Five Moments in 2020 that Inspired Me

2020 was, without a doubt, a challenging and at times overwhelming year. However, the challenges over the last year – from the pandemic to confronting severe inequities in the U.S. and abroad – have also catalyzed people to step up and support one another in innovative and inspiring ways.

I learned a great deal in 2020 that I will take into this new year, and while this is certainly a difficult time for so many people, it is also a time of great opportunity. I’m grateful for my colleagues, and for our grantees and partners around the world who—despite unprecedented obstacles—moved at speed to help address these challenges and continue to support our communities. As we start 2021, I’d like to share five moments that inspired me and taught me new lessons or reinforced old ones that I will take into the year ahead.

1. The global skills initiative. In June 2020, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub launched a global skills initiative in response to COVID-19, aimed at helping 25 million people worldwide get the digital skills needed to secure jobs that are available right now. The initiative is specifically focused on helping people whose jobs were impacted by COVID-19, often women and people of color who already face barriers to training. Through our digital training tools, the skills of today and tomorrow are accessible to people around the world.

This initiative was a reminder of what you can achieve when you rally people around an ambitious North Star and work across organizational boundaries, leaning into the unique strengths of your organization. I also think if you don’t have a certain amount of angst about the goals you have set, you are probably not aiming high enough!  

2. A further commitment to fight racial inequity. Last summer, Satya Nadella reiterated Microsoft’s commitment to equity, and shared the actions we’re taking to bolster our efforts to fight inequality. The company has made long-term commitments to build greater representation and a culture of inclusion within Microsoft, the tech industry, and for those who use our technology.

Microsoft is also committed to building equity in our programs that support jobseekers and digital skills development. As part of the global skills initiative, our community skills program partnered with 50 Black- and African American-led nonprofits focused on providing digital skills and job training opportunities. This program provides unrestricted cash grants and digital enablement to help these organizations increase the much-needed and impactful work they are already doing. In addition, the Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African American Communities program uses data, technology and partnerships to help 1000 organizations across the country with technical solutions essential to their work. We are also expanding the Microsoft TEALS program to bring computer science education to an additional 620 high schools primarily serving Black and African American students. We are investing in organizations that are doing important work to improve equity, such as GiveBlck, which enables donors to easily find and support Black-led nonprofits, which have traditionally received disproportionately less funding. For example, between 2016 and 2018, $2.2 billion was given by 25 foundations to nonprofits across 25 U.S. cities; only 1% of that went to organizations serving the Black and African American communities.

There is no quick fix to these systemic issues, which have existed for generations. We need to help spotlight and elevate partners and organizations that are already doing great work and continue to apply our values of diversity and inclusion across our business models and work culture. I’m inspired by the commitments Microsoft has made and continues to make to support racial equity, and this year has shone a harsh light on the need to continue to educate ourselves about these issues and be aware of our own unconscious biases and how these may show up in the work we do.

For 10 years, TEALS has provided nearly 85,000 students with access to computer science.

3. Celebrating three years of TechSpark. In 2017, we launched TechSpark, a civic initiative designed to foster greater economic opportunity and job creation in partnership with local communities. We focus on digital inclusion initiatives including computer science education and digital skills for employment, digital business transformation, and access to broadband. We do this in seven regions across the U.S. in close partnership with local private, public and civic organizations who are leading this work. Our regional TechSpark managers are from the communities they serve, and their impact has shown time and again how important it is to have people on the ground who know our partners and the communities first-hand and can tell us what’s working and what isn’t.

So far, we’ve helped to support vibrant startup accelerators, partner with 300 nonprofits, bring computer science education to 50,000 students, reskill 60,000 adults, and provide critical broadband access to underserved communities. Microsoft’s investments have brought an additional $25 million in support to the TechSpark regions through public and private sector partnerships.

TechSpark reminded us how important it is that we listen and learn from local leaders in all the communities in which we invest around the world. And how important it is to learn about the challenges and opportunities in these communities before thinking that we know what would be helpful. There is no program that has a ‘one size fits all’ approach. We should look for opportunities to learn from and empower the people who are already doing the work to make a greater impact. Taking the time to learn from community isn’t extra, it’s essential.

Mike Egan, front left, with TechSpark managers J.J. Childress and Omar Saucedo with graduates from the Bridge Accelerator in Juarez, Mexico

4. Fundraising and Engagement for Dynamics 365. In response to the pandemic and the rapid rate of digital transformation facing the nonprofit industry, we launched Fundraising and Engagement for Dynamics 365, built in collaboration with MISSION CRM, to help nonprofits leverage the data and technology tools they need to meet their fundraising goals and drive greater mission impact. This is built upon the Common Data Model released in 2017, which helps nonprofits use data across applications and platforms. With Fundraising and Engagement, nonprofits have a more affordable way to modernize their fundraising and constituent management programs and transform how they manage their fundraising operations.

MISSION CRM’s work with Right To Play demonstrates the scale of impact this solution can have. Right To Play has digitized its operations to help with outreach to acquire new donors, something it had previously done manually, which caused frequent challenges and delays. Since they started using the solution, Right To Play has gone from gaining 100 new monthly donors to 3,000! The automation of several processes also frees up more time for Right To Play staff to invest in developing relationships and programs, as well as being able to leverage data to provide donors with greater transparency about the impact of their donations.

At Microsoft, we have a unique opportunity to help organizations on the frontline leverage technology to build their capacity to provide critical services, especially in the most challenging of circumstances like the pandemic. The ability to create industry-specific tools for the nonprofit sector helps these organizations advance their own missions and reach more of the beneficiaries they serve.  Right To Play’s ability to increase their monthly donors by almost 3000% is a reminder of the incredible impact the right solution can have on a nonprofit’s ability to strengthen and scale their organization.

5. Employee Engagement. We often say that giving is in our DNA. Microsoft employees have been making a difference in Seattle and beyond since 1983 but last year our culture of giving was stronger than it’s ever been. In June, Microsoft reached a new milestone of over $2 billion in employee giving (including company match) since the start of the program. From July 2019 to July 2020, Microsoft employees donated $221 million (inclusive of company match) to more than 30,000 nonprofits worldwide and volunteered more than 750,000 hours in the US alone. These results remind us of the generosity of Microsoft employees, the diversity of the organizations and causes they care about, and the collective power of our employee engagement program. Behind the numbers are real people and real lives being impacted.

There is nothing quite as unifying as a global pandemic and if there was a silver lining to these challenging times, it is perhaps the extraordinary level of collaboration we saw – both internally and externally – to find ways to help.

I’m optimistic for what’s to come and I hope this post encourages you to reflect on what you’ve learned from 2020, and what you will take with you as we start 2021.

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