MAC rallies Viva Glam fund to donate $10m to 250 organisations in battle against Covid-19

By Becky Bargh | Published: 3-Apr-2020

The Estée Lauder Companies-owned brand will distribute the funds to 250 global organisations helping consumers at high risk of contracting the disease

Estée Lauder Companies-owned brand MAC Cosmetics has pledged to donate US$10m to organisations to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

The funds have been raised through the brand’s Viva Glam campaign, which was founded more than two decades ago as a community response fund for those affected by HIV and AIDS.

The capital will be split across 250 groups worldwide that are helping consumers at high risk of contracting the disease.

This includes additional support for MAC’s existing partners to provide them with an emergency Covid-19 relief fund to provide ‘vital’ services for communities.

“Viva Glam has never been about one cause, but about support to vulnerable communities,” said John Demsey, Chairman of the MAC Viva Glam Fund.

“It was created many years ago simply as a hardship fund for people who needed safety nets.

“To leverage this 100% giving model to people affected by Covid-19 is a continuation of the principles Viva Glam was founded on.”

One of the 250 organisations MAC will provide relief to is the National AIDS Trust, which it has been supporting for more than 15 years.

“National AIDS Trust is working hard, during this uncertain and confusing time, to clarify information around Covid-19 and HIV for people living with HIV to fight for their rights,” said the group’s CEO Deborah Gold.

“We’re urgently challenging discrimination relationg to Covid-19, for example some people living with HIV are being denied requests to self-isolate by their employers.

“We are working with our counterparts to compile the difficulties people living with HIV are experiencing, including increased food insecurity, increased social isolation and practical difficulties in accessing medication, HIV testing and PrEP.”

PrEP is a preventative medication for those at high risk of contracting HIV.

Gold continued: “We’re also developing policy solutions to these and other issues, and working to ensure action is taken to help combat these significant problems.”

The industry unites

The Hut Group announced earlier this week it has donated £10m to support vulnerable communities and key workers in the UK as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

The Manchester-based firm has also offered hotel rooms for key workers at the Great John Street Hotel and King Street Townhouse in the city centre.

Seventy rooms in total will accommodate medical staff and police officers unable to live at home during the outbreak.

Meanwhile, Unilever has said it will donate €100m to help fight against the pandemic by providing soaps, sanitisers, bleach and food, including €50m worth of soaps and sanitisers to the Covid Action Platform and World Economic Forum.

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