Centennial Celebration of Service

During IBM’s centennial year in 2011, our Celebration of Service honored employees, retirees, families and friends in their commitment to volunteer service.

The Celebration of Service supported their efforts with resources, a program of new and expanded grants, and the opportunity to pledge their participation in a global effort. More than 3.1 million volunteer hours were pledged, the equivalent of more than 1,070 years of service by 300,000+ volunteers in 120 countries.

• Read more at the IBM Centennial website

Celebration of Service Grants

IBM provided nearly $12 million in grants during 2011 to approximately 4,000 schools and not-for-profit organizations where IBMers volunteered. These grants expanded IBM’s existing Community Grants program, and added two new grant opportunities for the IBM Centennial—with a particular focus on projects that apply innovation and professional skills to improving the communities where we live and work.

• Read about the grant-winning projects

Icons of Progress

As part of its centennial year, IBM assembled a remarkable collection of stories about the 100 IBM innovations that helped shape the company’s first century. Included were many examples of our history of leadership in corporate citizenship:

• The Accessible Workforce
• Building an Equal Opportunity Workforce
• Corporate Leadership in Environmental Responsibility
• Corporate Service Corps
• A Global Volunteer Network
• The Mobilization of Relief Efforts
• Pioneering Genetic Privacy
• Popularizing Math and Science
• The Preservation of Culture Through Technology
• World Community Grid


• Read all Icons of Progress

Service Jam

In October 2010, IBM’s groundbreaking Service Jam brought together thousands of participants from not-for-profit organizations, corporations, academic institutions, and government agencies in a series of online discussions on the future of service. IBM produced a white paper summarizing the key findings and highlighting the creative ideas for social innovation that emerged. We encourage anyone interested in service to read and share the report, and use it to help innovate, design and improve service programs.

• Visit the Service Jam website