Top five Microsoft Citizenship posts of 2010

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As the year comes to an end it’s a great opportunity to both look forward to the coming year and review what’s happened over the past twelve months.

We thought it would be interesting to highlight the top stories on the blog for 2010 as voted by our readers through their visits.

It presents an interesting review of the year.

 

#1 Software donations: Microsoft Office 2010:

One of the big events for Microsoft during the year was the launch of Office 2010. During the summer we got together with TechSoup to present an 80 minute webinar on how Microsoft Office 2010 can help nonprofits. You can watch a recording here.

Over the past twelve months we’ve donated software to over 40,000 nonprofit organizations so don’t forget you can avail of software donations for your nonprofit here.

#2 Celebrating U.S. Veterans

In early November, we celebrated Veterans Day in the United States by focusing on the incredible work being done to help U.S. Veterans get back into the civilian workforce.

We took over Microsoft Citizenship website for the week and were able to publish a host of incredible blog posts which provided insights into not only the challenges veterans face, but the work being done to address those challenges.

We also announced the six nonprofit grant recipients as part of our Elevate America veterans initiative.

The six organizations are:

  • Able-Disabled Advocacy, Inc., San Diego, CA; San Diego VetWORKS
  • Bellevue College, Bellevue, WA; Project Succeed
  • Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont Inc, Charlotte, NC; Elevate America's veterans initiative
  • Gulf Coast Workforce Board, Panama City, FL; Mission: 21st Century (M:21c)
  • Per Scholas INC., New York, NY; Microsoft Veterans Employment Project
  • Veterans Inc., Worcester, MA; Veterans Inc. Employment & Training Program

#3 Elevate America community initiative

In September we announced the Elevate America community initiative, a new grant program to support nonprofit organizations offering employment services, including technology skills training and job placement, in local communities across the United States. Microsoft is committing $4 million in cash and $6 million in software and technology skills training curriculum to support nonprofits in the United States over the next two years. The nonprofit recipients will be announced in the New Year.

 

#4 Microsoft 2010 Citizenship report

In October we released our 2010 Citizenship report which provides a detailed review of Microsoft’s Citizenship programs and our progress in 2010.

As Dan Bross noted: “As a company, we have signed up for a lot. We have endorsed the UN Millennium Development Goals and the UN Global Compact and you can see how we’re doing in meeting those commitments in this report. We’re also reporting using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework – to help readers evaluate our progress against that of other companies.”

#5 Haiti

It’s hard to believe that the tragic events in Haiti took place nearly one year ago, events that rallied the world. As Akhtar noted at the time:

“We are also seeing an inspiring outpouring of support from people in the United States and around the world. Ordinary citizens are texting their support to the Red Cross and other organizations to ensure that there are enough funds for relief efforts. An amazing amount of money already has been collected. This is the time to come together and work in a coordinated fashion to support the relief efforts and ensure that the donated funds are put to the best use for the people of Haiti, both in the short-term and in the long run.”

Of course the critical relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti continue.

 

Finally…

As we reviewed the most popular posts for the year, we were surprised to discover that the sixth most popular story was about deep sea archaeology and how the Octopus Deep-Sea Archeology Research Association is using technology to bring the treasures they discover below the sea to a broader audience.

 

On behalf of the Citizenship team at Microsoft we wish you a happy and successful 2011. We’re looking forward to talking with you over the next twelve months, and don’t forget you can keep in touch us via Twitter (@msftcitizenship) and Facebook and find more about our programs at the Microsoft Citizenship website