Open Source Vendors Giving to Charity This Season

by Lisa Hoover - Dec. 07, 2008Comments (4)

Stories of a struggling U.S. economy are on everyone's lips these days but some open source companies are doing what they can to help combat the pain. One vendor has decided to forgo a lavish holiday party this year and donate money to a local charity instead, while another is collecting canned food for the needy.

Rather than drop a lot of coin for its employees to eat, drink, and dance the night away at the yearly company party, Red Hat decided to donate the money to charity instead. While the company declined to give exact figures, DeLisa Alexander, Red Hat's senior vice president for people and brand estimates local shelters will be able to serve around 800,000 meals to the needy with the donations.

"We felt it was the wrong time to be spending a lot of money on ourselves," Alexander told Linux Insider.

Mobile push email company Funambol has similar plans this year. Employees are organizing a canned food drive, and everything they collect will go to the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos. "[T]his is the first year that Funambol has organized a food drive. We know that these are difficult times for many people, and we just wanted to help," says Hal Steger, Funambol's VP of Marketing.

Nearly every industry is struggling right now, and the open source market is no exception. It's great to see companies step up and do what they can to help. Do you know of other open source companies with similar plans? Let us know in the comments.


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4 Comments
 

Thanks to all who are supporting the Food Bank! This is a crucial year for us. Requests for food are up 55% from last year - many of those people are seeking help for the first time in their lives. Any donation, whether of time, money or food, will help us through this difficult period. To learn more about the work we do or to start a Food & Fund Drive, visit: www.secondharvestfood.org


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This really needs to be forwarded to one (or all) of the TV networks. This is an excellent example of what will help turn our economy around. The corporate culture of GREED (intentional caps) must come to an end. I know it's idealistic, but it couldn't hurt. Greed, because of the excesses that it enables and the attitudes that result, is the most destructive force within our culture.


This question is being asked more frequently amongst my friends and acquaintances. "How much wealth does one really need to live comfortably?" Can you live comfortably on 100k a year? 200k? 500k? Do you really need jet skis and 4-wheel ATVs and snowmobiles and an RV? Are expensive clothes with those special labels absolutely necessary? Do you really need more than one house?


This isn't about a redistribution of wealth. It's about reawakening the conscience of our society. Let's try to take care of one another... for a REAL "change."


And the open source community is the agent of change.


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@Paul - that does sound idealistic, unfortunately. Man will always covet more, unfortunately. I do think that bringing similar projects and initiatives to the forefront will make people more aware of the alternatives that are before them. The same joy you can get from taking a ride on that snowmobile can be obtained by volunteering to help the needy. What we need is a way in which you can do good while still not cramping whatever lifestyle you may choose to pursue.


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At adelph.us we believe that "Community" can bring about GOOD change.

We believe that this is what Open Source is all about.


That is one of the reasons that we have created adelph.us


We have added a Service to adelph.us (Built on top of elgg 0.9) that is called the "Community Bank"


Each time that a product is sold, or an ad is purchased or clicked on we donate a percentage of the revenue to the Community Bank in the name of the member that caused the transaction to happen.


At the end of each year and sometime during the year we will donate the proceeds of the adelph.us Community Bank to Charities and to Open Source Projects.


In the coming weeks we will create a place on the site were members can organizations can let us know what projects they would like considered for Community Bank donations.


Some Things About adelph.us


# You are not a share content cropper- Break the chains

# Be a rebel

# Change the game

# Believe in the possibilities

# Do good

# At adelph.us "Open" means-


1. Whenever possible using Open Source applications

2. Whenever possible offering the hosted use of applications free of charge to members

3. Always writing code using existing Open Source standards that are not proprietary or owned by a company ie (Face Book and the rest)

4. Empowering the community (Individuals, Groups, Non Profits, and Companies) with tools that help them to save time and resources

5. Evening the playing field

6. Giving back to the community

7. Giving back to Open Source


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