Re-gifting with a vengeance

Posted December 19th, 2006 at 9:15 pm by Nicki Dugan, Blog Editor

 8 Comments / Filed in: Working at Yahoo!

I’d like to say something about our founders, because they’ll never say it about themselves: They’re nice guys. Quintessentially nice guys. Every year Jerry & David reach into their own pockets to buy gifts for all good little Yahoos around the globe. Never mind that those Yahoos are brushing up against the 12,000 mark. And that Jerry & David hand-deliver to as many of those as possible.

It’s a wonderful tradition everyone looks forward to. Since I joined Yahoo!, I’ve received a purple North Face sleeping bag (back when sleeping under your desk was en vogue), a Compaq MP3 player (it was 32MB, but it was so rad at the time), two jackets (with clever messages on the label), a wool blanket with snowflakes constructed from Y’s, and a purple gym bag (were we working too hard?).

This year’s choice was decidedly different. In a really good way. David handed me an envelope with a card inside that said:

“A sleeping bag. A blanket. A jacket. Just a few of the gifts we’ve given you through the years.”

Inside, it said:

“This year we’re helping you give all those things and more to someone in need. Yep, we’re finally giving you something you’re supposed to re-gift. A hundred bucks to be exact. Go ahead, spend it all in one place. (And feel good doing it… after all, it’s for charity.)”

How cool is that? You could choose from over a million charities (under four partner organizations – Network for Good, DonorsChoose, GlobalGiving and Yahoo! Employee Foundation India/Parikrma) and were invited to share your donation story on a special internal microsite to inspire others or rally group impact.

I’ve discovered the coolest part about this gift is reading up on all the causes we Yahoos from around the world are into… and the personal stories that go with them. From big national charities (American Cancer Society) to the more esoteric (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls). From low-income kids (The Princess Project) to nature (California Native Plant Society) to animals (The House Rabbit Society). From music (Mr. Holland’s Opus) to math (MathCounts Foundation). The donations are as diverse as Yahoos, though it appears the Yahoo! Employee Foundation India/Parikrma is considerably closer to its goal of building a new elementary school. Witness the difference a sea of conspiring cube-mates can make.

David apparently got the inspiration for this idea last summer when some employees asked if they could forego the 2005 holiday gift and donate the cash to Hurricane Katrina victims instead. It was too late by then — thousands of jackets were already on order — but it got him and Jerry thinking.

Well over a million dollars later, Yahoos around the world are feeling particularly good about re-gifting… and about our nice-guy founders.

Nicki Dugan
Editor, Yodel Anecdotal

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8 Comments Add your own

Todd | December 20th, 2006 at 1:36 pm

Over $1.1 million to charity soooo beats 11,000 new jackets. I gave my $100 to Greenpeace. More companies should do this.

Wal-Mart should do this.

Mo Kakwan | December 20th, 2006 at 11:31 pm

I love the Yahoo vibe. Good people. Good products. Merry Christmas Yahoo!

Charlie | December 21st, 2006 at 10:01 am

That’s a wonderful project. Kudos to Yahoo!for giving to the needy and allowing their people to be involved.

Our church did something like this. One week instead of taking up an offering, we gave everyone in the congregation $10 cash (about 3,000 people). Our job was to use it to help someone in need and report back on the stories. People were helped all over the world (one man used it to buy stamps and sent letters to friends who donated money to buy Bibles for people in Russia)… one man gave it to a person at his work who needed a new refrigerator … another person bought a homeless person lunch with it and sat down and visited with him (much more valuable than the lunch, I’m sure).

You get the picture. This is a great project which could be adopted by companies, churches, school groups, Boy/Girl Scouts, etc. It not only provides funds for people in need, but it involves people and makes us think about how valuable $10 is…and how we can help others…and sometimes it results in real relationships.

God bless you all at this loving time of

alan | December 21st, 2006 at 3:34 pm

Jerry & David’s annual gift was one of the things I loved most about working at Yahoo!. I started in 97 and left in ‘02 and in that time it grew from a few boxes of gifts to a mammoth international undertaking involving complex supply chain issues, international customs issues, and worse. Yet Jerry and Filo persevered because their relationship with people mattered.

This xmas the family and I are skiing in Canada and I’ll be proudly wearing both my Yahoo! fleece tops while I’m there - I think those things will last forever. When I wear them, I remember all the good times I had working at the Y.

This year I’ve contributed US$100 via Oxfam online in memory of the good times and good people I remember from my days wearing the purple and yellow.

Keep up the good giving, Filo & Jerry!

- alan

Vicki Wootton | December 23rd, 2006 at 4:41 am

I applaud the founders of Yahoo for involving their employees in their generous giving.
I believe that meeting the recipients face-to-face and showing them that you respect them is almost as important as the giving.
I’d like to tell you about my favorite homeless person. Every morning when I walked to work in Vancouver, he would be sitting on the pavement outside MacDonald’s with his back to the road, even in the rain. Everyone who walked past received a cheeerful “good morning!” and the day’s weather forecast. He didn’t have a radio or TV (his home was under the Granville Street Bridge); he forecast by studying the sky. One morning, I said “I’m sorry I haven’t got any change today.” He replied, “That’s all right, don’t worry. God bless you.”
Once he was missing for a few days, but he came back. I felt uncomfortable talking to him because I always seemed to be hovering over him where he sat on the ground, so one day I crouched down and had a brief conversation. He told me about how some thugs had attacked him at night under his bridge. They’d beaten him and stolen the small amount of cash he’d had on him, and he’d had to go to the hospital. There was a story about it in the local paper.
That’s when I decided to invite him for lunch. We went to a yuppy fast-food place in a nearby mall (not MacDonalds) and I heard more of his story, how he’d lost his job and ended up on the street. He was a nice man who managed to keep himself clean and neat-looking. He’d recently been offered a job as a counterman by friendly restaurant owner, but he needed a white shirt and some pants for work. This restauranteur often gave my friend a discount meal after the rush-hour traffic was over. I gave him a few dollars to help buy his uniform and said goodbye. I never saw him again outside MacDonalds, but I like to imagine him living in a warm room somewhere, and exchanging a few cheerful words with the customers at his new workplace every day.

Brian Carpani | December 24th, 2006 at 2:45 am

From a non-employee but avid Yahoo’r.. This is one of the greatest corporate gifts I have ever heard of. You all should be very proud of your founders.

Keep up the great work (and community support)!!!

Ajith Sankar | December 26th, 2006 at 1:31 am

Good Wishes to the new gift initiative. And let such tribe increase in the world.

I’ve been more or less a Google Fan when it comes to searches. While am not going to say now that i have shifted to Yahoo Search, i would like to say this: Thankyou for giving me an opportunity to use your search technology which helps hundreds of charities based in USA.

I use a searchsite called http://www.goodsearch.com, a search engine that uses Yahoo search technology. And they’ve been doing some wonderful work. They wouldn’t have been able to do that without you.

Kudos, Yahoo!

michael | December 29th, 2006 at 10:10 pm

i have removed the yahoo tv listing. It just blows! And now it has a glitch and doesn’t even list the tv programing, just blank fields.