Another year, another reason to celebrate Yahoos giving back around the world! For the past 11 years, the Yahoo! Employee Foundation (YEF) has been empowering Yahoos to give back and make a difference in their community. The statistics below are a reminder of how much they’ve accomplished along the way.

• More than $10 million in grants have been given to 350 nonprofit organizations;
• More than 300 passionate Yahoo! employees have successfully championed grants for their favorite nonprofit;
• At least 1 in 2 Yahoos in the U.S. have donated to YEF.

These numbers blow me away every year because YEF is run solely by Yahoo! employee volunteers. Yahoos donate all of the money, champion all of the grants, and organize all volunteer activities, whether it is hosting a backpack drive or renovating homes. And YEF funds focus on the areas of youth and education, community building and families, and the environment, areas which were chosen by—you guessed it—our employees. One of the best parts of YEF is that by simply donating $50, an employee can champion their favorite organization for a grant of up to $40,000. That’s pretty amazing.

This summer, we’re celebrating YEF globally, in offices from Sunnyvale to New York to London to Taiwan. We’ll also have hands-on volunteer activities in most of our offices: Sunnyvale Yahoos will be putting together educational activity kits for Resource Area for Teachers, while New York Yahoos will be handwriting letters to terminally ill children for Make a Child Smile. This is our way of thanking all the incredible Yahoos who have donated their time and talents to support causes they care about. It is at times like these when I am especially proud to be a Yahoo.

Rachana Choubey
Global Front Doors