ASI Employees, CEO And The Norman Cohn Family Gave Big In 2021

TREVOSE, PA – December 29, 2021 – The Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI), the largest membership organization in the $20.7 billion promotional products industry, today thanked its employees for generous donations they made all year long, helping provide school supplies, hot meals and holiday gifts to help people in their community and beyond.

“As a boy growing up in Indiana, I remember my holiday gifts were often carried into our home by volunteer firemen, who were delivering presents wrapped by neighbors helping neighbors,” said Timothy M. Andrews, ASI president and chief executive officer. “Here at ASI, we’ve continued to make ‘we care’ an integral part of our corporate values, with ASI employees thinking of others by generously donating to their neighbors in need.”

ASI’s Charity Initiative group, formed by employees in April 2021, conducted three virtual fundraisers this year, raising nearly $30,000 for area nonprofits.

“From a very early age, my parents of blessed memory, Bess and Maurice Cohn, taught us the importance of giving back,” said ASI Chairman Norman Cohn. “As they often said, ‘When God smiles on your parade, it’s important you smile on other people’s parades.’ ASI is a small, family-owned company made up of people with very big hearts and it’s wonderful that so many of our employees work so hard to help others.”

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“ASI is a small, family-owned company made up of people with very big hearts and it’s wonderful that so many of our employees work so hard to help others,” said ASI's Norman Cohn

Below are the chief organizations ASI contributed to in 2021 in an effort to promote the idea of goodwill toward all:

• United Way. Each year, the Cohns match funds employees donate to United Way agencies, for a total in 2021 of nearly $20,000 donated to the United Way of Bucks County, PA.
• United Way Stuff the Bus annual school supply drive. Employees donated $3,000 to help provide area students with essential school supplies, an amount the Cohn family matched, for a total of $6,000.
• Annual Holiday Gift Drive. Every holiday season, hundreds of ASI employees donate money to buy gifts for area families living in or receiving services through a homeless shelter run by the Family Service Association of Bucks County. This year, employees purchased nearly $5,300 worth of toys, bikes, art supplies and electronics.
• Employee Turkey and Pie Giveaway. Each November, the Cohn family thanks employees by giving them a choice of a free Thanksgiving turkey or pie. The pies the Cohns buy benefit the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA) Pie in the Sky charity of Philadelphia, helping the nonprofit deliver a hot Thanksgiving dinner for four for each pie purchased to a MANNA client coping with a life-threatening illness and at acute nutritional risk as a result. In addition, employees who opted out of a gift donated the equivalent cost, and a total of $2,500 was given to the Philabundance food bank, helping the non-profit provide over 5,000 meals to those in need.
• Feeding America. Employees donated over $4,000 to Feeding America, the nation’s largest food bank, which added up to 40,000 meals for the under-served.
• Helping Cure Diabetes. In the past 15 years, the daughters of ASI Vice-Chairman Matthew Cohn, Sydney and Mackenzie, have raised nearly $4 million to help fund research for Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, a devastating disease that affects millions of people, including a large and growing percentage of children like them (cohnsisters.com). JDRF is the world’s largest charitable funder of diabetes research.
• Indiana Initiatives. In 2003, Tim Andrews invested in his Indiana hometown by donating money to the Hawcreek-Flat Rock Area Endowment, and then challenging others to help grow the fund to $1 million-plus. To date, interest on the assets alone has enabled the fund to award 167 grants to individuals, organizations and projects. In addition, Andrews established the Hope (Indiana) Area Food Bank Endowment, now at $175,000, which funds about 10% of annual needs for the food bank. This year at his alma mater, Ball State University, Andrews endowed a Multicultural Center Graduate Assistantship focused on LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus community) studies, with a preference for LGBTQ+ candidates who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color).

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI^®; asicentral.com) serves a network of 25,000 suppliers, distributors and decorators in the $20.7 billion promotional products industry. ASI’s flagship product, the technology platform ESP^®, manages the industry’s entire supply and marketing chain. ASI also produces award-winning digital content, live events and educational programs that enable companies in 53 countries to be more efficient, productive and profitable. ASI’s media and research operation provides the most authoritative business content in the industry, and the ASI Certification Program features 200+ live and online education courses for industry professionals. The company, family-owned and -operated since 1962, is proud to have been consistently ranked among the “Best Places to Work” in Philadelphia and Bucks County, PA.