Microsoft donates $1.5M in software to local Long Island non-profits

Microsoft giving back

Good guy Microsoft. They open a new retail Store in the heart of busy Long Island but also worked heavily with the community. Members of the Huntington and Melville business councils were on hand as were a few charity and support groups. 

GG Ballmer

Those groups were there because as a tradition when Microsoft opens these stores they do out-reaches to the community for support. In turn, they donated $1.5 million in software licenses to three major groups in the area:

  • The Children's Aid Society ($250K)
  • The Mentoring Partnership of Long Island ($250K)
  • Junior Achievement ($1M)

The money will go a long way in helping those group build up and maintain necessary infrastructure with Microsoft software. We only point this out because Apple rarely gives to charity (estimated to be 0.1 percent of the company's cash holdings) and they never really work with communities on such a level. Meanwhile as of 2011, Microsoft has donated $3.9 billion worth of software to non-profits. And while Apple has recently donated $100M to two organizations, Microsoft's own employees matched that in 2011.

Look, charity is charity so in the end, it's nice to see any company doing anything. But as someone who actually lives in this local community where Microsoft just opened for business, it feels nice to have a company offering their assistance. And I don't remember Apple doing anything similar.

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.