With the catastrophic events that have unfolded in Japan over the past month, it has been encouraging to see the outpouring of compassion and support from Yahoo! users. Since March 11th, Yahoo!’s global user base has contributed over $7.1 million in donations. In addition, over $570K has been raised between Yahoo! employees and the company match.

Our partner, Yahoo! Japan, has launched a series of charity auctions to support organizations like the Japanese Red Cross Society in the ongoing relief efforts. It is a global charity auction that is open to all Yahoo! users, and can be viewed in English, French, Italian and Russian. Many Japanese celebrities, musicians, and athletes have confirmed their participation. In addition, Yahoo! Japan has partnered with omg!, Yahoo! Music, and Yahoo! Sports to invite Hollywood celebrities and athletes to provide auction items. Already, pop music trendsetter, Britney Spears has committed to auctioning an outfit she wore for a Japanese candy commercial, and actors Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and James Franco are contributing autographed T-shirts.

Yahoo! Japan continues to be dedicated to providing news, communication tools and evacuation support for people affected by the disaster. Yahoo! Japan has also found important ways to help accelerate recovery efforts by leveraging its key destinations to get more information and details distributed. For example, Yahoo! Japan Healthcare provides a list of hospitals and medical clinics in affected areas that are still accepting new patients. Yahoo! Japan Kids has also launched a special page to support affected children; it includes information for parents to help children cope, as well as an area for children to post encouraging thoughts to support children in impacted areas.

The Yahoo! Japan Foundation has also set up a donation program to raise funds for the Japanese Red Cross Society. As of March 25^th, the foundation has raised ¥1.38B JPY (≈$16.4M USD) from 868,000 users, and has plans to match up to ¥100M JPY (≈$12.3M USD). For more on how you can help, visit the Yahoo! News donation page for a wide variety of non-profit organizations.

It is humbling and inspiring to see how our global audience and employees have shown their continued compassion and concern for everyone in Japan. The power of our users, combined with the Internet, have created positive, lasting effects throughout the world and truly shows How Good Grows on Yahoo!.

-Yahoo! Japan Foundation