The UPS Foundation is donating more than $9 million to community safety initiatives focused on enhancing disaster response, recovery, and emergency preparedness. Through this philanthropic arm of its business, UPS is working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide better visibility of the journey of urgently needed items through the last mile of delivery to refugees. This funding, focused on enhancing technology infrastructure and road safety initiatives, will be tracked by UPS Relief Link.
The Foundation is also awarding $1 million to CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, to implement the Aidmatrix supply chain management platform, called SCM4Good. These technology tools include commodity tracking, asset management and fleet optimization modules to increase the visibility of global inventories, thus speeding relief and recovery efforts.
“We believe we can help reduce the subsequent human suffering [from natural disasters] by collaborating with our partners and helping communities better prepare for the unexpected,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of The UPS Foundation.
As road conditions vary around the globe, particularly in developing nations, The Foundation devotes many of its road safety grants to nonprofit organizations in international regions that may have unsafe road infrastructures. From Latin America to Southeast Asia, its contributions support helmet protection for drivers on motorized vehicles, as well as training young drivers how to navigate dangerous road conditions and tips for traveling with young passengers onboard.
The Foundation’s community safety grants will support several organizations that provide humanitarian relief, totaling more than $6.6 million and include:
- The Aidmatrix Foundation, Good360, UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Food Program will receive grants that benefit technology and supply chain initiatives to improve back-end processes and tracking behind humanitarian relief efforts.
- The American Red Cross, CARE, MedShare, National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, Operation Hope, Salvation Army and St. Bernard Project will benefit from ongoing support for disaster relief efforts, including providing food, shelter and other essential recovery needs.
- Grants for ongoing emergency preparedness and training programs for American families and businesses will be awarded to the Advertising Council and Safe America Foundation.
To collectively address global challenges, the following organizations will receive grants to strengthen community resilience through greater public/private partnerships: InterAction, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center.
The Georgia Tech Foundation will receive scholarship dollars for students in its International Humanitarian Logistics program.
Other organizations receiving The Foundation's community safety grants totaling more than $2.4 million, for the purpose of championing road safety, include:
- The Boys & Girls Club of Canada, Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V, Hands on Shanghai and UK Youth will receive grants to expand the UPS Road Code safety program in Canada, Germany, China and the UK.
- The Asia Injury Prevention Foundation will receive a grant for its Helmets for Kids program in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
- Grants for ongoing emergency preparedness training and safe driving educational programs will be awarded to Citizenship Education Fund, FIA Foundation and Fundaciόn Gonzalo Rodrίguez.
