Bentina Terry, senior vice president of Metro Atlanta & Corporate Relations for Georgia Power, recently participated in a virtual session at the “Changing Our World’s Atlanta Forging Forward Conference Series,” focused on idea sharing, innovative solutions and a path forward within the metro community. Terry was joined on the panel by Ann Cramer, a former director for IBM Corporate Citizenship, and Lain Shakespeare, senior director of Corporate Citizenship at MailChimp.

“Throughout the past year, Georgia Power engaged with business and community leaders to talk about reopening plans, COVID recovery and a path forward in metro Atlanta and across Georgia,” said Terry. “We also did some great informal things, such as converting a former Georgia Power drive thru to a services center for the underserved, engaging employees to provide meals to frontline workers, partnering with GOODR to deliver meals to senior citizens and more.”

She went on to share that her belief in measuring the level at which companies are good corporate citizens should not be based on their ability give grants or practice volunteerism, but to use their area of expertise to help customers in need. In 2020, Georgia Power suspended customer disconnects for four months, set up special payment plans without late fees and provided additional relief on summer bills through lower fuel rates and special interim reductions.

Through the Georgia Power Foundation, the company provided 183 grants worth $2.2 million to organizations and causes dedicated to COVID relief. 85 percent of those dollars supported BIPOC and economically disadvantaged populations, while 74 percent of dollars supported food insecurity, homelessness, displaced workers and small businesses.

Additionally, the Georgia Power Foundation provided a $350,000 grant to the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, $100,000 to the Giving Kitchen and $100,000 to Augusta University for statewide COVID-19 testing.

The Foundation also invested $1 million in 2020 to support the state in addressing the unprecedented impacts of the pandemic. This investment was in addition to the $1.5 million that Georgia Power has already committed by way of partnerships, such as The Salvation Army’s Project SHARE, to help meet the basic needs of those impacted.

To listen to a recording of the full session, visit: https://changingourworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Atlanta-Forging-Forward-S3.mp4 [changingourworld.com]