Corporate good will in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has been anything but run-of-the-mill.

Amgen, the biotechnology company, is donating $2.5 million to relief efforts, focusing on dialysis and cancer patients. On top of millions of dollars in cash and equipment, General Electric donated a mobile power plant to restore capacity to a fuel transfer station in Louisiana. Emigrant Savings Bank deposited $1,000 into the account of each customer in the areas hardest hit. Employees of Papa John's spent the last week in Biloxi, Miss., in a pizza trailer handing out thousands of six-inch pies.

Employees at many companies are also collectively matching, sometimes surpassing, direct corporate contributions. Even many companies that are geographically removed from the disaster are responding with remarkable largess. Amid all this, it seems that cash donations, especially anything less than $1 million from the largest companies, are considered tight-fisted.

As companies reach into their coffers in a time-honored gesture of corporate good will, they have grown increasingly creative, even strategic, about the way they approach their philanthropy. Many are tapping their particular realms of expertise, and in contrast to the government's initial response, they have applied hallmark speed and efficiency to the process of sending in goods and services.

Corporations are rising to the challenge out of a spirit of charity but also to burnish their image. The money spent not only redounds in good will but also serves to publicize a company's products or business.