How Our Clients are Helping Out During the Pandemic

What does it mean to be an essential business today? For many of our clients, it has meant operating under extreme pressures and uncertainties, and to rise far above normal standards to meet the needs of their communities.

We have all taken inspiration from their dedication to healing, feeding, and providing for others during these times. Now, an unprecedented wave of collaboration is taking place between all kinds of businesses and institutions to help those in need in multiple different ways.

Here’s a summary of how our clients — essential or otherwise — are working with Brownstein Group and other institutions in order to help out during the pandemic.

Inspira Health

Brownstein Group helped Inspira Health design and launch #BlueHeartsForHeroes, a movement to express appreciation for the heroic actions of front line staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. The South Jersey healthcare provider also joined forces with Rowan University faculty to create and test specialized 3D-printed masks and plastic shields. Its Mullica Hill’s pharmacy is also producing hand sanitizer for their hospitals and care centers. 

GIANT

The GIANT Company helped raise, and donated, over $1,000,000 to more than 20 hunger relief organizations, and to help create an emergency grant program with Team Pennsylvania to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19

Local organizations that received donations include Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, Philabundance, Maryland Food Bank, and Meals on Wheels Pennsylvania among many others. 

ACI Worldwide

As part of their efforts to help customers navigate the crisis, ACI asked Brownstein Group to create customizable design templates and messaging documents for customers to communicate digital (no contact) bill payment options to consumers. Separately, ACI has incorporated a ‘Delay My Payment’ feature into its moBills e-pay solution to help ease the burden of consumers who have been affected by the crisis. 

American Water

American Water announced a $100,000 donation to Feeding America to help food banks across the country support individuals and families impacted by COVID-19. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, provides food and services to more than 46 million people each year.

NJM Insurance Group

NJM has committed $400,000 to COVID-19 relief efforts to assist families, businesses, and communities impacted by the pandemic. The funding will go toward nonprofits serving essential needs, healthcare providers, emergency responders, and coordinated statewide efforts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. NJM also announced their Policyholder Relief Program, through which they will refund $41.7 million to the company’s personal auto insurance policyholders.

PFCU

PFCU is donating a total of $10,000 to four Philadelphia nonprofits providing vital services to the Philadelphia community – Lutheran Settlement House, Gaudenzia House of Passage, DePaul USA, and Turning Points for Children. PFCU has also extended support to its members through special Hardship Relief Loans, having already lent over $1 million to members in need. Additionally, any member in good standing can opt into PFCU’s Skip-a-Pay program, which allows three payments on an eligible loan to be skipped within a 12-month period with fees waived.

Lyft

Lyft offered free grocery store rides to senior citizens in Philadelphia and New Jersey during designated senior citizen shopping hours. See more ways in which Lyft is helping local communities during the pandemic here.

PREIT

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) launched a website, Shop Local, to help promote small businesses across their portfolio of shopping centers. This effort markets local and small businesses to an audience of over one million in order to drive online traffic to these retailers. In addition, a number of PREIT malls have also held blood drives, food drives, and other community initiatives in partnership with their tenants.

Mount Airy Hotel and Casino

Mount Airy donated nearly 2500 pounds of food to the Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Network (PVEN) food pantry. The donation included various types of fresh fruits and vegetables and was distributed along with other perishable and non-perishable items to area residents.

Harrah’s Philadelphia

Harrah’s Philadelphia donated 1500 pounds of food to CityTeam Chester prior to temporarily closing last month, which was used in CityTeam’s meal service for shelter residents and the homeless. City Team sees about 100 families each week who are in need of food for their homes, and provides to-go meals every night for dinner. They are open for no-contact food distribution.

Yards

Yards has started a Relief Fund for those employees affected by the COVID-19 closure and all tips from pick-up and delivery orders go into the fund. Place your order through Yards’ website to support your local brewer. 

CertainTeed

In response to the rising need of additional hospital accommodations for COVID-19 patients, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA), BMarko Structures and CertainTeed recently partnered to engineer a 25-unit modular hospital, as an external wing in the parking lot of Phoebe Putney Memorial in Albany, GA. A similar structure is planned for a hospital in Macon, GA in the coming weeks.

The Shipley School

STEAM teachers Paul Hermans and Sean Legnini are using 3D printers at The Shipley School to create masks and shields for healthcare workers and firefighters at Paoli, Lankenau, and Bryn Mawr hospitals and Radnor Fire Company.

Campus Apartments

To help front line workers in University City, Campus Apartments and CEO David Adelman offered free rooms at the company’s Homewood Suites hotel. So far, the hotel has given over 100 free room nights to medical professionals from PENN, CHOP, and Jefferson.

Saint-Gobain North America

Saint-Gobain North America has mobilized its teams and reached out to federal, state, and local governments to support various communities across the U.S. and Canada. These actions range from redeploying plant resources to produce PPE supplies, to developing solutions to house patients in temporary facilities, to providing funding to different community efforts. Most recently, Saint-Gobain’s McPherson plant  was featured on the front page of The Kansan for their innovative efforts in helping front-line workers through the 3D printing of visors that are outfitted to become face shields.

United Safety

United Safety & Survivability Corporation pivoted its manufacturing assembly lines to help meet the demand of life-saving PPE. With the help of contributions from partners such as Brownstein Group, United Safety is producing reusable N95 masks and over 1,000 face shields per day, making large donations to Temple University Hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, and many institutions in in need. Check out their GoFundMe page to see how you can help United Safety donate even more.

Brownstein Group

Besides backing up the efforts of its clients and partners, Brownstein Group is also making a donation to Sharing Excess. The regional non-profit — founded and run by college students — delivers unsold and unused food from colleges and local businesses to food insecure populations in the Philadelphia region. Our donation, plus a match from the Satell Institute, will provide 160,000 meals to those in need.