It's that time of year again — a time when we reach out beyond the Stack Exchange community to remember the organizations and people who desperately need our help. Each year, we set aside this time and offer to make a $100 donation to charity on behalf of each moderator representing their community. We've been doing this since almost the beginning of Stack Overflow; and still, when the call goes out to our Moderators — "Make your charity selections now!" — the outpouring of enthusiasm for giving back grows stronger with each passing year. It is a precious gift to have the means of helping someone who desperately needs it. Whether it's an organization providing clean water, a warm blanket, or a light in the dark for families fleeing violence; these charities make it possible for another year of school in a war-torn country, while others are defending our very way of life. There is a lot of emotion and heart-felt concern in deciding which causes most need our help each year. And when violence rocks our biggest cities and millions of refugees have nowhere to go, moderators coming together to "give back" takes on an especially meaningful tone. But came through, they did! This year, on behalf of the 483 moderators of Stack Exchange, we were able to make the following donations to charity: Charity Donation UNICEF The United Nations Children's Fund provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries (unicef.org) $5,500.00 International Rescue Committee Responding to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helping people to survive and rebuild their lives; at work in over 40 countries, more than 90% of every dollar goes directly to help refugees in desperate need (rescue.org) $6,900.00 Girls Who Code Working to close the expanding gender gap in technology and engineering, Girls Who Code provides unparalleled computer science education to equip girls with the computing skills needed to pursue 21st-century opportunities (girlswhocode.com) $9,500.00 Electronic Frontier Foundation Defending your rights in the digital world (eff.org) $12,100.00 Doctors Without Borders An international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists (doctorswithoutborders.org) $14,300.00 TOTAL $48,300.00 And on behalf of our engineering and IT team, we also like to remember the organizations and tools that make what we do possible: Organization Donation Git and the Software Freedom Conservancy $1,000.00 HAProxy $1,000.00 jQuery Foundation $1,000.00 OpenBSD $1,000.00 SQLAlchemy $1,000.00 We are immensely grateful for the incredible year we've had at Stack Overflow. Stack Exchange was conceived out of a crazy idea that people would be inspired to create and share information online in the spirit of peers helping each other — and to see that kind of passion spill out into the real world to help others overcome real adversity is truly heart-warming. With the holiday season upon us, it is a good time to reflect on what we've accomplished this year. With almost 100 million users visiting us each month, we are literally changing the way people work and learn. Our fellow community members are generously contributing their time, their passion, and their leadership to make these sites worth visiting and participating in. So as we enter this new year, let's tip our glasses and make 2016 the year to share in our good fortunes. It's a year of new beginnings… so set aside some time to learn something fun, take pride in what you do, work because you love it — and most of all… enjoy!
Cheers!