In December, eBay was recognized for being one of the top 10 givers in Silicon Valley at the annual Corporate Philanthropy Awards held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The award acknowledges Silicon Valley companies that make substantial contributions to Bay Area nonprofits. The widely-attended event honored a roster of some of the Bay Area’s biggest companies including Cisco, Applied Materials and Intel.
Hosted by the San Jose Business Journal, the event honored the top 50 corporate givers in Silicon Valley with local contributions ranging from $29 thousand to $10.9 million. James MacGregor, Publisher of the Business Journal said: “Silicon Valley’s top corporate backers of local philanthropy stepped up to the plate in a big way in 2010.”
eBay generously donated $2.9 million to local charitable organizations in 2010, which helped the company climb from rank 33 last year to 10 this year. These local grants supported a number of worthy organizations including Destination Home, Opportunity Fund, Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Second Harvest Food Bank. Many of the grants were based on employee and San Jose Bay Area GIVE Team recommendations distributed through the eBay Foundation.
On a global scale, eBay gave a total of $5 million to nonprofit organizations in 2010.
Accepting the award on behalf of eBay, Lauren Moore, Executive Director of eBay Foundation, was asked how being a good corporate citizen has made a difference to the success of the company. In response, Lauren stated: “Our founder created eBay because he felt that business could be a force for good. Our philanthropy at eBay, we also believe, demonstrates that social innovation can be good for business.”
We, at eBay, should all be proud of the positive impact eBay has in Silicon Valley and around the world.