Today at Microsoft Corp.�s annual company meeting, Microsoft announced that the company has surpassed a mark that will not show up on a stock ticker or retail shelves. Since 1983, Microsoft and its employees have given more than $2.5 billion in cash, services and software to nonprofits around the world through localized, company-sponsored giving and volunteer campaigns. At the meeting, Business Division President Jeff Raikes, along with his wife, Tricia Raikes, who are co-chairs of the 2006 community campaign for The United Way of King County, presented a check from Microsoft for $150,000 to Plymouth Housing Group, bringing the company�s overall giving beyond the $2.5 billion milestone.

Paul Lambros, executive director of Plymouth Housing Group, was joined onstage by dozens of representatives from other nonprofits, who saluted the company and its employees for their generosity. �On behalf of everyone at Plymouth and all of the organizations you support so generously, I�d like to thank each and every one of you at Microsoft for your dedication to giving back to your communities,� Lambros said. �The $2.5 billion milestone, and the fact that I�m surrounded by dozens of my colleagues, is testimony to the scope and breadth of your giving over the past two decades.�