As COVID-19 continues to impact communities worldwide, I asked our offices around the world, “what can Silicon Labs do to help?” The question didn’t have a “one size fits all” answer, as the current impact of the pandemic varies based on where you live and work.

The conversations did yield two big takeaways: 

1. In order to build a meaningful philanthropic response at a global company, you must go directly to the source! While I’ve read articles and have seen news reports, I gained so much insight by talking to the site leaders about what life was like for them, their families, neighborhoods and local businesses. 
2. We determined that while the impact of the virus is global, our response should be local. 

At the beginning of the year, the Silicon Labs community relations team supported relief efforts in China via Give2Asia, and as incidents of COVID-19 moved across the globe, our response followed. We announced a contribution to the American Red Cross and the All Together ATX  fund from our headquarters in Austin, driving support to that community which helped incubate Silicon Labs’ innovation for the past 24 years. Of course, core to that innovation is our global workforce, so the next step in our process was to designate COVID-19 relief funding for each of our offices outside of headquarters.

But we didn’t want to just designate funding from the corporate office - we wanted every employee to have a say in how they could support their local communities during the pandemic. Getting feedback from employees at 22 sites might seem daunting, but our teams combined a passion for giving back with a knack for process. 

In the past few weeks, each of these sites has identified relief organizations making an impact in their local communities, polled their sites to get employee feedback and submitted their selection for approval through our partnership with the Austin Community Foundation. The end result is a portfolio of nonprofits that showcases just how wide-ranging the impact of COVID-19 has been on the world.  Here are just a few examples:

• Disaster Relief
  • To help local nonprofits, our Boston team gave to the Boston Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund, which awards operating grants to organizations serving seniors, communities of color, immigrants and other vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the outbreak.
• Health Care/Front Line Worker Support
  • In Singapore, our team is supporting the Home Nursing Foundation as they purchase essential medical supplies and empower nurses serving vulnerable patients.
• Food Insecurity
  • Our Espoo, Finland site gave to a project with Pelastakaa Lapset (Save the Children), distributing grocery store gift cards for families with children in need of food during this crisis. 
• Human Services
  • Our team in Denmark designated their contributions to Danner, which is providing special assistance to those impacted by domestic violence during the quarantine. 

These are just a few of the fantastic organizations our global teams are supporting during this crisis. During the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more about these contributions on social media, so be sure to follow @siliconlabs #siliconlabsgivesback 

To learn more, go to our Silicon Labs COVID-19 Response page. 

As COVID-19 continues to impact communities worldwide, I asked our offices around the world, “what can Silicon Labs do to help?” The question didn’t have a “one size fits all” answer, as the current impact of the pandemic varies based on where you live and work.

The conversations did yield two big takeaways: 

1. In order to build a meaningful philanthropic response at a global company, you must go directly to the source! While I’ve read articles and have seen news reports, I gained so much insight by talking to the site leaders about what life was like for them, their families, neighborhoods and local businesses. 
2. We determined that while the impact of the virus is global, our response should be local. 

At the beginning of the year, the Silicon Labs community relations team supported relief efforts in China via Give2Asia, and as incidents of COVID-19 moved across the globe, our response followed. We announced a contribution to the American Red Cross and the All Together ATX  fund from our headquarters in Austin, driving support to that community which helped incubate Silicon Labs’ innovation for the past 24 years. Of course, core to that innovation is our global workforce, so the next step in our process was to designate COVID-19 relief funding for each of our offices outside of headquarters.

But we didn’t want to just designate funding from the corporate office - we wanted every employee to have a say in how they could support their local communities during the pandemic. Getting feedback from employees at 22 sites might seem daunting, but our teams combined a passion for giving back with a knack for process. 

In the past few weeks, each of these sites has identified relief organizations making an impact in their local communities, polled their sites to get employee feedback and submitted their selection for approval through our partnership with the Austin Community Foundation. The end result is a portfolio of nonprofits that showcases just how wide-ranging the impact of COVID-19 has been on the world.  Here are just a few examples:

• Disaster Relief
  • To help local nonprofits, our Boston team gave to the Boston Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund, which awards operating grants to organizations serving seniors, communities of color, immigrants and other vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the outbreak.
• Health Care/Front Line Worker Support
  • In Singapore, our team is supporting the Home Nursing Foundation as they purchase essential medical supplies and empower nurses serving vulnerable patients.
• Food Insecurity
  • Our Espoo, Finland site gave to a project with Pelastakaa Lapset (Save the Children), distributing grocery store gift cards for families with children in need of food during this crisis. 
• Human Services
  • Our team in Denmark designated their contributions to Danner, which is providing special assistance to those impacted by domestic violence during the quarantine. 

These are just a few of the fantastic organizations our global teams are supporting during this crisis. During the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more about these contributions on social media, so be sure to follow @siliconlabs #siliconlabsgivesback 

To learn more, go to our Silicon Labs COVID-19 Response page. 

As COVID-19 continues to impact communities worldwide, I asked our offices around the world, “what can Silicon Labs do to help?” The question didn’t have a “one size fits all” answer, as the current impact of the pandemic varies based on where you live and work.

The conversations did yield two big takeaways: 

1. In order to build a meaningful philanthropic response at a global company, you must go directly to the source! While I’ve read articles and have seen news reports, I gained so much insight by talking to the site leaders about what life was like for them, their families, neighborhoods and local businesses. 
2. We determined that while the impact of the virus is global, our response should be local. 

At the beginning of the year, the Silicon Labs community relations team supported relief efforts in China via Give2Asia, and as incidents of COVID-19 moved across the globe, our response followed. We announced a contribution to the American Red Cross and the All Together ATX fund from our headquarters in Austin, driving support to that community which helped incubate Silicon Labs’ innovation for the past 24 years. Of course, core to that innovation is our global workforce, so the next step in our process was to designate COVID-19 relief funding for each of our offices outside of headquarters.

But we didn’t want to just designate funding from the corporate office - we wanted every employee to have a say in how they could support their local communities during the pandemic. Getting feedback from employees at 22 sites might seem daunting, but our teams combined a passion for giving back with a knack for process. 

In the past few weeks, each of these sites has identified relief organizations making an impact in their local communities, polled their sites to get employee feedback and submitted their selection for approval through our partnership with the Austin Community Foundation. The end result is a portfolio of nonprofits that showcases just how wide-ranging the impact of COVID-19 has been on the world.  Here are just a few examples:

• Disaster Relief
  • To help local nonprofits, our Boston team gave to the Boston Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund, which awards operating grants to organizations serving seniors, communities of color, immigrants and other vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the outbreak.
• Health Care/Front Line Worker Support
  • In Singapore, our team is supporting the Home Nursing Foundation as they purchase essential medical supplies and empower nurses serving vulnerable patients.
• Food Insecurity
  • Our Espoo, Finland site gave to a project with Pelastakaa Lapset (Save the Children), distributing grocery store gift cards for families with children in need of food during this crisis. 
• Human Services
  • Our team in Denmark designated their contributions to Danner, which is providing special assistance to those impacted by domestic violence during the quarantine. 

These are just a few of the fantastic organizations our global teams are supporting during this crisis. During the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more about these contributions on social media, so be sure to follow @siliconlabs #siliconlabsgivesback 

To learn more, go to our Silicon Labs COVID-19 Response page.