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January 15, 2019

MSN readers donate $1M to causes in the news in 2018



Eduardo Garcia is served a warm meal during a community Thanksgiving celebration in Chico, California
Eduardo Garcia, left, is served a warm meal during a community Thanksgiving celebration at the California State University-Chico in Chico, California, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. The construction worker says that years ago, he helped construct the Chico State auditorium where the meal is being held, plastering the outside walls. Garcia lost the Paradise home he lived in from a wildfire, and his immediate family lives in Hawaii. (AP Photo/Kathleen Ronayne)

When the MSN News team launched MSN Causes a little over a year ago, they weren’t sure what to expect. The program – which aims to help readers understand critical issues, outline potential solutions and connect people to opportunities to help make a difference – was a unique exploration into the potential of online journalism.

The response has been remarkable. The MSN News team announced Tuesday that its readers donated over $1 million in 2018.

“That money has gone to more than 20 different charitable organizations in the U.S. and around the world,” said Cody Bay, senior news editor, in a blog post. “Disaster relief, cancer research, missing children, biodiversity, military veterans, Special Olympics athletes and gender equality are just a few of the causes we have supported together. We have raised not just money, but awareness on issues like depression (Germany) and elder loneliness (UK), and driven actions such as 7,000 blood donation registrations in Switzerland – the equivalent of saving 21,000 lives.”

In the U.S., the MSN News team put a special focus on the issue of poverty in America during the holiday season, featuring more than 20 articles and slideshows from its content partners over two weeks. These pieces explored the root causes of poverty, shared what it means to not have enough, and focused on supporting the organizations that are providing solutions.

To find out more about the articles and organizations supported, head over to Bay’s post on the Microsoft News blog.