Open Source Vendors Giving to Charity This Season

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.