At Microsoft, we have the privilege of working with many leading non-profit organizations to support the local community. This holiday season, we are partnering with local non-profit organization, Cradles to Crayons, to help serve the 305,000 children living in poverty in Massachusetts.

Cradles to Crayons (C2C) strives to provide children up to age 12 living in homeless and low-income situations with the essentials they need to feel safe, warm, ready to learn, and valued.

The mission of Cradles to Crayons is to provide homeless and low-income children with the key essentials they need to feel safe, warm, ready to learn, and valued. The New England winter season is just beginning and it is during this time that low-income families need help the most. These families often have to choose between putting food on the table and buying winter clothing for their children.

Cradles to Crayons helps families in need by working with the community to provide warm winter clothes and holiday toys for children across Massachusetts. To learn more about Cradles to Crayons, check out this video.

Microsoft is supporting the efforts of Cradles to Crayons by running a gift drive this holiday season. From December 12th to December 19th, NERD will be home to a Giving Tree, where the community can donate gifts to support deserving families during the holiday

WHAT CAN YOU DONATE? Cradles to Crayons will accept both new and gently used items that are unwrapped:

• Boys clothing (sizes 7/8-18/20)
• Girls clothing (sizes 2T & 3T)
• Winter coats (sizes newborn-11/12)
• Hats & gloves
• Books
• Toys (age 0-2)

View a full listing of accepted items here.

GET INVOLVED Cradles to Crayons makes it easy for you to help:

1. Coming to NERD this week for an event or meeting? Bring an unwrapped item with you and drop it under the Giving Tree on the 10th floor or in the Cradles to Crayons bins in the 1st floor conference center. We will accept gifts through Monday, December 19th.
2. Visit Cradles to Crayons and provide a donation to help a child.
3. Text WARM to 20222 and instantly donate $10 to Cradles to Crayons.
4. Volunteer at Cradles to Crayons’ Giving Factory in Brighton.

HOW CAN YOU VOLUNTEER?
Cradles to Crayons accepts volunteers year round. Sign up today for 2012! If you have any questions about this program or Cradles to Crayons, please contact Josh Nespoli.

We look forward to working with you!

Photo from White coats and Microchips: A Discussion with Leading Women in STEM

On November 3rd, we were thrilled to partner with MITX and The Commonwealth Institute (TCI) to host The Successful You, a full-day forum that provided mid to senior level women from the greater Boston area with a clear and practical understanding of how to achieve continued success in their careers.

As our second annual forum, our goal this year was to help attendees foster mentoring relationships and gain tangible skills to apply to their careers. We also expanded the program to include a special track for female high school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.  All proceeds benefited Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts and Science Club for Girls, helping to fuel their STEM education programs.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

• Forum attracted 250 attendees, including influential tech and business leaders.
• Event raised $15,000 to support Girl Scouts and Science Club for Girls education programs.
• Agenda included nearly 20 sessions to accelerate women’s success- communications seminars, 1:1 mentoring opportunities, personal branding workshops, and more.
• Attendees had the opportunity to learn from more than 30 distinguished speakers:

- Suzanne Bates, CEO, Bates Communications & Author, Discover Your CEO Brand
- Ruth Bramson, CEO, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
- Jennifer Chayes, Distinguished Scientist & Managing Director, Microsoft Research
- Connie Chow, Executive Director, Science Club for Girls
- Carol Fulp, SVP, Corporate Social Responsibility & Brand Initiatives, John Hancock Financial
- Susan Getgood, VP, Sales & Marketing, BlogHer
- Debi Kleiman, President, MITX
- Ioannis N. Miaoulis, President, Museum of Science
- Mindy Mount, CVP & CFO, Microsoft Online Services Division
- Pam Reeve, Chair, The Commonwealth Institute
- Susan Windham-Bannister, PhD, President & CEO, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

SPECIAL THANKS
The Successful You was truly a team effort across the local community. Special thanks to all of the community members and sponsors who lent their time, talent and expertise to help make the program an ultimate success.

WHAT’S NEXT
To continue the momentum, we’ll host our third annual Women’s History Month program this March. Stay tuned for details!

Many thanks for participating in The Successful You. We hope you enjoyed the event and were able to take back some new ideas and helpful contacts.  We look forward to seeing you at the 2012 Women’s Forum next fall.

We have a fantastic lineup of events scheduled at NERD between now and the end of 2011. Ranging from meetups to roundtables to hackathons there are 38 unique event opportunities to learn and network during these next six weeks. Below is a sampling – we hope that you will join us!

Lean Startup Circle Boston November Meetup (11/17/2011 at 6:30PM)
On the final Thursday of each month, the Lean Startup Circle Boston meets to discuss a variety of topics related to Customer Development and The Lean Startup methodology. The format ranges from speaker presentations, to group case studies, to informal mixers, and more. This month’s focus is on continuous development.

MassTLC Tech Tuesday: Hiring Rockstar Developers (11/29/2011 at 5:30PM)
MassTLC is hosting the region’s colleges and universities for a night of networking and pizza with the area’s hottest developers.  This is a must attend event for students and developers looking to connect with amazing technology companies in Massachusetts – from start-ups to well established enterprise – the opportunities for students in Massachusetts are endless!

Increasing the Success of Entrepreneurial Women in High-Growth Startups (11/30/2011 at 8AM)
More women than ever are launching high growth start-ups. TCN and Boston’s Entrepreneurial Community invites you to a special Women’s Breakfast Roundtable focused on the challenges around women’s entrepreneurship in Greater Boston.

MassTLC Future of Robotics Summit (12/2/2011 at 8AM)
Join New England’s leading robotic research institutions for a look at the future of robotics. Attendees will learn firsthand about the latest research coming down the pipeline and opportunities for partnership and commercialization. The research briefing will culminate with a panel discussion on growing New England’s Robotics community through technology transfer opportunities, state funding and new university initiatives.

Random Hacks of Kindness Boston (12/3/2011 at 10AM)
RHoK organizes hackathons—marathon hacking events with multiple global locations bringing together developers from all over to hack on real-world humanitarian problems. We work together with subject matter experts from organizations around the world to define and refine those problems into concrete problem definitions. At every RHoK Hackathon the problem definitions are thrown out to the RHoK community, and the developers work their hacking magic to create software solutions.

Educators & Entrepreneurs Summit: The Future of Education Technology (12/10/2011 at 9AM)
The purpose of the conference is to bring together educators and entrepreneurs to share best practices, network, and discuss how new technologies will shape the future of education. Keynote speakers include:  Charles Fadel (Education Thought Leader, Author, and Inventor), Jeremy Johnson ( Co-founder & CMO, 2tor) and Jennifer Medbery ( Founder & CEO, Kickboard)

MegaTweetUp 3 (12/14/2011 at 6PM)
It doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner, a college student, an executive at a Fortune 500 company, or in transition. People do business with people they KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST and this TweetUp is the perfect way to enhance your life and your career by developing new relationships and strengthening those you already have. It’s also a great opportunity to connect with New England’s best and brightest minds in a relaxed fun environment.

For a complete calendar of events please click here or follow along via RSS.