2. National Philanthropy Day, or NPD, celebrates the charitable work that EVERYONE does
to make a difference and create impact in their communities. Whether you’re a donor
or a volunteer (or both!), young or old, no matter how much you give or what causes
you support—what you do from the heart makes a difference! And you make a
difference every day! Your generosity and commitment doesn’t take time off. NPD is
recognized on Nov. 15, but we celebrate what you do throughout the year!
The NPD website will be highlighting the extraordinary work of donors and volunteers
around the world every day. If you want us to recognize someone in your community,
drop us a line at paffairs@afpnet.org.
We’ll be updating the site all the time with news about philanthropy, ways to give
more effectively and profiles of unique and inspiring philanthropists—just like you! So
come back often as we celebrate philanthropy and everything you have done to help
change the world.
3.
4. 1. Aplle
CEO Tim Cook became Apple’s head honcho in April 2011 and almost immediately instituted a
program to match employee donations. In the time since, Apple has matched over $25 million
worth of employee donations, resulting in more than $50 million for charities around the
world.
In October 2014, Apple informed employees that it will expand its corporate giving program
to include all countries in which it has a presence, which extends the program from U.S.-
based nonprofits and a handful of organizations in other nations. Apple also announced that
its volunteer grant program will give employees $25 per hour for their respective
organizations.
Silicon Valley companies have been criticized for a lack of corporate philanthropy, although
companies may just differ in how they donate. While Tim Cook is adamant about employees
dictating where Apple donates, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg separates his business from
his philanthropy. He and his wife gave $120 million to help local schools in 2014, which
demonstrates his propensity to acquire wealth and share it personally rather than to donate
through corporate giving.
Apple will match employee donations up to $10,000 per year, and most 501(c)(3)
organizations or equivalent organizations are eligible to receive matching gifts.
5. 2. Google
Normal companies don’t offer diverse giving options, but Google is not a normal company. With offices in 70
cities and more than 40 countries, Google’s philanthropy has a deep global reach from New York, to the
U.K., to Germany and more.
Google could not give as much as it does without enthusiastic, benevolent employees. Last year, more than
6,500 Google employees volunteered nearly 80,000 hours of service. In total, Google has matched $21
million in employee donations to over 9,000 organizations worldwide.
Google’s community programs include:
Bay Area Giving: Proud to support local nonprofits that strengthen the community, Google has given over
$60 million to Bay Area nonprofits over the past three years.
Code for America: In an effort to provide better technological support for governments that are slow to
embrace technology, Google provides Code for America with an annual gift of $3 million to develop civic
technological solutions.
Roberta: Google believes that robots are a fun, effective way to teach children foundational technological
concepts, so they funded Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems to
help them develop technology to program and control robots using a smartphone app.
Programming Education Gathering: Google donated more than 5,000 Raspberry Pi computers in order to
provide a computer science education to more than 25,000 Japanese children.
Raspberry Pi: A $1 million Google grant will give Raspberry Pi computers — inexpensive microcomputers
about the size of a credit card — to 15,000 U.K. children who show exceptional enthusiasm for computer
science.
6. 3. Microsoft
In 1983, 200 Microsoft employees raised $17,000 for nonprofits through the company’s first
employee giving program. Thanks to matching gifts, Microsoft employees have since donated
over $1 billion to charitable organizations. That’s a lot of computers.
But maybe it’s not a lot of computers, because Microsoft saves nonprofits from having to
spend too much on technology through product donations. In 2014, over 86,000 organizations
in more than 125 countries received technology donations. The gifts ranged from computers
to software to refurbished hardware in an effort to affordably bring nonprofits into the 21st
century.
Microsoft also offers a volunteer match program, which began in 2005. Nonprofits receive $25
per hour when Microsoft employees volunteer for at least four hours.
For regular matching gifts, Microsoft employees may submit matching gift requests for
donations up to $15,000 per year, which is one reason Microsoft is consistently included in the
listing of top matching gift programs.
7. 4. PepsiCo
Pepsi is a food and beverage powerhouse, which is why its philanthropy prioritizes related causes, including:
Healthy lifestyles
Affordable nutrition
Access to clean water
Sustainable agriculture
Job readiness
Empowering women
Pepsi offers to match gifts up to $10,000 per year per employer, and it matches at a 2:1 ratio if the employee volunteers more
than 50 hours with a single organization. Otherwise, Pepsi matches 1:1.
Pepsi employees strive to improve communities through a number of programs including:
PepsiCorps: This skill-based volunteer program places Pepsi employees in communities from Ghana, to India, to New Mexico, to
aid with projects that relate to Pepsi’s corporate giving initiatives.
Mother Water Cellar Project in Greater China Region: Pepsi volunteers helped to construct a water purification tower for the
benefit of over 700 students and teachers at a school in southwest China.
Food for Good: Started by employees in 2009, Food for Good has served over 1.6 million free, nutritious meals to inner-city
children.
Pepsi also prides itself on strategic grants, through which it donates about $25 million per year. The company loves to support
water sanitation efforts, and tends to give large gifts to organizations that are established enough to deliver potable water to
millions of people.
8. 5. Shell
Like Pepsi, Shell also supports the community in a big way.
Through a long-standing philanthropic relationship, Shell has donated more than $24.8 million
dollars to the University of Texas at Austin. In 2012, Shell and UT signed a five-year, $7.5 million
deal to address challenges facing the growing worldwide oil and gas industry. Most of the money will
go to research, but nearly half a million dollars will support UT students and programs.
To empower employees, Shell offers a matching gift program. The company matches employee
donations between $25 and $5,500 at a 1:1 ratio.
Matching gifts have helped Shell to pursue several philanthropic goals. As of the end of 2014, Shell
donations have helped to create more than 35,000 jobs, saved 6.2 million metric tons of CO2, and
raised $5 billion for organizations in four continents.
In 2013, more than $335 billion worth of charitable donations were given to nonprofits, and 15
percent of that came from company foundations. Giving by foundations also increased by 5.7
percent from the previous year. When it comes to charitable giving, corporations matter, and the
funds they give are a significant portion of the giving pie. Whether it’s through matching gifts,
volunteer grants or related charitable initiatives, it’s good to see that some of the world’s largest
companies believe in philanthropy and lead by example.
The five above companies are some of the most successful companies in the world. And charitable
giving as a core value benefits their bottom line in more ways than just community appreciation.
We hope that employees and companies continue to give back to nonprofits to not only better their
local communities, but also improve their business results.
Adam Weinger is the President of Double the Donation, the leading provider of matching gift tools
and services to nonprofits. You can connect with Double the Donation on Twitter, LinkedIn, or
personally contact Adam.
9. There is no one correct way to celebrate National Philanthropy Day, as everyone helps
people indifferent ways. Bill Gates for one seems to have been celebrating this
holiday every day of his life for the past few years, since the creation of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. However, most people in the world are not nearly
as vastly wealthy as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or the like, and therefore can find
other, smaller ways to help others–even s mall donation or kind gesture on our part
can mean the world to someone who is, for example, suffering from a serious illness
in poverty. There are many ways to participate in celebration of this great holiday,
and as with Bill Gates, it is best when we do not help others only one day a year.
Philanthropy means the act of loving humankind, and everyone knows that love can be
expressed in a number of ways. So find a charity with a cause you care deeply about,
be it one that feeds hungry children, or one that helps people suffering from a certain
disease. Maybe someone in your family was taken too young by a sickness you would
like to see defeated once and for all? Or maybe you feel that there is not enough
awareness about LGBT youth’s struggles with bullying in schools and just want other
people to notice the problem and take it seriously? No matter whether your gesture is
helping to collect food for Christmas packages for the poor, collecting money to help
feed the ever-increasing number of animals in animal shelters, raising money for extra
new books to be bought at your local public school, or just spending a little time
every now and the with elderly people in nursing homes who do not have any relatives
to keep them company, you can be certain that you gesture will be appreciated
greatly by those you help, even if your actions or the sum of money you donate
doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to you. Any way you decide to do it, celebrate by
helping others and making a difference!
