U.S. Employees Have Donated a Total of $1 Billion in Cash to 18,000 Nonprofits Organizations Worldwide
Lori Harnick, General Manager, Citizenship and Public Affairs at Microsoft
Microsoft’s Giving Campaign is one of the world’s largest employee donation matching programs. Microsoft matches employee volunteer time at $17 an hour or dollar-for-dollar charitable contributions to all eligible nonprofits, up to $12,000 per employee . In the first year of the campaign approximately 200 employees raised $17,000 dollars. Today, more than 35,000 employees participate, or about 65% of Microsoft’s total U.S. workforce. The company anticipates these participants will raise more than $100 million in 2012 alone.
The Giving Campaign began in 1983, and since its inception, employees nationwide have donated a total of $1 billion dollars. Additionally since 1983, Microsoft and its employees have provided more than $6.5 billion in cash, services and software to nonprofits around world.
With the success of their philanthropic endeavors, Microsoft introduced a volunteer match program in 2006. Through this program, employees nationwide have volunteered more than two million hours to causes important to them and their communities. Employees can select any eligible organization and have donated to more than 31,000 non profits and organizations around the world.
This all stems from Microsoft’s founding belief that people and technology can make a difference in the world. While this certainly is a moment to celebrate, it is also a moment to reflect because their non-profit partners have used these funds to deliver life-changing services to hundreds of millions of people in U.S.