Microsoft’s annual Employee Giving Campaign raises $63 million for various chartiable organizations, and receives almost no media coverage. Meanwhile search engine giant Google donates $30 thousand to Creative Commons, generating 2100 times the media coverage of Microsoft.
For the first time in years angry bloggers do not have ammunition to fire at Microsoft. The company’s annual Employee Giving Campaign generated $63 million to disperse among deserving charities this year, but do not be surprised if you haven’t heard much about it. Apparently philanthropic accolades are strictly reserved for those with the best marketing departments.
After Microsoft concluded it’s annual Employee Giving Campaign, they announced to their employees and the public that they had raised $2.5 billion for charity since 1983.
In 2006 alone Microsoft’s employees donated over $31 million of his or her own money to the campaign. In turn Microsoft matches any employee donations, generating a grand total of $63 million for various charities and AIDS research.
The Employee Giving Campaign, according to Microsoft’s website, “allows its employees to direct corporate contributions to thousands of nonprofit organizations working to improve lives in the United States and around the world. Donations that U.S.-based employees make to eligible nonprofits are matched dollar for dollar by the company, up to $12,000 each year”.
Search engine Google has also recently made a charitable donation, to the tune of a whopping $30, 000, to Creative Commons to enable the company to open a licensing organization.
While donating money to any organization could be considered charitable, the amount seems to be petty when the fact that Google grossed over $800, 000, 000 in the last quarter alone is taken into consideration.
This donation garnered a tremendous amount of press and earned Google praise from critics in a time when the company is in a proverbial rut.
Why then, has a company that gave so much of its employee’s donated money to charities received so little press? The answer lies in the marketing departments of both companies.
Google’s marketing department, based on the dollar amount donated by each company, generated 2100 times the press than that of Microsoft’s.
Apparently no good deed goes unpublicized, and the amount of publicity depends not upon the generosity of the organization, but rather the marketing department.
Add to 
Autmn Davis is a staff writer for Murdok covering ebusiness and technology.
