Use the new Open XML formats to help out your favorite charity

This is pretty cool: https://www.developwithoutborders.com/Default.aspx

There are a lot of ways that we get involved with charities at Microsoft. I really love how easy they make it is for us to pick from just about any charitable organization out there and specify a certain percentage of our pay that we want to go to that charity. For instance, with just a few clicks on the giving site I can easily give directly to the specific Boys and Girls club where my younger brother works. On top of that, Microsoft matches everything that we give, so I can pretty quickly make an impact on the charities that mean most to me. While I take a lot of pride in my contributions, I always feel like I should figure out ways to give more, and it's always difficult to choose the different organizations.

Well the link I provided above is a pretty cool way that you can help out your favorite charity, and as a result you could win additional awards for them. There is a contest that is going on from now until October 1, and the prizes include hardware, software, service contracts, and of course a lot of potential PR. If you or any of your friends help out with charities you know that PR alone is sometimes one of the most important pieces. Even if you don't win though, it's a great chance to help out.

If you decide to participate, and you build a solution that leverages the new file formats or custom defined schema support, let me know. I'd love to take a look!

-Brian