ATLANTA, Oct. 22, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it will award a $100,000 cash grant to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The award raises Microsoft’s total contribution to the UNCF since 1995 to more than $16 million in cash and technology grants. Microsoft’s donations to the UNCF have provided software, technical assistance, staff training, scholarships and internships for students at historically black colleges and universities.
The grant will be presented by Microsoft President Steve Ballmer to UNCF President and CEO William H. Gray III and the Rev. Bernice King (daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King) at an Equal Access event tonight in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.
Equal Access is a charitable outreach program created by Microsoft to help fulfill the company’s vision of providing access to PC technology and the Internet for everyone. The Equal Access program, launched in 1997, was designed to help provide all individuals with the same opportunities to learn and grow in their careers, education and personal lives. Microsoft recognizes that one long-term result of the Equal Access program will be increased diversity in the high-tech workplace.
“Microsoft is committed to working with communities and organizations like the UNCF that are working hard to break down the barriers to entering the high-technology industry,”
Ballmer said.
”
Equal Access is about making sure that the tremendous opportunities within the high-tech sector are open to everyone. With more than 343,000 open jobs in the high-technology
sector, we hope our continuing commitment to the UNCF will help students open doors of opportunity that were once difficult to open.
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When Microsoft created the Equal Access program, a key aspect to the company’s strategy was to enlist other high-tech companies to participate, with the goal of encouraging the high-tech industry to continue, and increase, its philanthropic efforts.
This fall’s Equal Access event will be co-sponsored by Microsoft and Dell Computer Corp. The event will be held Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998, from 6 to 10 p.m. at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. The brief program announcing the amount of the UNCF gift will begin at 6:30 p.m. with Steve Ballmer kicking off the agenda, followed by remarks from Gray and the Rev. King. The evening promises to provide lots of Southern hospitality with live music and a real Southern barbecue. More than 4,000 attendees are expected at the invitation-only event.
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