Microsoft invests in local programs that benefit people of all ages. In Illinois, our collaborations are organized by our focus areas of Building Digital Skills, Enabling Sustainability, and Empowering Communities. The following program list contains a sample of the investments Microsoft makes on an annual basis.

Building digital skills

Microsoft believes everyone should have access to the skills, technology, and opportunity they need to succeed in a changing economy.

Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC) is a member-driven non-profit that strengthens the state’s innovation economy through ecosystem programming and support, data insights, and non-partisan policy and advocacy at a state and national level. The Illinois Science & Technology Institute (ISTI), its 501c3-affiliate, focuses on Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics (STEM) education, connecting companies with classrooms to better prepare the next generation of problem solvers.

• Illinois Science and Technology Institute STEM Challenges are real-world projects that create opportunities for high school students to work alongside STEM professionals as mentors. Students and mentors from STEM Challenge industry partners collaborate over the course of six months to explore, create, and build innovative solutions. Additional funding enables two Microsoft-coached ISTC STEM Challenge teams to visit the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center at the AON center in Chicago.
• The Mentor Matching Engine program matches up to 30 Microsoft employees as 1:1 mentors for students at an area high school such as Elk Grove High School and Hoffman Estates High School for the duration of the school year. Students self select as interested in STEM careers.

Empowering communities

Microsoft is committed to strengthening communities and empowering the organizations that help them thrive. Whether affected by a recent emergency or decades of challenges, we use data, technology, and strategic investments to restore and support them for future generations.

Hands of Hope of Illinois is a food network and ministry striving to assist in God’s business of caring for his children. Its main objective is to share the gospel through the giving of food.

• Hands of Hope Food Give-A-Way Support provides the city of Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area with groceries to feed underprivileged families. This funding will support transportation needs including semi truck repairs, refrigeration units, food supplies, labor, and other capital expenses to enable its continued business of feeding the community.

Enabling sustainability

Climate change requires swift, collective action and technological innovation. We are committed to meeting our own goals while helping communities to do the same.

Severson Dells Educational Foundation links people to nature through education and research in the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin area. The Foundation promotes awareness of the natural world, fostering respect, enjoyment, and preservation now and in the future.

• The Elliott Golf Course Restoration project is creating a new community nature preserve in Cherry Valley, Illinois. With a grant from Microsoft, Severson Dells Nature Center will restore this 168-acre former golf course to its native habitat of prairie, oak savanna, and wetlands, and establish a nature learning center in the former clubhouse. Located on a public bus line, the nature preserve will be accessible to the public for recreation and environmental education. Read more about transforming a golf course into an urban nature preserve in northern Illinois on the Microsoft Local blog.

Society for Ecological Restoration advances the science, practice, and policy of ecological restoration to sustain biodiversity, improve resilience in a changing climate, and re-establish an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture.

• The Friends of the Forest Preserve’s Conservation Corps program offers valuable opportunities for high school students, young adults, and adults from underserved neighborhoods to learn about careers in conservation while developing essential leadership and teamwork skills. Supported by Microsoft, SER’s Standards-based Restoration in Action program provided funding for the Conservation Corps to engage in ecological restoration in local projects such as the Barrington Greenways Initiative. The Initiative is a collaborative effort aimed at restoring the ecological health of 14,000 acres of protected nature near Barrington, Illinois, by removing invasive species, planting seeds, and preparing the earth for rejuvenation.