{"id":268,"date":"2008-10-15T23:18:16","date_gmt":"2008-10-16T06:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/?p=268"},"modified":"2008-10-15T23:18:16","modified_gmt":"2008-10-16T06:18:16","slug":"giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year Microsoft launches a giving campaign to encourage employees to give back to the community monetarily as well as via volunteerism.\u00a0 Since 2005 the \u2018soft has been matching employee donations dollar-for-dollar<\/em> up to $12,000 per employee.\u00a0 More than that, if I volunteer with an organization, that organization will get paid $17 for every hour I\u2019m there<\/em>.\u00a0 Every year, Microsoft employees give hundreds of thousands to non-profit organizations (NPOs), and every dollar the employs give gets matched with a dollar from the company.\u00a0 I personally think this is one of my biggest perks and benefits of working for the company.
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\nToday was my organization\u2019s non-profit fair and bake sale, where we invite about 30 NPOs to come in and tell us about what they do while we have a bake sale to raise money for them collectively.\u00a0\u00a0 It was fun afternoon staffing the event and learning about the diverse work that is going on in the Seattle area.\u00a0 Here are a few that I\u2019m considering giving to (besides my local NPR and independent radio stations).\u00a0 I\u2019m also thinking that it\u2019s time to start getting involved:<\/p>\n

Crisis Clinic<\/strong> (www.crisisclinic.org\/volunteer<\/a>) \u2013 This one is pretty intense, but has a great potential for service and personal reward for myself.\u00a0 The Crisis Line volunteers undergo about 56 hours of specialized training and they require a commitment of at least 4 hours a week.\u00a0 However, the reward appears to be wonderful and it serves a great need:\u00a0 their goal is to empower people to make positive life changes by connecting people to the resources that they need in times of crisis.<\/p>\n

FareStart<\/strong> (www.farestart.org<\/a>) \u2013 The goal of FareStart is to provide job training and placement for homeless and disadvantaged individuals.\u00a0 They do this by teaching culinary skills (including the basics of management) to their clients.\u00a0 There are several ways to get involved, but the most interesting looked to be volunteering as kitchen help on the weekends when they prepare meals for several thousand people in the Seattle area.<\/p>\n

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound<\/strong> (www.bbbsps.org<\/a>) \u2013 Most people are familiar with BBBS.\u00a0 It\u2019s always been indimidating for me to think about getting involved with a Little, but Cassie has given me new insight to the experience of being a Big.\u00a0 She\u2019s inspired me to think that I would really enjoy giving as a Big, so I\u2019m looking into this one.
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\nEastside Domestic Violence Program <\/strong>(www.edvp.org<\/a>) \u2013 The volunteer who introduced me to this program really impressed me.\u00a0 Their programs appear really solid and they serve a huge community with a smallish staff by comparison.\u00a0 They run a 24-hour crisis line, as well as being very active in advocacy, education, & training.<\/p>\n

King Counter Sexual Assault Resource Center<\/strong> (www.kcarc.org<\/a>) \u2013 Like EDVP, KCARC focuses their efforts in advocacy, education, & training but centered primarily on issues of sexual assault.\u00a0 Their mission is to alleviate \u2026 \u201cthe trauma of sexual assault for victims and their families\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earth Share of Washington<\/strong> (www.esw.org<\/a>) \u2013 What I liked about this organization is that they focus on identifying other organizations that have the goal of improving climate impact, reducing pollution, preserving forests & wildlife, supporting recreation and parks, and advancing sustainable communities.\u00a0 I want to support organizations with these goals, and ESW simplifies that to a certain degree by redistributing donation gifts.\u00a0 They don\u2019t like to be called this, but they\u2019re kinda the United Way of Earth-minded organizations.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going to be giving my time or money quite yet, but I think between these organizations I\u2019ve got a good start.\u00a0 Any thoughts or ideas about these or others are appreciated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year Microsoft launches a giving campaign to encourage employees to give back to the community monetarily as well as via volunteerism.\u00a0 Since 2005 the \u2018soft has been matching employee donations dollar-for-dollar up to $12,000 per employee.\u00a0 More than that, if I volunteer with an organization, that organization will get paid $17 for every hour … Continue reading Giving<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,30,152,28],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-giving","tag-m","tag-microsoft","tag-the-grind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}