Community: IBM's Corporate Philanthropy Award from the SV/SJ Business Journal

The following is a guest blog post from Silicon Valley IBMer Michelle McIntyre, Media and Blogger Relations.

I was one of a handful of lucky IBMers who attended the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal annual corporate philanthropy awards on November 4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The journal ranks the organizations by cash contributions to Silicon Valley organizations in the most recent fiscal year.

According to the journal, giving rose in the Silicon Valley 3 percent in 2009. This bucks the trend. Nationally, giving to charity went down 3.6 percent.

Great news:

IBM rose in the Silicon Valley philanthropic giving ranks this year to 15, up from 18 the previous year. IBM and its employees gave $766,822 to Silicon Valley charities and a whopping $185 million company wide in 2009. IBMers in the Silicon Valley gave a generous 32,264 hours of their time during this same period.

Senior Location Executive and VP of WebSphere Foundation Development, Richard Baird, accepted the award on behalf of Big Blue. After receiving the award Baird commented, "Making a better local community makes a better global community."

Forty-five non-profits including United Way, Giving Tree, Junior Achievement, several science and math organizations, Second Harvest Food bank, Innvision, teacher intern organization IISME, and the 49ers Foundation exhibited at the volunteer match showcase that was open before and after the ceremony.

Leaders of several organizations including United Way, Giving Tree and IISME told me that they appreciate the help of IBM employees and have an excellent relationship with our company.

Also Congratulations Tom Zimmerman for receiving a Community Impact award from the same business journal for his work with Cupertino schools, San Jose State and Hispanic University where he helped them win a $900,000 grant. The full list of award recipients is in the Nov. 6 issue of the business journal.

Congratulations to all who gave so generously last year, making us all proud to be West Coast IBMers.

Pictured above

Top (L to R): Michelle McIntyre, Blogger, Media Relations, Jennifer Hernandez, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, Alexa MacDonald, Manager, Human Resources, Ed Ng, Director, STG Product Development Executive Customer Advocate, Laura Clayton-McDonnell, Vice President, Public Sector, West IMT

Bottom (L to R): Joanna Garrido Guerrero, IBM Software Group, Information Management, Ursula Richter, Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development, Richard Baird, Vice President, WebSphere Foundation Development, Silicon Valley Site Location Executive, Ann Hosein, Integration CFO, Storwize, Storage Division