October is Microsoft’s annual giving month.
There is no question that this event planted the seed in me that ultimately grew into A Handful of Coins. But I’m worried we are planting fewer seeds today.
I worked at Microsoft half a lifetime ago, for three years, in my mid-twenties. I was not, at that time, particularly concerned about charity. My friends and I lived in Belltown and went clubbing 3-4 nights a week. My ~$70K salary went toward new clothes, what I felt was a relatively luxurious one-bedroom Belltown apartment, and an ancient 17-foot speedboat we named The Suede Lightning on account of its horrible 1970s-era beige interior trim.
And yet, every October when I went to work I remember a big push from Microsoft’s leadership to support charities. There was a company match which made giving more impactful. There were little plastic bracelets given to employees who donated at least $1,000 which made giving more visible. And there was an auction where the senior leaders of the company would donate items and employees could bid on them.
The auction is what really made it fun. Bill Gates would offer a tour of his home every year. Steve Ballmer offered a one-on-one basketball game. Chris Liddell, the head of the finance organization offered a weekend with his Aston Martin DB9. Regrettably, I never actually bid on any of these items, but I remember thinking for the first time that supporting charity could be a lot of fun.
Almost everyone got involved somehow. The head of our 20-person team would let us shave his head if we raised $10K or more as a group, and we always hit that goal.
It all came from the top.
Think what you will of the choices Gates made in his life. He was a ruthless businessperson, had an affair with a Microsoft employee, and maintained at least some sort of relationship with Jeffrey Epstein despite pleas from his wife to end it. But his charitable work is almost unparalleled. He started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, a few years before I joined the company. Today, he’s given away ~$60B, with plans to give away “virtually all” of his remaining ~$120B in his lifetime.
This generosity is even more striking when you compare him to his big tech peers. Jeff Bezos has given away ~1.5% of his $250B to date. Larry Ellison has given less than 1% of his ~$345B. And Elon Musk has given only a smidge above 0.1% of his $453B personally while playing a central role in dismantling USAID, which previously provided ~$35-40B in foreign aid each year.
It’s clear that Gates’ generosity is reflected in Microsoft’s workforce. According to a LinkedIn post from Brad Smith, Microsoft’s President, last year Microsoft employees donated $263M (that’s over $1,000 per employee) and volunteered 1.2M hours (over 5 hours per person). Pretty impressive stuff.
By the time I arrived at Amazon in 2020, I had a lot more experience but I also felt a lot more privileged. Yet Amazon didn’t have that culture of giving. Leadership didn’t provide a match to increase our impact, or a bracelet to make it visible, or an auction to make it fun. Amazon does have a Global Month of Volunteering, and the team tried to organize itself to volunteer at Ballard Food Bank a few times. But it was never the priority and the effort always fell through.
If you work at a company with a bit less charity in its culture, consider following Microsoft’s example this October. Volunteer a few hours or donate what you can. Encourage your team to come out en masse and, if you’re in a position to do so, give them the day off to do it. Maybe it will plant a seed that will grow into something bigger than you expect.