ASI employees and executives stepped up in a big way this year to help those in need.

The employee-led ASI Charity Initiative, founded in 2021 to demonstrate ASI’s commitment to corporate social responsibility and meeting the needs of the surrounding community, facilitated a number of philanthropic drives in 2023, giving both monetary and material contributions to a long list of organizations.

ASI Chairman Norman Cohn (left) and Vice Chairman Matthew Cohn distribute Thanksgiving pies to employees. Each pie benefited MANNA Pie in the Sky, which serves Thanksgiving meals to people with serious illnesses.

These included more than $17,000 raised by employees plus a Cohn family match for the United Way; $10,050 worth of toys, bikes, art supplies and electronics donated to the Family Service Association of Bucks County; and $3,500 donated to Disabled American Veterans, K9s For Warriors, Philabundance food bank and Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House through the sale of promo items and raffle baskets.

In addition, employees donated clothing to Cradles to Crayons, The Wardrobe and One Warm Coat; wrote more than 100 thank you letters and cards for area veterans visiting war memorials in Washington, D.C., a trip sponsored by Honor Flight Philadelphia; and came together with industry members to donate over $170,000 (with a Cohn family match) to humanitarian efforts in Israel after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

“Growing up in Indiana, my holiday gifts were often carried into our home by volunteer firemen delivering presents wrapped by neighbors helping neighbors,” said ASI President and CEO Tim Andrews. “I’m thrilled that helping others remains a cornerstone of ASI’s corporate values and is also at the core of the promo industry, which never fails to band together in times of crisis.”

Meanwhile, ASI executives contributed to causes close to their hearts. Management thanked employees through an annual Thanksgiving pie distribution – each pie purchased by the Cohn family allows MANNA Pie in the Sky to deliver Thanksgiving meals to people with serious illness.

In Andrews’ home state of Indiana, the Hawcreek-Flat Rock Area Endowment fund, co-founded by Andrews 15 years ago in his hometown of Hope, distributed $60,000 in community grants in 2023. And the Hope Area Food Bank Endowment, established by Andrews, continued to provide 10% of the food bank’s annual needs. Andrews also formed the Timothy M. Andrews Artistic Directorship this year to benefit the Arts Council of Princeton in New Jersey.

For more than 15 years, ASI Vice Chairman Matthew Cohn’s daughters, Sydney and Mackenzie, have raised over $4 million for Type 1 diabetes research at JDRF, the world’s largest charitable funder for diabetes research. Matthew Cohn will become chairman of JDRF’s Global Mission Board in July 2024.

“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.”