New Microsoft Philanthropies Organization Helped Put 71,000 Nonprofits In the Cloud
Mary Snapp, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Philanthropies
(Redmond, WA, Wednesday, March 1, 2017) – A year after the formation of Microsoft Philanthropies, Microsoft Corp. and its employees have donated more than $650 million in cash, cloud services, and software to nonprofits around the world. In a letter published today, Mary Snapp, corporate vice president at Microsoft Philanthropies, detailed the organization’s 2016 contributions. Highlights include $465 million in cloud services donated to more than 71,000 organizations to benefit the public good. Additionally, Microsoft employees raised $142 million for 19,000 nonprofits, helping reach an important milestone: the company’s giving program has now raised $1.5 billion since 1983.
Helping nonprofits use the cloud to have an even greater impact
In January 2016, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the company would donate $1 billion in cloud computing resources to nonprofit organizations and researchers working on the world’s most urgent needs, from health care to education to the environment. While the commitment was originally envisioned as a three-year initiative, Microsoft Philanthropies is nearly at the halfway point of the goal.
Additional 2016 results reported today:
- Through the TEALS program, Microsoft helped engage 750 volunteers from more than 400 different companies to bring computer science education to students in 225 U.S. high schools;
- In partnership with Code.org, a new record for the annual Hour of Code campaign, with 15 million trials, in 119 countries, of Minecraft coding tutorials;
- Aided refugees and displaced people in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Greece through more than $30 million in technology and funding to organizations such as Mercy Corps, CARE and NetHope; and,
- Delivered connectivity to remote schools, health clinics and community centers in 11 countries through the use of TV white spaces technology, which leverages unused television channels and other frequencies to provide Internet service.
Entering its second year, Microsoft Philanthropies will grow its work with nonprofits to prepare people for jobs that require skills from basic digital literacy to advanced computer science, as well as increase support for humanitarian responders.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.