Can charitable donations be kitsch?

October is a month of giving back at Microsoft when employees around the United States host or participate in events to raise money for nonprofits. There are hundreds of events taking place across the company throughout the month, but we’ve found a new favorite.

The Plastic Pink Flamingo Flock!

During October at Microsoft, for a small sum donated to the nonprofit of your choosing - and matched by Microsoft - you can have your co-worker Flocked.

What is that, you may ask.

Well, your chosen victim will arrive into their office to face their work day, only to find it filled with those infamous and charming pink Flamingo yard statues. Awesome.

But it doesn’t end there. There are actually four flock options:

1) Flock‘em – your standard offering where you can have your colleague’s office stuffed with Flamingos

2) Flock Migration - allows the ‘flocked’ victim to pass the flock over to another colleague (increased donation over option 1)

3) Flocksurance – enables you to protect yourself from an unexpected flocking (increased donation over option 2)

4) Flocksurance Side Stepper – this is the premium product which allows you to override another person’s Flocksurance.

Now, this all sounds very interesting, but we felt that we couldn’t report on this particular initiative without seeing it in action.

So we decided to try it out on a beloved colleague.

Here’s the report on Flocking in action.

Editor’s Note: The Flamingo Flock was the brainchild of the Operations team at Microsoft. And please be assured no birds were harmed in the process of this flocking. We assure you the offices are kept cozy overnight, Microsoft also has all the free pop, coffee, and water you can drink.