Yahoo! And ONE Team Up to Fight Global AIDS and Extreme Poverty
SUNNYVALE, Calif. – June 16, 2006 -Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), a leading global Internet brand, and ONE announced today an alliance in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty with the launch of the revamped ONE.ORG web site. The site features new resources to help Americans raise their voices as “ONE” to save and change lives in Africa and the world’s poorest countries. Yahoo! provided tools and creativity to rebuild the site as part of its Yahoo! for Good community relations initiative and will spotlight the new ONE.ORG today on its homepage, www.yahoo.com, the most trafficked destination on the Internet.
“Yahoo!’s gift of their time and tools has the power to save and change lives in Africa and the world’s poorest countries,” said Paul Dioguardi, ONE’s chief executive officer. “Together, we’re connecting people across America and exponentially widening our reach, engaging millions in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty. Putting the fight to help the over ONE billion people who live on less than a dollar a day on a site with millions of hits a day is nothing short of incredible.”
Yahoo!’s support of ONE.ORG is the latest focus of the “Yahoo! for Good Scrum,” a program that allows Yahoo! employees to take up to three months from their typical day jobs to apply technological talents to projects that deliver a positive impact in the world. A “scrum” is a development process carried out by a highly-collaborative, self-organizing team. The program was conceived by Yahoo! co-founder David Filo as a unique benefit for employee recruitment and retention.
In just a few months, the Yahoo! for Good Scrum team rebuilt the ONE.ORG website into a full-service station supplying everything needed to join ONE, connect with other concerned Americans and take part in asking America to do even more to save lives and fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE sought out Yahoo!’s leading community-building, engagement and grassroots participation tools, including Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers and FlickrTM, as well as AJAX technology and infrastructure improvements to help ONE.ORG handle high-volume traffic. The result is an easy-to-use resource that quickly connects volunteers and activists with ONE’s efforts. ONE will also launch a new letter campaign on the site to ask America to keep the 2005 Gleneagles G8’s historic and life-saving promises to Africa and the world’s poorest countries.
The new ONE.ORG site features the following powerful tools and resources:
- Take Action: Sign the declaration to stand up against extreme poverty and global AIDS, email a friend to pass on the message, and wear the ONE white band to show your support;
- ONE Ticker: See in real time how many people are joining as ONE to take action;
- Photos: Become the “Face of One” by uploading your portrait using Flickr;
- Groups: Join or even start a group to connect with volunteers and activists nationwide;
- Answers: Ask questions about global AIDS and extreme poverty and get answers from the community;
- News: Get breaking news on ONE.ORG ,from Hollywood to the Heartland and around the world;
- Podcasts: Listen and learn about the latest from ONE.ORG;
- ONE t-shirts for Yahoo! Avatars: Dress your avatar in ONE style with ONE.ORG t-shirts;
- Poverty Quiz: Test your knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in the fight against global poverty and AIDS.
“Yahoo! employees are eager to make a difference in the world. The Yahoo! for Good scrum program gives them the opportunity to apply skills, experience and talent to support an important social mission. Having this group of employees devoted to the ONE.ORG web site has been inspirational to our entire corporate culture,” said Meg Garlinghouse, director of Yahoo! for Good. “We are hopeful that the new features will inspire the world’s largest online community to take action to help ONE fight global poverty and AIDS.”
About Yahoo! For Good Yahoo! For Good is committed to making a difference in the world by empowering Yahoo! users and employees with products and services that inspire them to make a positive impact in their communities. In 2005, Yahoo! for Good spearheaded Yahoo!’s response to an unprecedented scale of natural disasters, including facilitating nearly $75 million in user donations to support recovery efforts for Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami. Yahoo! for Good also inaugurated Cyber Giving Week in late December 2005, helping generate more than $4 million in donations for dozens of charities. For more information about Yahoo!’s community-minded products, social responsibility practices and nonprofit partnerships, visit Yahoo! for Good at http://brand.yahoo.com/forgood.
About ONE.ORG ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is a coalition of over 2.3 million people and 70 of the nation’s most well-known and respected non-profit, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. For more information and a list of all ONE coalition partners, please visit: www.ONE.org.
Media Contacts: Catherine Porter, Outcast Communications for Yahoo!, 415-345-4750, [email protected] Meighan Stone, ONE.ORG, 202-464-1345, [email protected]
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