GIVE Team: Year in Review

GIVE Teams awarded grants totaling $625,000 to 160 charitable organizations around the world.

Austin: Partnering with Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB), 42 employees spent 126 hours picking up trash at a local park as part of KAB’s Clean Sweep event last Spring. The GIVE Team also helped disadvantaged seniors with housework through United Way’s Day of Caring. In addition to volunteering and hosting drives, the team awarded grants to five local nonprofits, including $7,000 to the Austin Children’s Shelter for its emergency shelter program.

Australia: Partnering with GlobalGiving and the Birthing Kit Foundation, the Australia GIVE Team helped women in remote villages have healthy babies with a $5,000 grant. The birthing kit initiative not only provides life-saving supplies for birth delivery, but also funds training programs for in-country health workers on nutrition, midwifery and issues related to HIV/AIDS prevention. A second grant was made to provide scholarship funds to disadvantaged Australians. The team also serves meals once a month to families at Ronald McDonald House in Sydney.

Baltimore: Through Rebuilding Together Baltimore, employees helped renovate the home of a low-income senior citizen. The team also participated in a 5k run/1-mile walk that commemorated the events of September 11th, 2001, supporting the Baltimore City Police and Firefighters foundations.  The team made five grants, including $5,000 to SquashWise, a unique youth development program that provides academic tutoring and squash instruction to under-served students in Baltimore City.  The five grantees were invited to attend a presentation event.

Bay Area:  The GIVE Team in the San Jose Bay Area supported a variety of causes through 43 employee-recommended grants. The team also awarded two larger grants to programs serving at-risk youth in San Jose, which were facing significant funding cuts.  A $10,000 grant supported the city’s Clean Slate Tattoo Removal Program, which provides counseling, gang mediation and pre-employment skills development to former gang-involved youth. A second $10,000 grant was awarded to the San Jose Parks Foundation’s Kids@Play Program, which provides low-income youth with a safe place to play and exercise. The team also held successful drives benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank’s summer Share Your Lunch Program and Family Giving Tree’s back-to-school backpack drive and holiday wish drive.

Chennai:  The Chennai GIVE Team coordinated many charitable events in 2011, several supporting a school in the impoverished community of Kannagi Nagar.  Employees collected backpacks for the children, held an art competition focused on global warming, donated ten tree saplings to the school and even gave the children a tour of the Chennai office, where they learned about various career paths.  The team supported additional worthy causes during the Joy of Giving Week marking “Gandhi Jayanthi,” a national week-long celebration honoring Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. 

China: The China GIVE Team demonstrates their philanthropy through their focus on education. Grants were made to five organizations, including $20,000 to the China Youth Development Foundation to support training for rural teachers in the Shanxi Province and a grant to purchase 2,000 books benefiting children of migrant workers.  The team also supported the Million Tree Project, which combats climate change and deforestation, and volunteered at an orphanage in Shanghai. The 21-member team devoted an impressive 676 hours to volunteering! 

Germany: Having fun while doing good work sums up the spirit of the Germany GIVE Team! From foosball tournaments to raffles, this team raised funds and awareness surrounding a variety of worthy causes, including fellow employee Corinna Rumpf’s trip to Haiti to build houses.  In addition to giving grants to nine organizations, the team also served food at the Lichtenrade soup kitchen and spent a day at an immigrant integration nursery school in Berlin-Neukölln through the Gute Tat volunteer program. 

Hartford: The GIVE Team in Connecticut (pictured above on left) awarded two grants in 2011, including $5,000 to Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen to purchase fresh food for families and individuals in need. The team wrapped up the year with its annual Toys for Tots campaign and a potluck for employees who had collected toys. The fundraising drive also included a shopping trip to Target, resulting in four large boxes overflowing with new toys for children in need.

Ireland:  The GIVE Team in Ireland presented $38,000 in grants to seven human service organizations. The Children’s Fund for Health at the Temple Street Children’s University Hospital received an $8,000 grant to purchase a special infant cot for premature babies in the neonatal ward.  The children’s hospital also received volunteer support from employees.

Israel: GIVE Team members in Israel volunteered at three local organizations. Employees spent time teaching young children English and assisting them with homework at the Mishpachton foster home. The team also visited a children’s hospital in Tel-Aviv where they handed out Purim gifts. And, after volunteering at the Israeli SPCA and witnessing the great need for financial support, the team donated $10,000 to support an animal rehabilitation and re-homing program. This generous grant will support nearly one third of the cost of the entire program.  

Mumbai: Partnering with the National Association for the Blind to digitize text books for visually impaired college students, 14 employees volunteered 70 hours recording two semesters of text books. The Mumbai GIVE Team also participated in eBay Green Day for World Environment Day and held holiday drives to collect clothing and fulfill the wishes of terminally ill children.  The team just launched its “Gift an Education” drive in partnership with the Umang Foundation to keep underprivileged children in school by providing educational kits.  Each employee at the Mumbai office has committed to sponsoring at least one child. 

Omaha: The Omaha GIVE Team has taken an active role in encouraging more employees to get involved with local nonprofits.  Last Spring, the team hosted the Joy of Giving Fair, inviting six local nonprofit organizations to participate. Employees who attended were able to recommend a nonprofit of their choice to win a $250 mini-grant. Over 100 submissions were made!  The team logged nearly 1,000 volunteer hours and evaluated 42 nonprofit grant applications in 2011. Check out their team site to learn more about their activities.

Salt Lake City: The SLC Give Team is kicking off 2012 by celebrating at its eBay Champions Lunch, honoring 19 grant recipients and five employees with stellar volunteer records.  And what a year it was to celebrate!  The Summer of Giving campaign featured 27 volunteer activities over three months for employees and their families, including a Habitat for Humanity build. The busy team wrapped up the year by holding various holiday drives and programs benefiting the Utah Food Bank, Salvation Army, Primary Children’s Hospital and Kimball Art Center.  Employees volunteered an amazing 3,000 hours!

Santa Monica: Having just launched the GIVE Team in 2011, Santa Monica is off to a great start! Three organizations received grants, including $1,900 to LA’s BEST After School Enrichment program, supporting the Celebrate Science program for elementary school children living in low-income communities. The team also led a group of 21 volunteers to the Los Angeles Food Bank for a fun afternoon of sorting, inspecting and packing food. What a great first year!

Scottsdale/Chandler: With 14 members, the GIVE Team in Arizona had a tremendous year filled with successful drives and volunteer events, including a blood drive benefiting United Blood Services!  Employees also collected 31,248 bottles of water for the homeless, filled 45 backpacks with supplies for low-income children, adopted 23 families during the holidays and made 11 grants to local nonprofits. 

Switzerland:  In 2011, the GIVE Team in Bern lent their support to the Bright Horizon Children’s Home in Nepal (pictured above on right).  A $3,750 grant was given to the school to provide graduating students with continued education or vocational training. Employees demonstrated their commitment to the organization by raising an additional $10,600 through a holiday auction.

Toronto: The Toronto GIVE Team recognized that, even in a high-tech society, many children are growing up without computers in their homes.  The team partnered with the Little Geeks Foundation, an organization that provides modern computers to underprivileged children, ages 7-17. The $5,000 grant provided 100 computers, complete with Windows and MS licenses and internet capability!  

United Kingdom:  The UK GIVE Team got creative with their grantmaking in 2011 by holding a “Vote for Your Favourite Charity” contest.  Employees nominated nonprofits to the GIVE Team, which they then narrowed down to five organizations.  The team awarded grants totaling $28,000, based on the distribution of the votes.  Shooting Star Chase, an organization that provides hospice services for terminally ill children, received the largest grant. The team also served holiday meals to nearly 200 seniors through Age Concern. 

A big salute to our GIVE Team co-chairs, members and all employees who participated in global charitable activities in 2011!

GIVE Team: Volunteers Remember 9/11

Volunteers from eBay GIVE joined nonprofits MyGoodDeed and HandsOnNetwork for what was one of the most active days in U.S. volunteer history.

To honor the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and rekindle the spirit of unity, MyGoodDeed, a U.S. nonprofit, joined with the HandsOnNetwork and other nonprofits to organize what is likely the single largest day of service in history. eBay GIVE (Grantmaking and Inspiring Volunteerism Everywhere) Teams joined this grassroots effort by performing acts of service and compassion, with a focus on their local communities. A sampling of their activities is highlighted below.

Maryland
PayPal employees and friends participated in Baltimore’s Run to Remember in honor of Maryland's 9/11 victims, survivors and rescuers, including sixty-eight Marylanders who lost their lives that day.

GIVE Team co-chair Amy Horton said, “At one point, they asked us to look out over the crowd of over 3,000 runners and think about how the same amount of people lost their lives on this day 10 years ago. It was very moving. I also met co-workers that I’d never met before. By the end of the day, we’d bonded over not only the race itself, but also the entire reason for being there.”

Firefighters ran the race in full gear, including heavy air tanks, a testament to their strength and endurance when facing life threatening situations. PayPal employee Brian Wit commented, “They motivated me to run harder during the race, and reminded me of the sacrifice that so many firefighters made on 9/11.”

Proceeds from the race benefited the Baltimore City Police Foundation and Baltimore City Fire Foundation.

Salt Lake City
Rebecca Richards and a troupe of volunteers organized a tribute for the Unified Fire Authority (UFA) with the theme “Celebrate Heroes.” Volunteer employees included Jessie Adamson, Geno Defa, John Steggell, Marc Berrett, David Nichols, Alicia Rawkowski, Kathy Mukhopadhyay, Jason Holly, Mike Chipman and the entire SLC Security team.

The group hosted a delicious barbecue lunch for employees, families and friends. Among the day’s highlights was a "What it's like to be a fire fighter" obstacle course that the firefighters ran for the kids. The luncheon menu included a signature burger to honor the firefighters that featured the four eBay colors. It proved to be the number one seller. In addition to raising $2,000 for the UFA, the event created a palpable spirit of camaraderie among eBay employees, firefighters and the community.

Rebecca commented, “We received so many comments from employees on how important the tribute was to them. They love working for a company that gives back to the community, and gives them opportunities to do so too.”

Omaha
The flag flew at half-mast at Omaha’s PayPal campus on Sunday, September 11. PayPalians performed community outreach and service throughout the month.

They kicked off with a visit to Completely Kids for United Way’s Day of Caring. Completely Kids provides a home away from home for at-risk kids and ensures they have healthy relationships, academic support and good nutrition. Co-chair Andrea Costanzo said, “Our group had fun with the children at their afterschool program, and we packed bags of nutritious food for their weekend meals.”

A group from Data Management and Workforce Management teams capped off activities by cleaning up a nature playground at the Child Saving Institute. The Institute’s staff works tirelessly to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect, and provides emergency shelters, therapy and parent education programs.

San Jose
The San Jose GIVE Team will help shape the future with their upcoming service project at Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), which inspires the joy and discovery of learning in children. Co-chair Rudy Caguiat, Jr. said, “We will be setting up kits and activities that are created around concepts of science, technology, math, reading and art. These hands-on projects truly engage and motivate young learners in a fun and enjoyable way!”

GIVE Team: Germany’s Co-Chair Carlos Sainz

In 2010, the team supported many worthy causes, and volunteering is continuing in 2011.

eBay Foundation’s GIVE Team in Germany is a particularly active group, in part because of the enthusiasm and commitment of Carlos Sainz, Senior Manager of Global Outsourcing Strategy, who has been co-chair since 2008. Carlos grew up in Madrid, studying telecommunications engineering there, and in Paris, before earning his MBA in Barcelona. Early on in his career, he lived in the U.S., China, and Venezuela, and has lived in his beloved Berlin since 2005, when he joined eBay. Under his watch, 29 of 42 grant applications have been approved, for a total of $240,000 from eBay Foundation to organizations in Germany and beyond.

The team has changed over the years but always strives to represent all of the business entities at its Dreilinden office. It has developed a unique “buddy” system, whereby every grant request is paired with a motivated employee who is often involved with the organization as a volunteer. The buddy invests time and effort to prepare the application, present it to the team, and (if the grant is awarded) assist with paperwork. This system has proven to be a great model, especially for smaller organizations in Germany or Latin America, where submitting the paperwork in English is often a challenge.

Carlos and his team also encourage employees from smaller offices around the EU to submit projects for funding. According to Carlos: “The fruits came a few weeks ago, when the project  ‘Constellations’ arrived from the Brussels office,  proposing to help build day centers for people with disabilities. This terrific project was selected to receive $3,000 from the Germany GIVE Team budget. Great EU spirit!”

In 2010, the team supported (among other things): opera gala tickets for 300 low-income children, nine theater performances by homeless youth, sailing lessons for six young people suffering from mental disorders, and a house for medical staff in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  In 2011, the team collected nearly $1,000 from employees for Japan relief through Save the Children, welcomed two new GIVE Team members, and has been focusing on volunteerism.

eBay Inc. caught up with Carlos for an update on his team’s efforts, found below:

Please tell us about your role at the company.
I started as the link between the business unit and customer support in Spain, Italy and France, then worked in finance, then CS program management (setting up a program management office). For the last year I have been part of the CS Global Outsourcing team, focusing on our partner strategy and on programs like agent engagement and partner training.

Why did you decide to join the GIVE Team?
Actually it came out of a conversation with my manager, the country manager for eBay Spain, about two years after joining. I was reflecting on the values of the company, and how one thing I had thought would be more present in the day to day (but which I had seen very  little of) was the whole CSR aspect of the company. 

Her answer was very inspiring: eBay has a responsibility towards our community in the core of our values, but if you want to get involved you need to invest your time and look for the opportunity to make a difference. So I looked for it in the GIVE Team! The members of the team are really inspiring, and it’s great to see the “eBay energy” applied within the organizations our employees support as volunteers.

What has been the most meaningful or rewarding GIVE Team project for you?
The more rewarding projects are the ones where you invest your own time. Inspired by a previous GIVE Team member who spent her sabbatical supporting a school in Peru, I decided to spend mine also doing something useful: five weeks teaching English in a school for disabled children in Mumbai. I was a bit scared at the beginning, as I had no experience, but in the end it’s all about trying hard and giving the children the attention they need. The results come slowly but are very rewarding.

Do you have any words of advice for other GIVE Team co-chairs?
It’s really fulfilling to see how our colleagues are investing their time in social projects. Being on the GIVE Team is a great opportunity to meet the ones who are more involved and share their stories. Sometimes they want to keep their involvement discreet, but they are not aware of how much inspiration and positive impact they can have on their colleagues. So my advice would be to give visibility to the members of the team who are involved with the community!

How is your team fostering volunteerism in 2011?
We recently completed a volunteer day together with GuteTat.de (meaning “good deed”), one of the organizations we supported in 2010 that uses the Internet to connect volunteers with specific projects . GuteTat has facilitated nearly 2,000 volunteer projects to date.  On June 27, eight GIVE Team members met for a volunteering day at a kindergarten in Berlin that offers an integrated education program for both able-bodied and disabled children. The team members helped with repairs for the school’s play area, including a water playground. Having lunch with the kids provided real insights into what their daily lives are like. The team had a lot of fun, and members felt like they learned as much as they gave.