The Every Child a Reader project from Great Falls, Mont.'s Raising Readers group will mail one book a month from birth to age 5 for every child born in 2021 who will attend the city's schools, says Raising Readers' Cyndie Einan, who works for Family Health Services for the local health department. The program, with help from the United Way and a school district foundation, aims to help boost language, vocabulary and other skills that begin from a baby's first days, Einan says.

The VIA Agency, with Baby Lion, created "A Closer Look" site for the United Way of Greater Portland in Maine that brings statistics about poverty to life through visuals that resemble museum exhibits and urges viewers to donate to the organization. "We felt the contrast between the design and startling realities of poverty would create a powerful emotion to help build awareness of the struggles of those in need," explains The VIA Agency's Teddy Stoecklein.

Augmented reality has come into its own during the pandemic, not only for its usefulness within an e-commerce context but also for its experiential marketing potential, Brock University's Joachim Scholz writes. He spotlights the use of AR in recent campaigns from Tim Hortons, Budweiser, Adidas and United Way and writes, "AR directly plays into consumer fantasies and excitement, and that's what marketing is all about."

Procter & Gamble is distributing roughly 100,000 face masks from its inventory to service agencies in the Greater Cincinnati area with help from the United Way. P&G is also producing Safeguard hand sanitizer for delivery to local shelters, food pantries and other care centers.