Thank You Yahoos!

19 Dec 2008
 

Thank You Yahoos!, originally uploaded by Kelly Hirano.

Yesterday at work, a wonderful thing happened. Again.

Every year, Yahoo!’s around the world get a holiday present. In the past, the present has ranged from a custom Yahoo!opoly game to a Yahoo! blanket to a jacket to a sleeping bag. What I don’t think many people realize is that this gift isn’t from the company, it’s directly from our founders, Jerry and Filo. In fact, it’s so direct that they walk around the campus and hand out these gifts directly to employees. Say what you want about their leadership of the company, but their generosity and genuine concern for us is awesome.

Last year, every employee was given $100 to donate to charity. Given the company situation, economy, etc, this year that number was reduced to $50. However, given around 14,000 employees, that’s around $700k that various charities will receive that they wouldn’t have received otherwise. Thanks to some internal campaigning (and knowing that Chuck once worked on this project) I selected a few teachers from DonorsChoose.org to receive my donation. There are so many charities out there, but with DonorsChoose you know your money goes directly to a teacher who has a specific desire to make the lives of their students better.

Given all of the bad press that gets out there about Yahoo!, positive news is always nice. Thanks, Jerry and Filo!