Coronavirus Kindness: Yelp allowing direct donations to restaurants, other businesses

March 24, 2020 Topic: Technology Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: CoronavirusTechnologyYelpHealthEconomy

Coronavirus Kindness: Yelp allowing direct donations to restaurants, other businesses

The nation’s restaurant-goers frequently use Yelp to look at menus, find information, and sometimes leave a nice (or not so nice) review. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, with many of the nation's restaurants closed, the site has set up a tool to allow users to support restaurants and other local businesses during this difficult time when many such businesses are worried about their very survival.

The nation’s restaurant-goers frequently use Yelp to look at menus, find information, and sometimes leave a nice (or not so nice) review. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, with many of the nation's restaurants closed, the site has set up a tool to allow users to support restaurants and other local businesses during this difficult time when many such businesses are worried about their very survival.

Yelp announced in a blog post Tuesday that it has teamed up with crowdfunding website GoFundMe to place donation buttons on the pages of Yelp-listed businesses. In addition, the Yelp Foundation-Yelp's charitable arm- and GoFundMe have announced that they will "match up to $1 million in donations, with a $500 matching grant to eligible businesses that raise at least $500 on their GoFundMe."

Earlier this week, Yelp had made a separate pledge to provide $25 million in relief to local businesses, in the form of waived advertising fees, free ads, and other services. The donations will allow businesses that are closed or providing reduced services during the coronavirus shutdowns to pay staff and also take care of other expenses.

According to Yelp's frequently-asked-questions page, the program has launched in four cities - Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego- and will roll out nationwide within days. The links will be set up automatically on the pages of businesses, who must accept the page on GoFundMe, although the businesses are allowed to opt-out.

To be eligible, businesses must have claimed their business on Yelp as of Sunday, have five or fewer locations, and be listed as one of five Yelp categories - Restaurants, Food, Nightlife, Beauty/Spas/Salons, or Active, though there are some exceptions.

"The impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been incredibly challenging for small businesses, but it has been particularly devastating for 'main street' local businesses that normally do the majority of their business in person," Chad Richard, Yelp's senior vice president for Business and Corporate Development, said in the blog post. He went on to add that the company's data shows that consumer interest in U.S. restaurants has fallen two-thirds in the last two weeks.

Yelp’s move was reported first by The Verge.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons.