Dell Plans to Increase its Charitable Giving

One of Austin's biggest companies, Dell, has pledged to increase the amount of money it gives to local, national and international causes.  In all, the company plans to give 1% more of its pre-tax profits to global charitable causes by February 2010.

According to the Austin Business Journal, the company wants to provide more support in the areas of education and digital inclusion efforts.  The company has determined that funding in these two areas is greatly needed in order to create a successful new tech era, which also means focusing on emerging countries where there is a greater need of providing educational opportunities focused around technology.

"The next billion Internet users coming online will largely live in emerging countries, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China," CEO Michael Dell said while speaking at a conference in London.

The technology group IDC agrees with this assessment, stating that approximately 59% if the global PC volume will be in areas such as Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East by 2012.  This will be up from 48% in 2007.

The charitable efforts ill include increasing the company's in-kind giving as well as its corporate cash-giving and its employee-directed giving.  One such program is Dell's YouthConnect Global Initiative, which helps to direct the company's money toward organizations in emerging countries that focus on promoting education.  This includes incorporating science, math, tech skills and literacy programs for kids up to the age of 17 years old.