Verizon's Feed The Frontlines & PIFL

Verizon believes in taking responsibility for our shared future, thus, Verizon launched Pay It Forward Live and Feed the Frontlines to support, nurture and draw attention to essential workers and to provide guidance to small business owners amid the pandemic.

The Pay It Forward Live campaign was a 10-week live stream series that featured the world’s top entertainers in music, gaming and sports with a built-in call-to-action funneling support from viewers to assist small businesses. Throughout the campaign, Verizon donated $7.5 million to support small business relief and with considerable effort integrated A-list talent, gamers and athletes such as Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish, Usher, Pokimane, Tua Tagovailoa, Joe Buck and George Kittle. The nearly 90 million viewers who tuned in throughout the series were encouraged to tweet their support of their favorite local businesses using the hashtag #PayItForwardLIVE, along with pledging to shop online, buying a gift card or ordering a meal to go. Fans continued to watch, share and take action to support small businesses weeks after the campaign concluded.

In addition, the Feed the Frontlines initiative aimed to quickly assist healthcare and EMS workers who needed to be fueled to work long shifts, along with small businesses affected by the sudden economy shut-down. Verizon paid for 82,000+ meals seven days a week from 35 local restaurants for frontline workers at hospitals and fire stations across New York City and Detroit areas, providing essential services while giving SMB’s a lifeline. The campaign was executed by coordinating menus and delivery logistics between seven restaurants, six hospitals and GrubHub on a daily basis. Verizon and IPG PR lead the pre-planning and the day-to-day orchestration across its 70 partners, which included GrubHub for food delivery; 35 local restaurants across 5 NYC boroughs; EMS FDNY Help Fund; 23 local firehouses and EMS workers; and the Ford Motor Company Fund to coordinate food deliveries.

These initiatives worked with each other to cohesively provide real, tangible solutions and impactful financial support to those hardest hit by the pandemic, while offering opportunities for Americans to support business owners.