Today is April Fools’ Day. In years past, I have written posts aimed at fooling our readers:
- Breaking News: Walmart, Facebook, and Uber Form Strategic Alliance to Provide Unrivaled Commerce Experience
- Netflix Developing Original Series About Logistics Called “D is for Drones”
- Facebook, Google, and eBay Announce “Internet of Lost Things” Partnership
- Amazon Ups the Ante, Delivers Goods to Customers Before They Order Them
This year, however, in light of everything happening with the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m not in the fooling mood.
Instead, I’ve been thinking about what we can do to help during this crisis.
A couple of weeks ago, one of our neighbors, the mother of one of my daughter’s friends, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She began chemotherapy a few days later. While we sheltered at home to protect ourselves and others from COVID-19, she ventured out to wage a new battle against a disease that will affect more than 325,000 women this year in the United States.
Cancer. Diabetes. Hunger. Critical Illnesses. Disasters.
All of these things continue despite COVID-19. Countless people, including family members, friends, and neighbors, are dealing with these challenges right now. COVID-19 just makes everything more difficult.
This is especially true for non-profit charities. COVID-19 has forced many charities to cancel or postpone fundraising events that raise significant money to fulfill their missions. For example, I am on the board of our local JDRF chapter and we had to cancel our 38th Annual JDRF Boston Gala scheduled for May — one of our biggest fundraising events of the year. It’s also a challenging time to actively fundraise when everyone is dealing with all the fear and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.
What can we do to help?
It turns out that we answered that question a year ago when we launched Indago. Since March 2019 our research community of supply chain and logistics practitioners have invested a few minutes of their time each week to answer very short surveys on industry topics. This minimal investment in time has led to over $5,000 in charitable donations to the American Cancer Society, JDRF, Feeding America, Make-A-Wish, and American Logistics Aid Network.
Here’s a testimonial from one of our members, the VP of Supply Chain at a $100-500M Consumer Goods Company:
“A few minutes of my Monday are spent answering questions that benefits the charity partner I have chosen. It is a very small time investment to make a difference in someone’s life who will benefit from the charity. We also benefit by benchmarking our practices with those of the group.”
Therefore, if you’re a supply chain or logistics practitioner wondering what you can do to help during this crisis, I invite you to join Indago. There is no cost to join, the time commitment is minimal (less than 4 minutes per week), and your participation is completely confidential. It’s a win-win value proposition: you receive valuable market research that helps you make smarter business decisions, while our charity partners receive valuable donations that help them make an extraordinary difference in lives every day.
In these difficult times when so many in our communities are being affected by COVID-19, cancer, hunger, diabetes, and other challenges, let’s make a difference together.
Sincerely,
Adrian
Indago membership is for supply chain and logistics practitioners from manufacturing and retail companies. If you are a technology company, third-party logistics provider, or other company interested in receiving Indago research reports and making a difference too, please contact us for details.
