Microsoft employees donate 950 kits for AIDS caregivers

Here’s a warm fuzzy story about Microsoft. Earlier this week, the company hosted its annual non-profit fair for employees on its Redmond campus. About 50 non-profits participated including a rather interesting one fighting AIDS called World Vision. World Vision provides support for the caregivers who nurse and otherwise help those suffering from AIDS.

For the two-hour period on Wednesday during which the non-profit fair was held, Microsoft employees were invited into World Vision’s walk through exhibit entitled “Experience: AIDS – Step into Africa.” During the exhibit each employee assembled a care giver kit, about 950 kits were assembled, all told. The kits, paid for by Microsoft, included antibacterial soap, latex gloves, petroleum jelly, oral rehydration salts, antifungal cream, and other critically needed items, a World Vision spokesperson says.

The non-profit will then distribute these kits worldwide, aiming in particular to get them to families with children. The assemble-a-kit exhibit is something that World Vision set up about two years ago. The spokesperson says that employees can assemble anywhere from 500 – 5,000 kits each time it takes its act on the road. Microsoft has included World Vision in its non-profit fair for the past decade, but is the only high tech company so far to have hosted the kit assembly program.

Microsoft gets its share of grief about the the prices it charges, so users might like to know that the company has exceptionally generous donation programs. Like many other companies, it matches employee’s donations to non-profits dollar for dollar (which is how World Vision got the funds for the kits built by Microsoft Employees). However Microsoft also matches volunteer time at $17 per hour to a maximum of $12,000 per employee, per year.

As thoughts turn toward the holiday season, and the goodwill-towards-humans ideal, thought you would enjoy this story of how one company shares its wealth.

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