In the midst of recovery efforts throughout the Philippines for Typhoon Haiyan, and as thousands of eBay Inc. customers around the world contribute to the eBay and PayPal fundraising campaigns, we wanted to share a recent story of the power of our community to come together and overcome the odds in times of tragedy.
In September, two tropical storms, Manuel and Ingrid, ravaged Mexico’s Gulf and Pacific coasts, flooding towns and cities, cutting off highways and setting off landslides – creating a national emergency that caused widespread damage and more than 120 deaths in the region. PayPal’s Mexico office mobilized quickly, identifying the reputable Mexican Red Cross as its relief agency partner and quickly launching a fundraising campaign that engaged regional employees and customers in giving efforts.
Between contributions from eBay Foundation, a local employee matching program (in which PayPal Mexico employees donated an average of $50 USD per person!), PayPal customer donations throughout Mexico and Central America, and a corporate contribution of waived fees for all donations, the campaign raised more than $1.2 million in pesos (or roughly $96,000 in U.S. dollars), in just four weeks. All of the funds went to support the Red Cross’ regional relief efforts directly.
Our hearts and minds are with the affected families, communities, and recovery teams in the Philippines, but we are hopeful that through the generosity of our community and the power of our platforms, we can make a meaningful difference in supporting the efforts to rebuild the region. We’ll share an update soon on our combined efforts and progress towards Typhoon Haiyan relief in the coming days.
(Photo: eBay Inc.)