CaribPR Wire

Latest Donations Build on Company’s Ongoing Financial Commitment to Education in Haiti

 SAN RAMON, Calif., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ — Following donations of more than $100,000 to fund schools in Haiti in 2009, Reply.com and its employees have contributed more than $60,000 to Haitian relief and reconstruction efforts to aid schools and earthquake victims of this month’s devastating earthquake, the company announced today.

 (Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100126/SF43616)

 Immediately following the earthquake, Reply! made a $10,000 donation to the Red Cross International Response Fund to provide aid to earthquake victims in Haiti.  Reply! also canceled its 2010 company awards banquet, which was scheduled for early February, and instead donated the money to benefit Haiti. In addition, significant contributions from employees, with matching funds donated by Reply! Founder and CEO Payam Zamani and his wife, Gouya, have increased the overall amount raised for Haitian earthquake relief to approximately $62,000 this month.  Funds from employee contributions and the cancellation of the awards banquet have gone to the Mona Foundation (MonaFoundation.org) for the reconstruction of Haitian elementary schools.

 Donations to Haitian earthquake relief and reconstruction are part of a larger commitment by Reply! to the Caribbean nation.  In 2009, Reply! donated $80,000 —part of an overall donation of more than $100,000 raised at an event that the Zamanis co-hosted with actor Rainn Wilson of the popular television comedy, The Office. That money went to the Mona Foundation to help fund the education of hundreds of children at three Haitian schools in towns ravaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

 ”The needs are so great in Haiti today.  We hope all Americans will consider some type of donation to the relief and reconstruction efforts there,” Zamani said. “Reply.com and its employees are gratified that we have been able make our own contributions both to the immediate relief effort now underway and, just as importantly, to the long-term recovery and resurgence of its people.” 

 Haiti’s plight has long been on Zamani’s radar. Last October, he and Gouya toured the country with the Mona Foundation, visiting schools in Haiti.  The Zamanis stayed at Port-au-Prince’s Hotel Montana, the site of over 200 earthquake-related deaths this month. “Seeing the footage of a building I stayed in just three months ago in complete ruins is humbling. We hope Reply!’s contribution to relief and reconstruction efforts will help in some small way,” he said.

 Reply! donates a portion of its profits each year to aid education-related initiatives in third-world countries, such as Haiti.  “While many of us are not actively engaged in careers that will find a cure for cancer or solve global warming, we can still make valuable contributions to the planet by dedicating some of our resources to meaningful causes,” Zamani said.

 About Reply!, Inc.

Reply.com is the leading online marketing platform for the acquisition of locally-targeted and category-specific consumers on a cost-per-click or cost-per-lead basis. By eliminating the need for complex and expensive online marketing infrastructures and large teams of experts, Reply.com makes Internet marketing available to businesses of all sizes. Reply! provides a highly-profitable alternative to online marketing solutions offered by major search engines and ad networks. To learn more about Reply!, visit www.reply.com.

 Additional information is available at blog.reply.com.