Something as big as the earthquake in Japan doesn’t happen too often. When it does, it seems everyone, in one form or another, is touched and moved to act. I’ll let the poster do the talking for Bear Mountain, but I think this is a brilliant way to let your resort community come together to accomplish an incredible amount of good.

That’s the trick with “corporate” philanthropy. Critics look at it and say, “Look at that resort, they should be ashamed of themselves. Taking advantage of a tragedy to build their brand, make a few bucks and get their name in the papers.” While we can look at it and say, “A tragedy has taken place. I have at my disposal a resource (a ski resort) that I can leverage to help a huge number of people in Japan. Why wouldn’t I?”

Have any other resorts put together a relief effort for Japan?

UPDATE: Looks like GlenCoe Mountain in the UK had their own version. Thanks Daniel for the heads up!

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.