It’s noon on a Friday, but a group of Microsoft employees is focused on something more important than lunch. They’ll spend the next hour helping a local nonprofit that’s working to give impoverished children with a common birth defect the ability to walk for the first time.
“Micro-volunteering” efforts like this give employees a convenient way to do something meaningful without extensive training, an ongoing commitment, or, in many cases, even leaving the Microsoft campus. They’re one way to give at a company deeply committed to doing just that.
“This is part of the reason why I came to work here. Microsoft is an excellent organization that really cares what’s going on around the world,” says Mia Kim, human resources manager for the company’s Applications and Services Group. “I’m excited that I can come out during my lunch break and do this.”