The software giant, Microsoft has announced that its employee giving campaign helped to raise $100.5 million last year, donating money to more than 18,000 community organisations in the US and around the world. With this milestone, Microsoft employees have now raised more than $946 million for nonprofits and community organizations since the company’s giving program started in 1983.
Each year, every full-time employee at Microsoft in the U.S. receives a $12,000 corporate matching gift that matches volunteer time ($17 per hour) or dollar-for-dollar charitable contributions to eligible nonprofits. In 2011, Microsoft employees in the United States committed 426,671 volunteer hours to nonprofit organizations in the United States; this is 73,000 more hours than in 2010, which brings the total number of volunteering time to 1.7 million hours since tracking started in 2006. The matched volunteer hours committed by employees in 2011 raised $7.2 million for nonprofits.
The company donations mirror the philanthropic efforts of Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates – who had made another mark, through donations to numbers of global health causes; he has saved an estimated 5.8 million lives.
“Last year, Microsoft U.S. employees broke their annual giving record, raising more than $100 million for community organizations,” said Brad Smith, executive vice president, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corp. “The money and time donated by our employees is one way we aim to play our part in creating opportunities for people in the U.S. and around the world. This new fundraising record is a great start to the 30th year of our Employee Giving Program.”
2011 Giving Campaign by the Numbers:
- U.S. employees raised $100.5 million, including corporate matching, for more than 18,000 charitable organizations in 2011.
- U.S. employees volunteered 426,671 hours in 2011, an increase of more than 20 percent from 2010.
- Microsoft saw 64 percent employee participation through the Employee Giving Program (more than 35,500 employees). Participation is defined as an employee donation of more than $25 or volunteering at least 10 hours with an organization.
- In October, when the company has its annual employee Giving Campaign, Microsoft employees raised $55 million of the $100.5 million raised in 2011, which is equivalent to $31.85 for every second of every minute of every hour of every working day of the campaign.
- The online auction (an internal tool developed specifically for the Giving Campaign by Microsoft volunteer employees) raised more than $670,000 this year, compared with $465,000 in 2010. There were over 1,000 items bid on over the course of the auction. Items included reserved parking spots, a cookbook autographed by Bill Gates and the chance to box against an executive.
Technology rival Apple CEO Tim Cook has also recently donated $100 million to Stanford’s hospital – with $25 million for a new children’s hospital, $25 million for a new main building and $50 million has been donated to Product RED – a charity that combats diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Cook made his announcement during an internal town hall meeting celebrating Apple’s successful fourth quarter.
