Throughout the year, the Yahoo! Employee Foundation (YEF) helps Yahoos to have a bigger impact on the causes they care about through volunteering, championing a grant, or donating. As the holiday season approaches, YEF chapters across the U.S. look for special ways to help Yahoos make a difference in their communities.

Each office takes a unique approach to giving back around the holidays. Here’s a look at some of the great work the YEF chapters have done this season to spread cheer.

At the headquarters in Sunnyvale, Yahoo! held its 2011 Holiday Wish Drive to help over 250 Bay Area social service agencies deliver gifts to children and seniors in need this season. The drive was a huge success: 369 gifts, not including online and monetary donations, were contributed by December 14.

The Omaha, Nebraska office pulled together to help at-risk children by collecting donations for a non-profit throwing a New Year’s Eve party for the kids who stay on their campus over the holidays. The Omaha office’s contribution will make a big difference in giving deserving kids a memorable New Year’s Eve.

In New York City, Yahoos contributed to a canned food drive which ran from November 21 through December 15. Donations went to the city’s major hunger-relief organization serving the five boroughs and helping to provide 400,000 free meals a day. With the help of Yahoo! this holiday season, food will be distributed to a network of approximately 1,000 community-based member programs citywide.

The Champaign, Illinois office held its Holiday Wish List drive from November 28-December 15, collecting gifts for children and adolescents with serious emotional and behavioral disabilities. This is Champaign’s fifth year participating in a holiday wish list drive.

A food drive was held in November in Hillsboro, Oregon to benefit a nearby food bank. In December, the focus moved to a letter writing and item drive to contribute to care packages sent to U.S. Service Members deployed around the world as well as to their children and veterans. The mission is to lift morale and express appreciation and support to our troops. Hillsboro Yahoos have been participating in the letter writing campaign for over a year, and added the item drive over the holidays.

The Burbank, California office is also participating in a letter writing drive for care packages sent to members of the armed forces serving around the world. In addition, a turkey drive on November 16 and 17 collected frozen turkeys and grocery store gift cards. The Little & BIG Yahoos Swap, which took place on November 29, collected items for Little Yahoos in need including clothing, books, games, and toys, and items for Big Yahoos including kitchenware, home and garden items, and electronics. And finally, the Holiday Collection Drive began on November 14 and runs through December 22 to collect toys, athletic socks for the homeless, and non-perishable food.

Last but not least, a toy drive is being held in Boston for a local anti-poverty agency, helping to collect toys that are distributed to thousands of under-privileged children in the Boston area. Boston Yahoos also participated in the toy drive last year, providing roughly 100 wrapped toys.

Through projects like these organized by dedicated YEF chapters around the country, and the generous donations made by Yahoos in each location, Yahoo! is working to spread holiday cheer far outside the office walls.

Today, Yahoo! is asking our community of users to join forces and help honor some of the bravest heroes of 9/11 by contributing to the memorial for the victims of United Flight 93, which crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA.

The Flight 93 National Memorial will cover 2,200 acres, and will include a memorial wall, a grove of 40 trees (one for each passenger or crew member who died), and eventually, a 93-foot “tower of voices,” comprising 40 wind chimes.

Donors have already given $52 million to fund the $62 million memorial. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) are putting party differences aside to raise the remaining funds, and Yahoo! is joining their effort.

We are asking for your support to raise the $10 million still needed to complete the memorial honoring those that gave their lives on Flight 93 to save others. For today only, we have added a link to Yahoo.com enabling users to donate to the completion of the memorial. You can also visit www.honorflight93.org/donate to make a contribution.

Please help the completed Flight 93 National Memorial become a reality by sharing this initiative with your friends, families and social media networks.

As part of the Homepages for Homerooms program, Yahoo! is partnering with DonorsChoose.org, a reputable education non-profit that reaches 40% of schools in the U.S. and has helped raise over $85M in funding for U.S. public schools. Now through October 16th, public school teachers who place a project on DonorsChoose.org will be eligible to receive funding for their projects from Yahoo!. During this period, Yahoo! will donate $200,000 across the projects that generate the most support. Anyone can support a project by making Yahoo! their homepage, and additionally, by participating in bi-weekly extra credit challenges.

Getting involved is quick, easy, and not to mention, free. If you are a teacher who already has a project posted on DonorsChoose.org, you’re all set – you are immediately eligible to participate in Homepages for Homerooms. If you don’t have a project already submitted but are seeking funding for your educational project, visit www.donorschoose.org to enter.

Once you’re up and running, start encouraging the members of your community to make Yahoo! their homepage in support of your DonorsChoose.org project. We’ll do our part by rallying supporters across our network and promoting the program amongst our vast community of users, connecting you with people interested in supporting projects like yours. Your individual act of support for your project, combined with the support of Yahoo!’s network, could result in funding for an educational project that matters to you. That’s another example of How Good Grows on Yahoo!.

Three easy steps to supporting a teacher’s project:

1. Visit yahoo.homepagesforhomerooms.com/projects and find a project you’d like to support.
2. Click “Support” and follow the steps to make Yahoo! your homepage. Each person may participate once.
3. Spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, word-of-mouth and more so your project of choice can get the funding it deserves.

Here’s to another great school year!

The disaster relief outreach has been a truly global effort. Yahoo! Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, India, Philippines, Hong Kong, Canada, and Brazil have all featured ways to help on their properties. In the U.S., Yahoo! News, Mail, Search, Finance, Shine, Answers, and Groups have provided ways to drive additional donations.

Via the Yahoo! homepage, users can donate to a wide variety of non-profit organizations, including the Red Cross, International Medical Corps, Salvation Army, and Convoy of Hope. Funds are used to provide necessities such as clean water, food, and blankets as well as medical clinics, shelters, and other basic services.

Yahoo! employees are also making personal contributions to help those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Yahoo! is matching all employee disaster relief donations at a rate of 2:1, up from the traditional 1:1 match, with a minimum donation of $100,000. In addition, the Yahoo! Employee Foundation has made a grant of $50,000 to the American Red Cross.

In Tokyo, our partners at Yahoo! Japan have fought through blackouts and communication outages to stay up and running. Their homepage currently features comprehensive information on the state of infrastructure, traffic, services, and assistance throughout the country. They have also partnered with telecommunication companies to provide a people finder with voice messages that can help residents locate their loved ones.

It has been truly impressive to see how quickly our audience and employees have jumped in to show their compassion and concern for everyone in Japan. It shows that even in these hard times, we can come together to make a powerful difference. This has been a true testament to How Good Grows on Yahoo!.

To learn more about how you can make a difference, visit Yahoo!’s How to Help page.

-Erin Carlson, Senior Director of Yahoo! for Good

As our latest example of How Good Grows on Yahoo!, we’re encouraging you to share what matters to you, safely. We’ll be posting questions over the next few months to give you the opportunity to share your answers with the Yahoo! community.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, join us in kicking off the program by telling the world about a woman (across the globe, across the room, or across the ages) who amazes you.  Share your thoughts at howgoodgrows.safely.yahoo.com and see what people around the world are saying. Then keep coming back to the site to see other women who’ve made their mark.

International Women’s Day is just one opportunity you’ll have to share safely. Keep your eyes open for more opportunities to share:

Mother’s Day (May 8th)  – My mom’s best advice was…
Memorial Day (May 30th) – Today, and always, I remember…
International Children’s Day (June 1st) – A child taught me…

Join us in sharing what’s important to you. Spread the word, and watch How Good Grows on Yahoo!

The Singapore chapter of the Yahoo! Employee Foundation had a chance to host the choir as they visited Singapore for a concert. Working with World Vision and an arts and craft store called “Made with Love”, 20 Watoto children and accompanying adults visit the Yahoo! Singapore office for a scrapbook making session. The children had wanted to make scrapbooks as mementos of their trip and 22 Yahoos volunteered to work one-on-one with them. We had several Yahoo kids join in the fun as well.

After a brief introduction and some ice-breaker games, the two instructors from “Made with Love” provided instructions on how to make the star-shaped photo album. It wasn’t as simple as it looked and it was good that each child had a Yahoo to assist in the cutting and pasting. As they worked together, the Yahoos got to chat with their charges and learn a little more about their lives. But as the craft pieces and photos came together and the scrapbooks took shape, the children were smiling broadly and began to open up more.

One of the things we learnt was how the Watoto Foundation was nurturing and training these children to be the leaders of their communities. Part of their education was to expose them to different cultures, ideas and peoples so as to open up their world and let them see the possibilities. Being part of the choir and travelling to sing in other countries helps them in this process. Never in their lives would they have imagined a chance to step beyond the borders of their villages, let alone their country.

The bonding time continued over lunch and the conversation flowed more easily. We couldn’t help but introduce foosball to the Watoto kids and adults. Frank, one of the Watoto men, played against the Yahoo kids and suffered a barrage of goals. Each time, he would wag a finger and say in mock seriousness, “You know, in Africa, we show respect for our elders. You can’t score like that against me.” The kids only grinned in response.

The afternoon concluded with us giving out some Yahoo! goodie bags and sharing hugs with the children. The choir gathered to thank us and sing a blessing for us:

We’re thankful to Mandy from World Vision and Elvira and Swee Ching from “Made with Love” for helping us bring everyone and everything together. And the newly formed YEF Singapore committee is working towards more opportunities to give back to the community. Stay tuned.

To view more photos, check out the Flickr slideshow HERE

Amos Kwok

YEF lead, Singapore

We gave a Yahoo! yodel here at Boys Town recently when Yahoo! employees Seth Dallaire, Marcus Gallo and Jason Johnson surprised us with a check for $25,000! We were blown away by their generosity!

What’s really neat to me is that how both Yahoo! and Boys Town are beacons that help people find their way. Yahoo! helps people find what they’re looking for on the internet and Boys Town helps kids and families find the help they need – and now Yahoo! is helping us do just that.

To know the care these funds are going to make available to struggling children and families amazes me. Many of them have lost their way in a confusing world. Maybe mom’s lost her job and has turned to alcohol, or Susie is skipping school to spend time with her older boyfriend. There are a thousand scenarios for the children and families we help. But what they all have in common is that they need guidance. They’re traveling down the wrong path and Boys Town has the map to success they need.

It is because of individuals and companies like Yahoo! that Boys Town is able to provide life-changing youth care and health care to nearly 370,000 children and families every year.

It all started with a dream by one man, Father Edward Flanagan, in 1917 to change the way America cared for children. His small house in Omaha, Neb., has grown to 12 sites across the country and is one of the top youth care models in the world. We provide not only physical healing, but emotional and spiritual healing as well. Father Flanagan understood the importance a person’s spiritual life has in getting better. It is an increase in spirituality and awareness of self that make the biggest difference in the life of a child.

A man who uses the character changes he sees to mold successful men is Boys Town High School Football Head Coach Kevin Kush. With Coach Kush, many of the youth in our care are part of a team for the first time. They are all working together to accomplish a common goal. Just as Coach Kush inspires his players every day on the field, Coach Kush inspired Yahoo! employees at a conference he spoke at in Phoenix. This was just the beginning of our organizations joining together to better the community.

We are incredibly thankful for the mission-driven folks at Yahoo! who are making so much possible for our children. We know times are tough, but this is when the need for our care is at its highest. Yahoo! is making that care possible.

God’s Blessings,

Father Steven Boes
Boys Town National Executive Director

This is why we are proud to announce our partnership with them today.  The campaign, Social Innovation Starts with YOU will inspire thousands of Egyptian youth to submit entrepreneurial ideas that make a positive impact on the world.   We will be making up to 10 grants to Egyptian youth, funding both new ideas as well as existing ones that need additional support to scale up.

The campaign is also aligned with the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship that the White House is hosting on April 26^th and 27^th.  Jerry Yang, our co-founder has the honor of delivering a keynote speech addressing entrepreneurship and innovation.  His personal and professional story is such a great illustration of how a couple of college students with a good idea, access to some funds and the support of mentors (oh, and a good yodel), can change the world.

Speaking of mentors, to kick off the campaign, Yahoo! is featuring entrepreneurs who will serve as role models and inspiration, and over the next few months we will ask our audience to vote on who they think has made the biggest impact on their communities.   The ‘Social Innovation Starts with YOU’ website will have lots of great information and resources for entrepreneurs, including an online toolkit of success stories, advice, and resources.

This process has been a great learning experience for me.  I initially had some beliefs that just did not prove true.  For example, the notion that entrepreneurism was somehow unique to western culture.  In fact, the Arab culture was built on a foundation of entrepreneurship with a rich history in innovation across mathematics, science and social sciences.

We are hopeful that this campaign will help draw attention to the innovation that exists in the region, fund some new enterprises, and ultimately make a positive impact on the lives of Egyptians.

For me, the spirit of entrepreneurism has always intrigued me.  The ability for people to see new solutions to old problems that provide business or social value is what makes our world continue to thrive.

I very much look forward to the reading the many innovative ideas that I’m sure we will receive.

Remember, “Be the change you want to see”, Gandhi

Meg Garlinghouse
Sr. Director, Yahoo! for Good

This past week, 100 Girl Scouts in New York City and Los Angeles participated in Yahoo!’s Purple Acts of Kindness program. These girls were empowered to make a difference in the lives of girls and women around the world by designating $50 each to one of dozens of organizations in developing countries through Global Giving.  Girl Scouts were given the opportunity to address critical issues like youth trafficking, bonded servitude, legal defense, clean water, and support for victims of domestic violence. Check out some of their experiences below.

Troop 1350 in the Bronx

Girl Scout Seniors from the Bronx donated to several charities like one in India that teaches women to run their own businesses and another in Kenya that benefits female survivors of sex trafficking. Alessandra, who chose an organization supporting female South African refugees, said that the project helped her to “know the value of giving to ones truly in need.” Abby, Victoria, and Brianna donated money to provide affordable sanitary pads for 1,500 Ugandan girls, saying, “It was hard to think about girls missing necessary stuff like that.”

The Casa Esperanza After-School Site Program in Chatsworth, CA

Juniors and Cadettes at the Casa Esperanza Program in Chatsworth donated their money to support victims of domestic violence, building projects in developing nations, and leadership programs for vulnerable women and girls. Aurora, who gave money to train 300 destitute Kenyan girls for self-reliance, told her program leader that she “wanted to help [the girls] become more independent.” Cynthia chose to support children of domestic violence survivors simply “because they need to stop getting hit.”

Brooklyn, Troop 2696 & Inglewood, Troop 7045

The girls of Troop 2696 made a group decision and contributed their 10 gift cards totaling $500 to the Kenya Legal Defense Fund for Adolescent Girls to maximize their impact on a cause they were passionate about. The Troop 7045 Cadettes of Inglewood, California also pooled their funds to provide aid to save lives with clean water in an Indian village. Troop Leader Cynthia Herron was astounded by the project’s effect on the girls, saying, “They wanted to be a part of helping someone else’s survival. It’s not ME ME ME anymore. It’s THEY THEY THEY.”

From New York to Los Angeles, one thing remains constant – with the help of Yahoo!, Girl Scouts across the nation were given the opportunity to actively engage in helping others.  As Isabella of Eastern Los Angeles put it, “It’s a great thing that Yahoo! has allowed me to help other girls and a cause that I believe in.”

If you live in the Bay Area or have visited San Francisco during the holiday season, odds are that you have seen some of the cute dogs and cats in the windows of Macy’s in Union Square, all part of the SPCA’s holiday adoption drive. With hundreds of dogs and cats in need of a home living at the shelter at any given moment and a goal to find homes for more than 4000 animals each year, the SF SPCA has a herculean task that is undertaken by hundreds of staff and volunteers at their SF HQ, which includes Maddie’s Pet Adoption Center and the Leanne B. Roberts Animal Care Center.  You can meet some of our new friends here:

When we came by to drop off our gifts, we were greeted warmly by SF SPCA President Jan McHugh-Smith and amazing employees like Susannah Dunlap.  Jan and Susannah gave us an all-access tour of their amazing new facility that offers potential pet owners the chance to see the dogs and cats in condo-like settings.  All of the cats even have their own TV sets!

We were also able to see their state-of-the-art veterinary care facility, where animals from all over the Bay Area come to get checked out and get ready for adoption.  The shelter is a no-kill facility and is often a literal safe-haven for pets from other shelters that do not have space, including the apparent overabundance of chihuahuas.

While the SF SPCA website is a great place to see all of the animals available for adoption, you can always come down to see the pets in person.  And for those of you who are socially-networked, you can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.  For a preview of some of the pets you can adopt, we’d like to introduce you to our new friend Curtis the Cat:

And as a bonus, our new friends at the SF SPCA have given us the opportunity to let our followers on Facebook and Twitter name a kitten that will be up for adoption soon–so follow us and help give Mr. Pickles a new name!

Please visit Yahoo’s You In? site to share your stories of kindness!

Happy Holidays!

Pamela Woon, Lucas Mast and Mariel Myers

Yahoo! Corporate Communications

How big is your ripple of happiness?

It doesn’t take a lot of money or time to make someone’s day.  Smiling at a stranger can be contagious.  Paying the toll fee for the car behind you may inspire them to pay it forward.  Picking up a $207 grocery bill at Trader Joe’s can turn into $23,000 in donations for the local food bank.

These heartwarming stories inspired us to launch Yahoo!’s “You In?” campaign this holiday season because we believe that one small act of kindness can create a ripple of generosity.

Help Yahoo! create a ripple of happiness around the world with random acts of kindness.  Update your online status (on Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter) to share what you’re doing to spread holiday joy at kindness.yahoo.com. Then encourage others to join you by asking “You in?”.  Yahoo! will use our network to share your good deeds with our community. We’ll also be doing our own acts of kindness inspired by your status updates.  Whether your act of kindness is buying someone’s groceries or getting warm coats to people in need, your actions will encourage others around the world to join in.

It’s your world. And it is what you make it.

How big will your ripple of happiness be?

You in?

–

Every week, Urban Sprouts’ Garden Educators visit seven different public middle and high schools in San Francisco, to teach students to build their own school gardens. Urban Sprouts helps youth grow their own fresh and healthy food right at school, while learning about healthy living, cooking, science skills, and protecting the environment.

Each day, when young people harvest potatoes they grew and turn them into French fries, or carefully weed around baby plants they grew from seed, these students change the way they feel about what foods they eat and what toxins their lifestyles contribute to our natural environment.

One major way students in San Francisco can keep the environment clean is by helping reach our city’s goal of recycling or composting 100% of the waste we produce, keeping it all out of landfills. Students in Urban Sprouts’ programs have said, “I learned how to use the compost bin and about how everything affects our earth. I want to make sure we reduce, reuse, and recycle,” and “I have already started to teach my family and friends.”

Now, San Francisco has passed a law requiring separation of compostable waste at home for curbside pick up, using kitchen pails and green garbage cans. Our friends at Yahoo! have generously funded our entire project to help students promote home composting among their peers and families.

Over 700 students at seven schools will participate, building complete compost education stations open to the public at their schools, and creating school-wide peer education campaigns to educate their schools on how to use their green garbage cans at home. Urban Sprouts students will build demonstration compost systems and worm bins, create short videos, and hand out kitchen pail liner bags as part of the campaign.

With help from Yahoo! and San Francisco’s youth, we can reach our city’s goal of Zero Waste!

Abby Jaramillo
Executive Director
Urban Sprouts

The claims are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with Iranian officials regarding the matters referenced in the article, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government. ZDNet has since called the report unreliable, but we’re disappointed we weren’t given a chance to weigh in before the story was published.

You can read more about the situation on our Business & Human Rights Program blog.

UPDATE: ZDNet retracted its story this evening.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

In 1992, I was diagnosed with breast cancer – days after I started as CEO at my last gig at Autodesk.

I feel lucky to be here sharing this with you today.

But many women are not so fortunate. The effects this disease has on those diagnosed are devastating. It’s a horrible, gut-wrenching experience, physically and emotionally. And we’re still losing the battle. Breast cancer affects 1.3 million women every year – far too many mothers, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, friends and co-workers.

That’s why this month, Yahoo! is getting involved. Some companies let you send in yogurt tops for donations or ask you to contribute at the cash register (all worthy efforts), but we wanted to do something only Yahoo! can. So we’re teaming up with the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF). For each person who updates their pink ribbon status on Yahoo! Shine and Yahoo! Mail this month, we’ll donate $1 to the NBCF (up to $50,000).

The donations will go toward free mammograms for uninsured women, in the hopes that they can benefit from early diagnosis and treatment as I did. It’s a simple way to raise awareness and empower our community of users to make a positive impact in the fight against breast cancer.

I’ve updated my status… have you?

Carol Bartz
CEO

Photo from scrapbooklady

This is significant because data centers represent the majority of our energy consumption. Keeping Yahoo! running smoothly for more than 500 million people around the world calls for a lot of server power. So we’ve made it a priority to become a leader in designing and building data centers that are environmentally sustainable, investing millions to design facilities that make the best use of the energy we consume.

Here’s what makes us so proud of our future New York data center plans. First, it will be powered by one of the cleanest utilities in the country – fed predominantly by renewable hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls. And second, a record 90% of that energy will power the servers. To put that in context, the industry average is 50% or lower, with the other half dedicated mostly to keeping the servers cool.

For data center geeks, we expect our Buffalo Lockport, NY, data center design will have an annualized average PUE (power usage effectiveness) of 1.1 or better. To achieve that, we’ve come up with a unique building design that we call the Yahoo! Computing Coop (because it looks like something chickens live in), which is angled to take advantage of Buffalo’s microclimate, using 100% outside air to cool the servers.

We’ve been pushing green data center standards since we started building our own data centers two years ago. For example, our facilities in Washington are powered by zero-carbon wind and hydroelectric sources, and we use free cooling for most of the year, dropping energy consumption by 40-50%. As we build more capacity to meet demand, we’ll continue to focus on innovations and inventions that improve energy efficiency. And we’ve been sharing best practices to encourage the entire industry to put smarter policies in play.

And we’ll continue to push ourselves hard to lower our impact. Today we’re committing to reduce the carbon intensity of our data centers by at least 40% by 2014. In other words, we’ll decrease our average electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from our data centers around the world. We’ll get there through a combination of innovative data center design, improving how we utilize our servers, cloud computing, and locating our data centers in areas where cleaner energy is available.

Reducing our carbon footprint has always been a priority and we’ve decided to focus all our energy and investment on that philosophy. We will no longer purchase carbon offsets as announced in 2007. Instead, we’ll focus our resources on reducing our carbon impact while helping the rest of the industry do the same. We believe creating highly-efficient data centers will have a greater long-term, direct impact on the environment and gives us the best opportunity to play a leadership role in addressing climate change.

So the next time you check your email, do a Yahoo! search, or get the latest environmental info on Yahoo! Green, you can feel good about putting some of the greenest data centers in the industry to work.

David Filo
Co-founder and Chief Yahoo

In the last year, we’ve seen civil marriage rights for gays and lesbians both granted and subsequently taken away from Californians, while also witnessing marriage legalized in 10% of U.S. states and even more countries in Europe. We’ve also seen a further explosion in LGBT pride celebrations across the globe. This year marks the first pride celebrations in China, several countries throughout Central America, and even Tahiti. There were multiple organized events for LGBT rights in cities across India, Russia, Cuba, and nearly 100 new pride celebrations throughout Brazil. Check out the map of over 1,000 LGBT pride events across the globe at pride.yahoo.com for more info.

On the home front, we had a great time again sponsoring San Francisco’s International LGBT Film Festival this past week. In commemoration of Stonewall’s 40th birthday, we hid free Yahoo! Mail Plus and Flickr Pro packages under the seats of 40 lucky audience members at two sold-out screenings at the historic Castro Theatre. It was an amazing experience to see a packed-house of 1,400 people simultaneously shout out the classic Yahoo! yodel when the prize packages were announced. Congrats to all the winners!

However, that was just the run-up to our big giveaway this pride season. We’re excited to announce that Yahoo! is going to send two winners on a week-long trip to the 2010 Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras in beautiful Sydney, Australia, next summer (that’s February, a nice treat for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere). Mardi Gras is a spectacular citywide pride event in Sydney, and the prize-winners will arrive in time for the big parade and extravaganza. You can enter to win either online at http://pride.yahoo.com through July 1, 2009, or in person at the Yahoo! booth at the San Francisco LGBT Pride Festival this Sunday, June 28. Please come visit us near the corner of Grove and Larkin Streets on City Hall Plaza, say hi to Yahoo!, and enter for a chance to win.

Again, Yahoo! wishes you and your loved ones happy LGBT Pride 2009!

Drew Geishecker
Co-chair, Yahoo! Pride

• More than $8 million in grants to 275 nonprofit organizations;
• More than 225 passionate Yahoo! employees have successfully championed grants for their favorite nonprofit;
• At least 1 in 3 Yahoos in the U.S. have donated to YEF.

Needless to say, these figures make me proud, but they don’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t give credit to the incredible generosity and compassion of Yahoos who rallied together to raise a record $2.1 million in October 2008, just one week after the Dow took the biggest tumble in nearly a decade. This is just one instance of where, in the midst of tough times, my colleagues found it in their hearts to give back to those who were less fortunate.

YEF is unique in that it is 100% run by Yahoo! employee volunteers. Yahoos donate all of the money, champion all of the grants, and organize all volunteer activities, whether building playgrounds or renovating homes. And YEF funds projects that focus on the areas of youth and education, community building and families, and the environment which are 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 powerful.

We marked our 10th anniversary milestone with events in U.S. offices from Sunnyvale to New York yesterday. These celebrations were our way of thanking the donors and volunteers who have made YEF what it is today. The Yahoo! Employee Foundation brings out the best in Yahoos, empowering us to give back and make a difference, and is a huge part of why I’m proud to work for Yahoo!.

Here’s video and photos of our thank-you event at our Sunnyvale headquarters:

Rachana Choubey
President, Yahoo! Employee Foundation Board
Sr. Product Manager, Global Front Doors

Video produced and edited by Bart Bishoff, Yahoo! Broadcast Bureau

It’s not that I’m lazy or don’t care. I tell my son a hundred times a day to turn his bedroom light off when he’s not in his room, my security lights are on a timer so I don’t forget to turn them off, I’ve learned how to brush my teeth with a few drops of water, I use organic cleaners, I eat organic food, etc.

But I’ve found that there just aren’t that many useful and truly ‘green’ consumer products on the market.

I’d love to own a small hybrid car but I don’t think my wife, two kids, baby, blind black lab and a I would fit very well, even though I am on a diet. I recently found some interesting looking coasters made from recycled CD’s, but just because I think it’s cool to have a Def Leppard coaster on my coffee table doesn’t really help anything, does it?

Yahoo! Green’s Make it Green campaign (launched last month) could tangibly help change all of this by inviting regular people from around the world to submit ideas that will improve our lives and ‘green up’ our planet.

You don’t have to be a scientist to enter and you don’t have to have a patented product either. That’s because Yahoo! has teamed up with the company I work for, Edison Nation. We have tons of expertise and experience reviewing products, handling intellectual property, and partnering with manufacturers and retailers to put products onto store shelves.

If your idea is selected, you will earn $2,500, a share of sales for up to twenty years and possibly be featured on PBS’ Emmy award winning invention show Everyday Edisons.

So if you think you have a great green idea, don’t delay — Make it Green ends June 30th!

Kermit and the planet thank you.

Michael Cable
Director, Edison Nation

Douglas is Yahoo!’s resident JavaScript software architect. He has literally written the book on the coding language and his job involves training engineers at Yahoo! and industry-wide to use the code effectively. But he’s long lamented that there isn’t a good reference book for beginners. So he decided to take matters into his own hands and write it himself. But he quickly faced the dilemma of every expert – trying to think like a beginner.

Enter Mountain View High School.

Douglas decided that teaching a course in the principles of computer programming could prove mutually beneficial. So as a school volunteer, he worked with administrators to recruit a handful of willing students (mostly seniors) whose only prerequisite was experience in calculus. For most, this was their first exposure to software. Before long, they were thrown into the deep end of the pool to learn about values, variables, functions, recursion and other complexities of programming. By the end of the 12 weeks, the kids had conquered the basics and Douglas had experienced JavaScript through the eyes of a novice. Everybody won.

Now, this group may not have been statistically significant –- kids growing up in the Silicon Valley get plenty of exposure to technology, thanks to parents who often work at industry giants. And these students are headed to hallowed institutions like Cal Poly, Northwestern, and UC Berkeley to chase engineering degrees. But, nonetheless, they taught Douglas a lot about how to learn.

When Douglas sets off to write the book, I’m sure you’ll find some 17-year-olds in the acknowledgments. Also to be acknowledged are Mountain View High School Principal Keith Moody (also, incidentally, a former Raider defensive back) and teacher Madeline Miraglia, who made Douglas’ volunteer project possible.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Stephen Colbert doesn’t shave his head for just anybody. But sometimes that’s what it takes to get attention for a worthy cause.

This week, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report is broadcasting from Baghdad’s Camp Victory in support of U.S. troops serving in Iraq. In a show of solidarity, he’s now sporting a high-and-tight haircut. But he’s also putting the spotlight on a different part of the military –- the children who make great sacrifices of their own while their parents serve our country.

That’s where my organization, DonorsChoose.org, comes in. Together we hope to give these kids a leg up. I founded DonorsChoose.org nine years ago after witnessing the scarcity of materials in our country’s public schools, I never could have imagined the extent to which American citizen philanthropists have responded. In that time, we’ve raised over $34 million for public school classroom projects around the country.

As part of our “Support Our Troops” campaign, launched in partnership with Colbert, DonorsChoose.org is running a friendly competition among the Armed Forces –- Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard — to see which branch’s supporters can have the biggest impact on classrooms. As of today, we have raised more than $130,000, and the Army is barely hanging on to the lead (check out the leaderboard as the tension builds in real-time).

Literally hundreds of projects have been submitted by teachers at military-serving schools across the country. Just a couple to inspire you:

1. Say Sí to the Army!
2. From A to Bravo Zulu!
3. Military Students Travel the World – Through Books!
4. General Lee’s Black Bears

I’d also like to give a shout out to Yahoo! for creating the Colbert Avatars. Now you can dress yourself as Stephen Colbert and accessorize with things like an eagle, bear, Colbert Nation hat, Che Colbert tshirt, fireplace, and a desk, and help us spread the word about the Support Our Troops campaign.

The good news is you don’t have to shave your head to help. Just please go donate to one of the many classroom projects waiting for funding. And if you need further inspiration, check out the video clips from this week’s Colbert Report.

Charles Best
Founder and CEO, DonorsChoose.org

Abebe is an Ethiopian journalist, but the regime in his home country is too repressive to allow true journalism, so he is in exile. He had been in London for years before coming to the U.S. as the Yahoo! International Journalism Fellow at Stanford.

The Yahoo! fellowship was specifically established for people like Abebe, journalists from countries where there are strong challenges to a free press. Yahoo! and the Knight Fellowships agreed that supporting journalists who were directly or indirectly under attack should be at the top of the to-do list, and so we created the Yahoo! Fellowship in 2006, with a generous gift from Yahoo!.

Abebe is the third Yahoo! Fellow, following Imtiaz Ali, from Pakistan, and Violet Gonda, of Zimbabwe. Like Abebe, Violet was in exile, too. Abebe’s great idea is Addis Voice, a London-based website devoted to independent news about Ethiopia. It has become a trusted source of news and commentary for the Ethiopian diaspora. Here’s an interview with Abebe:

Abebe’s fellowship is ending, and we are ready to welcome Nadia Trinidad of the Philippines, one of the deadliest countries for journalists in the world. Nadia is a senior correspondent for ABS-CBN Brooadcasting Company in Manila. She will study the psychological and sociological aspects of corruption in the media. She will arrive in August.

Journalists are under attack around the world, and organizations like the Committee To Protect Journalists make sure that those attacks are brought to light. It makes me feel proud that the Knight Fellowships and Yahoo! have teamed up to provide a fellowship at Stanford every year for someone who is bearing the brunt of those attacks.

Jim Bettinger
Director, John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists
Stanford University

Filmed and edited by Bart Bishoff, Yahoo! Broadcast Bureau

If anyone out there has created these solutions, or has other green ideas that can improve our lives while helping the planet, we want to hear about them. We just launched Make It Green, a campaign to find the best new “green” products and do-it-yourself projects from everyday people. Make It Green is the newest addition to Yahoo! Green, the # 1 green site on the Web (Comscore, April 2009).

The best ideas will be brought to market as real products on store shelves, earning you $2,500 and a share of the sales. Plus, you could be on the PBS TV show Everyday Edisons. If you don’t have an idea (yet), you can give the “thumbs up” to your favorites to help us determine which ideas will be selected to go to market.

Some of my favorite ideas that have already been submitted include ultrasonic mosquito repellant, a solar clothes dryer, and a hybrid hair dryer. Check out the idea gallery to see other innovations. Who knows, you might get inspired enough to submit an idea of your own.

To take these products to market, we’ve partnered with Edison Nation. They have tons of expertise and experience reviewing products, handling intellectual property, and partnering with retailers to put the products onto store shelves. That’s why there’s a $10 submission fee – to help offset some of the cost of doing all that review.

We’ll also be showcasing some of the great green ideas at Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA, on May 30 and 31. The do-it-yourself community has been hacking solutions to everyday problems with everyday materials, so we’re excited to learn about those ideas, too.

With more than 500 million users, we know there’s phenomenal creativity and innovation out there. Whether you’re submitting an idea or just voting on one, we want to get great ideas in front of the right people to make a difference. So get busy – the program ends on June 30.

Oh, and by the way, our lawyers also want to make sure you understand that terms and conditions apply – see the Official Innovator Agreement (PDF) for details.

Erin Carlson
Director, Yahoo! For Good

Nothing brings a concept home to a kid like a movie. That’s why during Earth Week, we sent the entire 4th and 5th grades at San Francisco’s McKinley Elementary School to a screening of the Disney documentary “Earth.” Part of our Purple Acts of Kindness program, which aims to surprise and delight our local communities with random acts of generosity, this field trip was designed to do one thing – transport children from their urban environment to various corners of our fragile planet.

Before boarding buses wearing Yahoo! hats, the students spent the morning studying the movie’s instructional materials and concepts like animal families, habitats, migration, and hibernation.

With its stunning cinematography, the film’s message is clear. According to the teachers, “After the movie, some students expressed their sadness about the cycle of life, especially when the polar bear had a very hard time walking on almost melted ice, the elephants couldn’t find water for weeks, and the whale almost got eaten by the shark.”

As you can see from the video below, McKinley Elementary kids are already conscious of how their actions impact the Earth, but you can bet that recycling and conservation by nine- and ten-year-olds got a little boost. And parents are probably getting schooled, too.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photo from wablao

With all this recession obsession, we wondered whether people would focus on the other kind of green this Earth Day (which is tomorrow). That’s why we decided to take on the common misconception that being green costs more.

Our Earth Day site this year focuses on how you can save money by being green at home. We’ve created an interactive house tour with tips for each room. Some of my favorites include:

• Adjust the brightness of your TV to the “home” energy setting, and your favorite shows will use 30% less energy;
• Borrow designer handbags and jewelry from Bag Borrow or Steal, instead of buying new;
• Try cleaning products that are safe enough you can eat them.

We also have buying guides so you can choose the best cleaning products, water filters, and energy efficiency products for an affordable price. We know everyone is at a different point on their path toward green, so we have easy tips, more intermediate ideas, or even tips for the greenest among you. We also dissect those classic “what’s greener?” choices – you might be surprised that it doesn’t matter whether you use paper or plastic (though reusable is always best) or cloth or disposable diapers.

Every year our employees get caught up in the Earth Day celebration, too. In the past, we’ve watched our founders sumo wrestle after we reduced our resource use, and we hosted a reuse fair where people could swap stuff they no longer wanted. This year we’re playing “Tag, you’re green” in five offices across the country. If employees are spotted taking green actions (reusable mug, vegetarian meal, riding the train, taking the stairs), they’ll receive small prizes.

And finally a shout out to you for making Yahoo! Green the #1 green site (Comscore, March 2009) – you know that Earth Day is every day. I’m off to go unplug some energy vampires… and keep more green in my wallet. What’s your plan?

Erin Carlson
Director, Yahoo! For Good

Photo from noticelj

Limousines arrived at Gertz-Ressler High School to pick up 10 teens. They were heading out for an evening of film and female empowerment, along with mentors from the Step Up Women’s Network. The girls couldn’t have been more excited and were certainly the envy of their peers! The girls thought the limousine would be the biggest surprise of the night – little did they know what was to come.

After a scrumptious dinner, we presented the girls with a Yahoo! backpack, and they couldn’t believe what was inside. Licetz, the girl I was paired with for the evening, was dancing in her seat when she saw the Flip video camera that was hers to keep and would empower her to make her own powerful voice be heard.

The evening culminated with a VIP screening of “A Powerful Noise,” a documentary presented by CARE about women changing the world. The girls were completely inspired by the strong role models in the film and felt they could also make a difference in their communities. There was a special buzz in the air the entire evening, as the Step Up girls knew they would also have the chance to make a video, capturing their reaction to “A Powerful Noise.”

The two featured videos below were created by Step Up girls who won an all-expense paid trip from Yahoo! to attend the CARE conference in Washington D.C. in May. This is sure to be a life-changing experience for them.

I’ve found it rewarding to volunteer for Step Up’s program for high school girls. It gives these teens an opportunity to be mentored by many professional women throughout their high school years as they prepare for the next step — college. As the first person in my family to receive a college degree, I know how important it is to these girls and their families that they go to college.

These girls don’t often have the opportunity to feel special and privileged, and I was so impressed with Yahoo! for giving them this wonderful, first-class experience.

Edie Lynn Ortenberg
President and CEO of The Hollis House
Volunteer for Step Up Women’s Network

At 11:30am, the delivery volunteers start to arrive and exclaims of “Flowers!” fill the room as they notice the purple flowers from our friends at Yahoo!. “Do we get to take these to the clients?” they ask, knowing how much this thoughtful gift will mean to our clients. Everyone we serve faces a life-threatening illness and most also face tremendous loneliness. Any gesture of thoughtfulness, of remembrance, is magnified for the people Project Angel Food serves.

Well into the afternoon, bags of nutritious meals are loaded into cars with purple flowers peaking out, chocolate tucked inside and a card with Happy Valentine’s Day wishes from Yahoo!. These gestures of kindness, of thoughtfulness, will be remembered for months to come –- and beautifully represent Project Angel Food’s motto of “for Life, for Love, for as long as it takes.”

Margaret Steele
Chief Executive Officer
Project Angel Food

So when Yahoo! offered to buy tickets for our families to ride the 24th annual Freedom Train as part of their Purple Acts of Kindness program, we were absolutely thrilled. Surprises like these are definitely a warm welcome. This San Francisco Bay Area tradition is an amazing opportunity to take part in celebrations honoring Dr. King’s legacy. And what better way to bring these lessons to life for our members?

Over 200 members from BGCP (kids ages 6-18 and their families) traveled on the Freedom Train for a ride from San Jose to San Francisco to join the Freedom March and Rally Celebration. This year’s theme, “The Realization of Hope,” was very appropriate as we mark Barack Obama’s inauguration as our first African-American president. This all-day march and rally was an incredible time of joyous celebration, quiet reflection and hopeful preparation for what lies ahead. When we boarded the train to head home, many of our young people left with a twinkle of excitement in their eyes, awed and inspired by the powerful messages from the day.

Dae’Von Bishop, a 13-year-old Club member, summed up his feelings when he wrote, “I think that Obama’s inauguration will open many doors for young black males like me because people will have higher expectations for us. I hope that as I move forward with my life I will be able to inspire the next generation the way he has inspired me.”

Thanks to Yahoo! for a remarkable day of inspiration!

Amy Liebert
Development Associate
Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula

Yahoo! launched Cyber Giving Week three years ago to encourage people to donate to their favorite causes during the last week of December -– when people typically scramble to get their tax deductions before the end of the year. Since then, we’ve helped raise millions of dollars for good causes because Yahoo! users like you stepped up to the challenge. And this year, more than ever, your generosity is vital to helping our communities’ most needy.

In that spirit, we’re promoting Cyber Giving Week all over Yahoo! this week.

For those who need an extra dose of inspiration, check out a tag cloud of this year’s most popular causes that link back to our Do Good Flickr group. Or upload and tag your own photos to raise awareness about issues you’re passionate about. Whether it’s a photo of a favorite charity in action, a portrait from the developing world, or a picture of some piece of nature you want to preserve, these images will motivate others to make a difference, too.

For the fourth year in a row, we’ve partnered with Network for Good to make it easy for you to donate to your favorite charity. So as the holiday season winds down, I hope you will keep the giving spirit alive by supporting a cause you care about. I, for one, will be making a donation to my local food bank. It’s simple, really — make a donation, upload and tag inspirational photos on Flickr, and tell your friends and family to do the same.

Connie Chan
Associate Manager, Yahoo! For Good

OK, so there was no actual football, but getting to build bikes for low-income children with members of the San Francisco 49ers was just as cool. As part of Yahoo!’s Purple Acts of Kindness, a monthly program that surprises and delights our local community with random acts of generosity, a group of Yahoos teamed together with the 49ers and TurningWheels for Kids this week to help build 49 bikes for boys and 49 bikes for girls. The bikes will be given to underprivileged children in San Jose, Calif., to enjoy during the holidays.

I was one of the lucky few who volunteered quickly enough before spots filled. Being an avid 49er fan, the event proved to be a great way to give back to the community while getting a chance to meet some of the players I’ve watched play on the gridiron. Upon arriving at the 49ers’ Santa Clara training facility, I was fortunate enough to be paired with Shaun Hill, the team’s starting quarterback. Together, we built 2 bikes –- 1 for a smaller boy and 1 for an older boy. Shaun focused on attaching wheels and brakes, while I worked with the handlebars.

In between interviews with the numerous camera crews roaming the area, I found myself chatting with a very down-to-earth, Kansas-bred guy. We talked about our similar experiences attending Kansas University’s summer basketball camp and meeting Coach Roy Williams. I also mentioned that his performance in the 49ers’ previous game had vaulted my fantasy football team to the playoffs, which he had a chuckle at. Unlike other events I’ve been to with professional athletes, Shaun was in no hurry to bolt after a few pictures. Rather, he spent time with me to make sure the bikes were put together well. We not only did this to build a good-looking bike, but more importantly, we wanted to build a safe bike that a child could enjoy for years to come.

Overall, participating in the bike build and watching Yahoos and 49ers work side-by-side to do something good for the community gave me a great feeling. In a season that often emphasizes materialism, it was wonderful to see people giving back to the community and doing something positive. Given the ever-worsening economic atmosphere, I know that the bikes we built will go a long way towards making a child’s holiday season a bit more joyful. That alone made the event a rousing success.

Kenny Liao
Corporate Strategy Analyst, Yahoo! Corporate Development

Photo from Yahoo! for Good. Additional photos found here.

I’m not the only one who’s worried, and that’s why this year’s Yahoo! Green Gift Guide is chock full of gift ideas for any budget. We’ve got the Top 10 Green Gifts Under $30. But going beyond that, we put together ideas for ways you can make your own gifts and give gifts of experiences. Many of these ideas are free, and they also show that the holidays don’t always have to be about buying more stuff.

There are some great gift ideas for everyone on my list. At the risk of spoiling the surprise, Dad’s getting the business card holder made of a reused circuit board (for less than $20!). My sister with three kids gets the babysitting gift certificate or maybe the eco-friendly cleaning service. Her kids will get the do-it-yourself gum and candy kit and the Earthopoly game. For Mom, I’m thinking a cooking class or a driving monitor that tracks miles-per-gallon and gives tips on how to save gas. And for my wishlist, I’ve got my eye on this hot organic bamboo dress and the snazzy vegan heels.

The gifts are recommended by green experts, so you can feel confident they’re good for the planet. But they’re also really unique. I never thought about a rubber drum set or a coat rack made of wine bottles. Other items push the limits of “unique,” like an urban chicken coop – get fresh eggs right in your backyard! Or the oddest one yet – a bidet toilet seat that squirts water and blows warm air, all so you can avoid the resource use and waste of toilet paper.

The Green Gift Guide also has a ton of useful information beyond the gifts. The ideas for wrapping, decorating, and entertaining in an eco-friendly way also save money. And it answers those burning questions like, “Which is better, a real or a fake Christmas tree?”

So check it out. Every time I pull up the Green Gift Guide, my holiday anxiety goes down, and my hope goes up for a season of giving that makes both my family and my bank account happy.

Erin Carlson
Director, Yahoo! For Good