text, we would like to focus only on selected corporate social responsibility activities to show their diversity and inspire other organizations to act. Our Skivak agency is also helping, using all our available resources: strategic and conceptual talents, as well as a creative team of designers. As part of the proprietary #ContentForGood action, we support our clients and related entities in social activities for free.

Magnolia Park

During the pandemic, despite its temporary closure, the shopping mall has been active. To express its gratitude to healthcare professionals who face the virus on a daily basis, Magnolia Park has focused on outdoor communication. It hung billboards praising medics in five places in Wrocław, including a site in front of a hospital. The mall, on the initiative of its tenant, also supports crowdfunding for balanced meals for the senior citizens, in order to strengthen the immunity of this age group.

Kraków Airport

Kraków Airport, although unable to provide its services, has also actively joined social oriented activities, providing personal protective equipment and disinfection measures for groups most exposed to coronavirus – senior citizens in public nursing homes, children from the University Hospital in Prokocim and the Volunteer Fire Brigade in the Kraków poviat.

Furthermore, companies from the Kraków Airport capital group provided meals for the heroes – doctors from the University Hospital in Kraków, the Stefan Żeromski Specialist Hospital in Kraków, as well as firefighters, scouts, housewives and nuns supporting the fight against the virus.

Raben Group

Each crisis is also a great opportunity to verify one’s capabilities and strengthen relationships with customers – this is how the Raben Group works during the pandemic: organizing charitable road transport with personal protective equipment.

At the end of April, the Raben Group, in cooperation with the Lions Club Poznań Pillory, delivered medical equipment (over 57 tons of personal protective equipment of a total value of PLN 20 million transferred to Lekarze Lekarzom Foundation by the Kulczyk Foundation) to chambers of physicians, which then distributed it to hospitals, clinics and surgeries in Poland. One of the Raben group companies – Fresh Logistics, also delivered over 12 000 ready meat and fish dishes prepared by Graal Capital Group to hospitals and Food Banks in Trójmiasto.

Hicron

The Folding@Home project, implemented by Stanford University, investigates protein folding processes to determine the functions they can perform in the body. During the pandemic, the team focuses on SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins. The uniqueness of the program lies in the use of the computing power of hundreds of thousands of personal computers from around the world that connect to servers located at Stanford University, from where they download data for calculations and where they send in the results. Hicron joined the Folding@Home project through the “poMOCbohaTECHom!” and the # polskavscovid19 initiative initiated by the iCEA Group, providing three servers for researchers.

Circle K, BP Polska, Shell

The most popular gas stations unite in action, thanks to which employees of the services such as ambulance, fire brigades, police, army, city guards and border guards can receive hot drinks free of charge. This is a way of thanking those who fight on the front lines every day and enjoy considerable popularity. For example, Circle K has already given out coffee to a million of heroes.

Bank BNP Paribas

The pandemic and school closures have moved education to the online world, which can be a barrier for children from the poorest families or educational care facilities. Companies that supported such institutions included, among others, BNP Paribas Bank, which provided 150 bank computers to the partner organizations of the bank and the BNP Paribas Foundation, scholarship holders of the “Class” Program, as well as necessitous schools and educational care facilities, with whom the bank volunteers cooperate. The bank also financed the purchase of 1.5 thousand tests and 20 thousand masks for the service.

The PZU Group

An innovative form of help was adopted by the PZU Group campaign, whose employees fundraised for the purchase of barrier tents. These tents, created by dr Marcin Kaczor from the Medical University of Warszawa, tightly separate the patient from the environment, thus protecting other people from infection. – The barrier tent allows complete separation from viruses and prevents the spread of the pandemic. Its outer layer protects other people from infection, and at the same time allows doctors to carry out all necessary medical procedures – says the creator.

Employees from all PZU Group companies, including PZU, PZU Życie, Bank Pekao, Alior Bank and LINK4, have also joined the action. The companies will make a donation that matches any sum collected by its employees. The PZU Group also helps by providing 900 medical alert bracelets to hospitals, which, by monitoring the basic life parameters of patients, alert medical staff in the event of an emergency.

Żabka Polska

When the government ordered to obligatorily cover the nose and mouth, the limited availability and high prices of masks terrified many people. The quick and socially responsible response of the Żabka network was the introduction of disposable facemasks at a low price without profit for the network. In total, Żabka Polska has distributed 30 million masks. Of significant importance was also a donation of PLN 4.5 million for activities related to fight the epidemic and many daily actions related to the supply of foodstuffs (e.g. delivery of sandwiches and ready meals for the Poznań Sanitary and Epidemiological Center).

Polish business is uniting in the face of the coronavirus, as it has affected all of us. Companies operate to the best of their abilities, there are a lot of initiatives throughout Poland, which is why it is impossible to list and describe all CSR activities in more detail in such a short text. The actions shown are unique, arouse gratitude and show that business is not indifferent to the fate of the most needy.