Windows Chip In Campaign Helps YouthSpark Partner Year Up to Bridge Opportunity Divide

By Karen Bergin, Director of Citizenship and Public Affairs

We launched Microsoft YouthSpark last September to address the opportunity divide – the gap between those who have the access, skills and opportunities to be successful and those who do not. As we approach back to school season, the opportunity divide becomes very visible, especially around access to technology. Some students are fortunate enough to have family who can send them off to school with a new PC. Others are not.

That’s why we’re partnering with Windows to take its Chip In program one step further with a new “Buy One, Give One” offer. The Chip In campaign is a crowdsourcing program to help students and parents purchase a new Windows PC or tablet for school by inviting friends and family to “chip in” funding. With the new “Buy One, Give One” offer, for each student who fulfills his or her PC funding amount between now and September 1, Windows and Microsoft Citizenship will donate one PC to students in the Chicago location of Year Up, one of our YouthSpark nonprofit partners.

Year Up’s mission is to “close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.”

You can learn more on the Windows Experience blog and on the Windows Chip In site.