Last month, two earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude and separated by just 39 seconds, struck northern Venezuela, wreaking massive destruction and leaving more than 4,700 people dead, over 16,700 injured and over 17,900 homeless, according to news reports.

The grim statistics spurred Team OnDemand into action. The nonprofit was created last year by Texas-based promo pros after catastrophic flash floods ravaged the Texas Hill Country. The idea was to create a platform to mobilize the resources, logistics capabilities and generosity of the industry to maximize relief efforts when tragedies strike.

The Team OnDemand nonprofit was formed last year after Lawrence Hanley (third from right), CEO of Desk Plants (asi/49451), and Rusty Pepper (second from right) of Taylor OnDemand, part of Counselor Top 40 distributor Taylor Promotional Products (asi/333647), helped with relief efforts in Kerr County, TX, in the aftermath of devastating flash floods.

“The devastation was just huge,” Lawrence Hanley, CEO of Austin, TX-based supplier Desk Plants (asi/49451), said of the aftermath of the Venezuela quakes. “We’re talking about over 50,000 people still unaccounted for, and we’re almost three weeks beyond the event.”

Team OnDemand notes on its website that “access to clean water, hygiene products, medical supplies, clothing, blankets, baby essentials and everyday necessities remains critically limited” after the quakes.

The nonprofit has put together three ways the promo industry can assist with relief efforts:

• People can access the nonprofit’s Amazon Relief List to purchase and send items to the Desk Plants warehouse in Austin. 
• Promo companies can send overruns, misprints, blank items or inventory tabbed for donations to the warehouse directly via pallet shipment. Items needed include drinkware, apparel, first aid kits, toothbrushes, water sanitization products, baby clothes, milk bottles for babies, flashlights, gloves and masks.
• Cash donations are also accepted, with Team OnDemand hoping to raise $25,000 to help with the logistical cost of getting donated items from Austin to Venezuela.

“We have an industry of people who want to help and are able to help in different ways,” Hanley said, adding that Team OnDemand is helping to centralize those efforts.

There are two factors that make the promo industry uniquely suited to help out after disasters, he said. First, the industry is “based on super high-speed and efficient logistics.” And second, many of the items that are popular in promo, such as drinkware and apparel, are common needs for relief organizations.

Rusty Pepper, head of global markets and partnerships at Taylor OnDemand, part of Counselor Top 40 distributor Taylor Promotional Products (asi/333647), emphasized that Team OnDemand’s official nonprofit status is key, enabling tax-deductible donations.

“At the end of the day, we just need people to have awareness that in times of disaster, there are organizations like ours here to help galvanize the industry,” Pepper added.