05 December 2008
by Allison Kubota, Intel

Santa Clara, CA, USA: Despite challenging economic times and cutbacks, many global corporations are still committed to giving back. From Google, Intel and Johnson & Johnson to the Gates Foundation, large corporate donors are recognizing that giving back to their communities is critical – now more than ever.
 
For example, earlier this year, Intel CEO Paul Otellini pledged that in honour of the corporation’s 40th anniversary, Intel employees would collectively give one million hours of volunteer time back to their communities. Additionally, Otellini announced that Intel would expand the company’s long-time volunteer matching grant program, to match volunteer hours at local schools and non-profit organizations with cash grants from the Intel Foundation.

On International Volunteer day, 5 December, the company will announce that the one million hour milestone has been reached and that it will donate approximately $8 million to its communities.
 
In addition, the Intel Foundation has pledged to maintain its levels of commitment in 2009 – including the recently announcement $120 million commitment to encourage more youth to participate in maths and science (the single largest donation ever by the Foundation.)
 
Throughout the course of 2008, 54 percent of Intel’s employees volunteered in more than 40 countries and with over 5,500 non-profits. Some examples of the projects they worked on include:

• Using expertise honed at Intel, a group of employees from Intel’s New Mexico human resources group held a career clinic at a family services centre, helping clients update resumes, complete job applications, and provide interviewing tips.
• Roughly 4000 employees volunteered at 40 food banks throughout the US where they collected more than 14 tonnes of food. Additionally, five teams of employees from Intel’s Hudson, MA campus volunteered more than 400 hours at the Brigham Hill Farm for the Community Harvest Project, Inc., which grows fresh seasonal produce for the Greater Worcester Food Bank.
• In San Jose, California, near Intel’s Santa Clara headquarters, Intel employees and the national non-profit, Lose the Training Wheels, helped youths with disabilities learn to ride bikes and ultimately gain confidence and independence.
• In Massachusetts, a program to save a nearly extinct bird called the kestrel is way ahead of schedule thanks to Intel employees who built the wooden boxes required for nesting.
• Globally, Intel employees mentored disadvantaged youth in Brazil, adopted turtles in Malaysia, made stuffed bears for children in hospitals in Micronesia, taught geometry, physics and other subjects to Israeli students, and teamed up with paramedics to conduct health screenings in Turkish villages.