Local societies around the globe are playing an integral role in supporting their communities during the COVID-19 global health crisis. CFA Society Orlando, CFA Society Philippines and CFA Society Virginia have all recently launched donation initiatives and received an overwhelming response from members. Here are their stories…

CFA Society Orlando: Virtual Food Drive

To support its local community, CFA Society Orlando hosted a Virtual Food Drive for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Over the last four years, Second Harvest has been an important partner of CFA Society Orlando and with the COVID-19 pandemic the society has recently expanded on this partnership. In an email communication to members, the society announced it would match member donations to Second Harvest, up to US$75 per member.

CFA Society Philippines recently initiated a donation drive for the country’s healthcare workers to bring members together in a common goal and help the fight against COVID-19.

Members donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and food packs for healthcare workers through the “Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership” and the local society matched member donations up to a total of PHP 150,000.

Within 10 days, member donations had reached PHP 207,187.17 and members sent heart-warming messages to the local society, as they were grateful for the opportunity to help.

Rizchelle Sampang-Manaog, CPAE, Program Director, CFA Society Philippines, said: “The response from our members was overwhelming. In a matter of days, we were able to complete our target donation amount. Through the members' generosity, we raised a total of PHP 357,187.17 and were able to provide around 944 PPE sets for our healthcare workers.”

“The COVID 19 pandemic is unprecedented in many ways. It has challenged countries, healthcare systems, local government units, medical professionals and families. During this time of crisis, CFA Philippines wanted to do its part in supporting our front liners. By allowing our members to donate so that our medical professionals may have access to protective personal equipment we are contributing in the fight to keep people safe and healthy,” added Dr. Robert Ramos, CFA, CIPM, CAIA, President and Chairman, CFA Society Philippines.

CFA Society Virginia:  Helping Those in Need and Increasing Social Media Followers

CFA Society Virginia has helped those less fortunate by donating funds to two important local organizations – Feed More and Central Virginia COVID-19 Response Fund. The local society made an immediate US$2,500 donation, split equally between each organization.

In addition to this generous baseline amount, CFA Society Virginia also added an incentive-driven amount, where it agreed to donate US$10 for every new follower on its Facebook and LinkedIn pages (up to an additional US$2,500). 

The society is increasingly using social media to share resources and communicate current events and programming and it has already seen an approximate 25% increase in its LinkedIn followers.

"Very simply, CFA Society Virginia wanted to help our community on behalf of our members during these unprecedented times.  We chose two local charities: Feed More, which offers comprehensive services to local residents (including Meals on Wheels), and the Central Virginia COVID-19 Response Fund, which provides grants to community organizations to help cope with the pandemic.  We are hopeful these contributions will lead to even deeper collaboration between our members and our community in the future," said Matthew Cullen, CFA, President, CFA Society Virginia.