2010 was the biggest year of employee giving so far…

When you visit a Microsoft office and discover that it’s been transformed from a place of work to an amphitheater for a keenly contested rock-paper-scissors contest, or when you overhear people discussing an ongoing bidding war for the world’s best baloney sandwich, then chances are you’re witnessing Microsoft’s employee giving at first hand.

Each year as part of our Giving campaign every full time Microsoft employee in the United States can take advantage of corporate matching for the donations they make to nonprofit and community organizations, up to $12,000. They also have the opportunity to volunteer their time and have those hours matched with a per hour payment to the chosen organization.

It would be fair to say that employee giving is an inherent part of life at Microsoft. Since the inception of the company our employees have wanted to give something back. The continued success of our employee giving isn’t solely about people’s generosity - it’s also about their creativity and passion. As the co-chairs of the 2010 Giving campaign we have had the opportunity to see an incredible array of initiatives to raise funds and awareness. This past year we had over 300 fundraising events including a 5K run with 1,700 employee participants, national poker competitions, an album of employee music, photo books, soccer clinics, and our internal auction site which continues to grow in both the breadth of items offered and the money it raises.

So, how did we do in the United States in 2010? Here are some of the top line figures:

  • Microsoft employee giving raised $96 million in 2010 – the most ever
  • Nearly 35,000 people around Microsoft participated
  • Over 4,000 people volunteered over 350,000 hours of their time – generating $6 million in funds for the recipient organizations
  • Over 16,000 organizations benefitted from funds raised as part of the Giving campaign.

These funds make a real difference in our communities. For example, Microsoft employees are the single largest, active source of ongoing donors for the Seattle Children’s Hospital, which received over $800,000 in 2010. The majority of the donated funds go toward uncompensated care so that no one who comes to Seattle Children’s is turned away for insurance or financial reasons. The donated funds will assist around 1,000 families with uncompensated care. It’s something we’re very proud of.

2010 was an outstanding year for our employee Giving campaign and we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the success of the campaign isn’t solely due to the incredible generosity of our people, but is also the result of the hard work and energy of an army of volunteers across the company who commit their time to the Giving campaign, driving participation, helping organize events and supporting initiatives. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their efforts.

There is one downside to these results: it creates a formidable target for 2011! However, we’re confident, that as in years past, our employees will rise to the challenge.

We’re already underway. Thank you for your support in 2010!

Tony Scott

S.Somasegar

Tony Scott was co-chair of the 2010 Microsoft Giving Campaign and is Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Tony Scott joined Microsoft Corp. in February 2008 as corporate vice president and chief information officer (CIO). Under Scott's leadership, Microsoft IT is responsible for security, infrastructure, messaging and business applications for all of Microsoft, including support of the product groups, the corporate business groups, and the global sales and marketing organization.

S. Somasegar was co-chair of the 2010 Microsoft Giving Campaign and is Senior Vice President, Developer Division

As senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp., S. Somasegar is responsible for providing tools, runtimes and technologies for developers, designers, software development teams and the technical computing community. His team owns the Visual Studio and Expression Studio families of products, the .NET Framework, Silverlight, and many core development technologies.