This Valentine’s Day, take Microsoft’s lead: Cater to Individuality,
Tap Into Passion, and Be Extravagant. Follow the philosophy of a company that
intends to change the world – and you just might change your world too.
As long as people keep falling in love, Valentine’s Day will be a source
of awkward conversation for men everywhere. Last week, for example, we
overheard three guys at a bar feigning nonchalance over this particularly
stress-inducing holiday. “Not that I care, but she says chocolates are
unoriginal…” “Yeah… red roses… everybody does that. But whatever, right?”
Women aren’t off the hook here, either. In fact, unless her partner
happens to be especially fond of the colors pink and red, a woman may have a
more difficult time deciding on the perfect Valentine’s Day gift than a man.
For a centuries-old holiday, Valentine’s Day still stumps the best
of us. But this year? We think we have the perfect answer.
THINK LIKE MICROSOFT.
No, seriously.
First of all, some background: For the past few months, we have been
anticipating the results of Microsoft’s 2011
annual giving
campaign. The other day, we finally had the opportunity to learn that their
employees donated 55 million dollars. Microsoft matched those dollars and
brought their total contribution to nonprofits this year to
a whopping 100.5
million dollars.
To us, the amazing piece is that this amount came from employees and
from the company – not from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And although
the brand is one of the best known in the world, Microsoft is not the largest
American company. Yet, compared to Bank of America,
the 3rd largest company in the world (Forbes, 2010),
Microsoft and its employees gave 70% more per employee.
MICROSOFT’S GIVING PHILOSOPHY
1. CATER TO INDIVIDUALITY
The worst thing about a box of chocolates isn’t just that it implies
you forgot about Valentine’s Day until the last minute. It’s not even that
chocolates are not exactly going to contribute to your partner’s overall health.
The worst thing about a box of chocolates is that it says to your beloved: You
are just like everyone else.
Microsoft doesn’t just raise money during their annual giving
campaign. Rather, they celebrate the individuality and uniqueness of their
employees.
For example, James Liao came to Microsoft as part of the Microsoft
Academy for College Hires. James had a passion “to use technology to improve
children’s lives” so Microsoft enabled him to donate to
Dream Corps, a youth education nonprofit. But
instead of donating cash, James dedicated more than 700 volunteer hours within
his first six months and Microsoft matched those hours with a $12,000 gift to
the nonprofit through their dollar for doers program.
Not only was James able to give to the nonprofit to which he felt
most connected, he was able to make the donation in his own unique way, through
volunteering. This creates an important alignment between James’ personal and
professional life: “I joined Microsoft because it shares the same passion I do
to make a positive difference in the world through the magic of software and IT
services.” (
read more stories
here)
2. TAP INTO PASSION.
To celebrate love, tap into passion. There may be nothing worse than
when the words “I love you” are spoken out of obligation. No one wants to be
loved that way; no one wants to be endured. Passion brings us to places of deep
desire. Valentine’s Day is about desire, pursuit, and longing.
Microsoft’s employee volunteering program is not an “everybody else
is doing it” initiative. Neither are they involved in an effort to appease
their employees. Rather, Microsoft is trying to change what’s normal.
Microsoft believes they can mobilize employees to volunteer in ways
that will change the world. Last year, 6,000 of the volunteers that
participated in
United Way of King
County’s Day of Caring were from Microsoft (there were a total of 11,000). How do they motivate
such impressive numbers? They fundamentally believe in the potential of
volunteering and they encourage it at every level.
When it comes to skilled volunteering, Microsoft has passion. With
highly knowledgeable and talented employees, Microsoft is working with
part-time teachers to support school districts that are unable to meet Science,
Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teaching needs because of budget cuts
or a lack of qualified teachers. In 2011, over a dozen of Microsoft employees
committed 1,598 volunteer hours to TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in
Schools), a Puget Sound nonprofit that places technology professionals in
elementary and high school classes to teach science, technology, engineering
and math (STEM) subjects. Over 800 students benefited from the efforts of these
employees and the passion of the company to make a difference.
3. BE EXTRAVAGANT.
Love is romantic when it’s lavish. A card and flowers might be a
lovely gift - but don’t just pick up the flowers on the way home from work and
don’t just sign the card, “from me.” Go out of your way. Say something
unexpected. Be extravagant.
How about sending the flowers to the office? And in the card, include
a poem. (It doesn’t have to be your poem, but it does have to be your
handwriting.) Go one step farther than your partner would have imagined.
Remember, convenience and ease are not love.
Microsoft is ridiculously extravagant when it comes to employee
giving and volunteering. Many companies talk about high participation rates
during their annual giving campaign: 75%, 80% even 90%. This past year
Microsoft’s
participation rate was 64% or 35,500 employees. Yet they out-gave and out-volunteered
most other companies their size or larger in 2011: to the tune of almost $3000
per employee.
This is the number that tells the real story. It’s not about how
many people participated, it’s about the total matched gift per employee. Participation
is a feel-good number; giving per employee is the real number.
Results like this are only possible when a company is committed to
extravagant giving.
Here’s the
breakdown by Kathleen Hogan and S. Somasegar, the executive co-chairs of the
2011 Giving Campaign:
“Each full-time,
U.S. based Microsoft employee receives an annual $12,000 benefit that matches
donations, dollar-for-dollar, to eligible nonprofits. In 2011, 35,500 employees
donated to support more than 18,000 community organizations across the globe.
If an employee wishes to volunteer their personal time, we honor that donation,
too. Employee volunteer time is matched $17/hour to their chosen organization.
In 2011, employees committed 426,671 hours which raised $7.2 million for
nonprofits. That brings the total number of volunteering hours to 1.7 million
hours since we started tracking in 2006.”
Microsoft plans to significantly increase their overall
participation rate next year. With their commitment to extravagant giving, next
year’s results should be impressive.
This Valentine’s Day, take Microsoft’s lead: Cater to Individuality,
Tap Into Passion, and Be Extravagant. Follow the philosophy of a company that
intends to change the world – and you just might change your world too.
Full Disclosure: This blog post is
inspired by a 2011 trip to the company’s Redmond campus that was sponsored
by Microsoft. They kindly covered all of our travel related costs. We
received no fees for writing or posting this article.
Realized Worth works with companies to engage employees in corporate citizenship initiatives. Call us to chat: 317.371.4435
This Valentine's Day, Think Like Microsoft
