14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft, both as a company and as the sum of its people, is deeply involved in a variety of philanthropic efforts, and the software giant was one of the first organizations to react to the news of the earthquake in Haiti. Akhtar Badshah, senior director, Global Community Affairs, revealed that the Redmond company was ready to offer over $12.5 million in order to support the relief efforts in Haiti. At the same time, Badshah revealed that Microsoft supported NetHope’s focus on ensuring that the world’s top humanitarian relief organizations were ready to tackle crisis situations such as the one in Haiti.
“Microsoft is making an initial commitment of $1.25 million, which includes cash and in-kind contributions,” Badshah explained. However, Microsoft is doing so much more in addition to the $1.25 million donation. In this regard, the company has already activated the NetHope Emergency Working Group. It is the Group’s responsibility to make sure that basic telecommunications infrastructure is set up in order to allow relief agencies operating in affected areas to communicate.
The NetHope Haiti Emergency Center is also already active, Badshah added. The NetHope Haiti Emergency Center has been designed as a secure application built on top of SharePoint, capable of centralizing reports, events, contact lists and collaboration data for NetHope members.
“By activating our Disaster Response team- a dedicated group that plans how our company, people and partners can be mobilized during issues such as this- through outreach to lead government, inter-government and non-government agencies involved in leading local and global response efforts. We’re currently engaged with humanitarian relief organizations to assess how we can make a difference. More information on Microsoft Disaster Response is on our Microsoft Corporate Citizenship website” Badshah said.
Microsoft promises that its web properties, including MSN and Bing, will also be made available in order to drive awareness and donations. “We have issued an appeal to our employees to support the relief organizations working in Haiti – we match our US based employees donations up to $12,000. We are working with impacted customers and partners to help get critical systems up and running,” Badshah noted.