Folks,

Due to the magnitude of the destruction caused by the devastating earthquake which hit Pakistan on October 8th, the country has a momentous task ahead of itself in successfully rehabilitating the 3-4 million people affected. This will require vast amounts of financial support. While the UN and Government of Pakistan are working at the government level to gather as much support as possible, the Professional Pakistani-American Community needs to work on leveraging the broader corporate community here in the United States for the relief efforts.

Many of the largest corporations in the world have already announced significant donations to the relief efforts and have also established "employee matching" programs for specific charity organizations that are helping with the relief efforts. What is needed now is to greatly broaden this list of "donor" companies across the United States so as to fully leverage the continued financial support of Pakistani-Americans towards the relief efforts. Getting companies to establish an "employee matching" program will also enable us to maximize any contributions we can generate from our fellow American co-workers!

With this in mind, OPEN has launched a NATIONWIDE CORPORATE FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN with the aim of getting as many people as possible to push their companies to either make a "donation" towards the relief effort and/or establish an "employee matching" program.

To facilitate this campaign, OPEN is establishing a CORPORATE HELPDESK which will be ready to guide people in how to go about most effectively communicating to and persuading their companies to make a donation and/or setup an "employee matching" program for the relief effort. We have already created posters and company "letter" templates that can be used by people to communicate this request within their company.

Following is how each one of us can help:

• If your company has already donated and/or established an "employee matching" program, please send an email to corphelpdesk@opensiliconvalley.com to inform us so that we may add it to our evolving list of donor companies.
• If your company is already contributing to the relief efforts, PLEASE forward this email to Pakistani-Americans working in other companies.
• If your company hasn't donated and/or established an "employee matching" program, please go to our website, www.opensiliconvalley.com, and use the materials available to immediately communicate your request to upper management and/or relevant departments (HR/Community Relations etc) to help with the relief efforts.
• The Corporate Helpdesk can be contacted via corphelpdesk@opensiliconvalley.com to provide assistance if any guidance/advice is required by people in getting their companies to donate/establish an employee matching program. Please include your phone number in the email and someone from the HELPDESK will get back to you ASAP!
• If your individual request is not successful, OPEN will work with other recognized peer organizations to contact your company representative and persuade them to contribute.

Time is of the essence and it is upon us Pakistani-American Professionals to provide the leadership within the corporate arena and make sure we leverage each dollar we contribute to the fullest.

Thank you.

Sample letters that you can send to your company's HR departments to setup donation matching.

Company Letter:   MS Word Version   ::   PDF Version