Last week I had the opportunity to catch up with Aron Cramer, CEO of Business for Social Responsibility following Richard Edelman’s session on the findings of the latest Edelman Trust Barometer.

Aron was kind enough to share his views on the importance of trust for businesses today.

Watch the video and share your thoughts on trust as it relates to business, government, and corporate social responsibility. Feel free to comment below or talk to us @msftcitizenship on Twitter.

Donation Management for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011has been posted to the Dynamics Marketplace.

Donation Management is available in English for the U.S. and Canada right now, and we’re gauging interest levels outside North America.

Though this is branded as a “version 1.0”, in fact the solution builds upon our previous work in the not-for-profit space – formerly known as the “Not for Profit Accelerator” or the “Charity Accelerator”. The older NfP Accelerator is in use by museums, charities, and public broadcasting corporations across North America. Where the former accelerator was restricted to CRM Online, this version works across CRM Online, on-premises, and partner-hosted. It’s now available at no charge for customers of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 or as part of the on-going $9.99/user/month not-for-profit pricing for CRM Online in the United States. Also, you may remember the Dynamics Marketplace from a blog article in 2010.

Find out more information at:http://crm.dynamics.com/ngo.

Things are underway here in Davos at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum and an interesting theme seems to be emerging.

That theme is trust – trust in institutions – government, business, the media and NGOs.

PR firm Edelman has been measuring trust for 11 years and earlier this week I attended the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer launch. While this year’s survey finds overall trust in business and government holding steady from last year, Americans are far less trusting of business in the United States. In fact, while the 2010 survey showed an 18 point increase in trust in business, this year business fell back and now only 5 points higher than the country with the least trust in business, Russia. Contrast that slide with Brazil and Germany which saw double digit increases in the trust in business.

According to the report, “in the early years of the survey, trust in business and government tended to move in opposite directions. Increased trust in one was met by decreased trust in the other. We generally now see the two moving in tandem, an important step as the expectation is for the world’s two dominant institutions to work together.”

NGOs, which are often seen as the honest brokers of information, gained significantly this year and are now trusted as much or more than business in 16 of the 23 countries surveyed.

Since I work for the world’s largest software company, I was pleased to hear that for the third straight year, the technology industry ranked #1 as the most trusted industry. This is in stark contrast to banks which again ranks at the bottom of this year’s survey.

While I have only highlighted a few of the survey takeaways, it provides an interesting backdrop for talking a bit about our approach to corporate citizenship here at Microsoft.

Clearly, those surveyed are expecting institutions to work together to address global challenges. At Microsoft, we have extended our existing business partnership model to our Citizenship work by partnering with various stakeholders - NGOs, government and business - to tackle a range of economic and social challenges while staying focused on increasing our business value and meeting the expectations of our shareholders.

Through partnerships, based on mutual trust, respect and accountability, we have worked hard to address some of society’s most challenging issues – from education to accessibility to online privacy to humanitarian relief. A good example is our Elevate America program – a partnership with 32 states and the District of Columbia to provide IT skills training opportunities to the unemployed. We also work with educators and NGOs to help parents and children to practice safety online and have built a long term relationship with NetHope in providing technology support and infrastructure in the face of large scale humanitarian disasters. Partnership is core to our approach to meeting our responsibilities as a corporate citizen.

If there is one takeaway for me from the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer it is that sectorial boundaries will continue blur as members of civil society demand cross sector collaboration, engagement and partnership. While some may resist, this is the new reality, they will do so at their own peril.

For more information on our Citizenship work, please visit our homepage.

U.S. Air Force Veteran having fun with Kinect for Xbox 360 at the USO  of New York.

During Veterans Week 2010, thousands of tweets poured out in support of U.S. Military veterans. The message was an important one, “Help Elevate America’s Veterans”! Microsoft’s Elevate America Veterans initiative helps veterans and their spouses acquire the skills and resources they need to be successful in today’s workplace. To help get the word out, we launched a sweepstakes that gave U.S. military veterans the chance to win a brand new Xbox 360 4GB console with Kinect.

We would like to send a huge thank you to over 700 veterans who took the time to enter.

We are thrilled to announce the winners:

James Sveen (@sandsqwid)

John (Corey) Miller (@MacM25)

Debbi DeSisto (@liberalgoddess)

Joe Justice (@justiceimages)

Randall McGrew (@rrmcgrew)

Stephanie Salazar-Navarro (@Stephaliciosa)

Erick Lopez (@sgtlopez)

Chad Syner (@BayouDad)

Matthew Wilson (@matthewnwilson)

Timothy Ogier (@ogiert)

Chad Alexander (@AbuAlice)

Heath (Timmy) Milliron (@Intimidator_v2)

Kenneth Weyrauch (@GatorKen81)

Congratulations to all the winners, enjoy your new Xbox 360 4GB consoles with Kinect and be sure to tag Microsoft Citizenship in some pictures for us on Facebook! And again, thank you to EVERYONE for showing your support for our military veterans.

Through Elevate America Veterans initiative, vets can utilize the following resources:

· Career counseling

· Technology skills training

· Other job training resources

· Job placement

· Additional support services (for example, childcare, transportation, and housing)

For more information, please visit the Elevate Veterans page. For more on Microsoft Citizenship please visit our homepage.

There are three fairly standard reactions I receive when I am telling people about the work Microsoft is undertaking with Governments and community partners to improve lives and drive national competitiveness and first up is usually surprise! I find people are generally unaware of the breadth and depth of work we are doing at a grass roots level in areas such as access to technology, skills training, disaster response and the fight against human trafficking. They are also generally surprised by the amount of this work being undertaken specifically in Asia Pacific.

Second reaction is usually admitting they had never thought of technology having such impact outside the technology sector. People rarely think of the technology inside robotics that increases productivity in manufacturing or technology to allow Governments to better plan and deliver services to their constituents. Technology to most people is the IT Manager doing and IT job when they start to see the demonstrations as to how technology is improving hospitals and saving lives they are genuinely surprised.

The third reaction is along the lines of "I know a person or organisation that could benefit from one of those programs and I will have to let them know about it”. So as 2010 was drawing to a close we decided it was time to try and spread the word and showcase the work not only of Microsoft but also of our community and Government partners across the region.

A two-day event - the inaugural Accelerating Asia Pacific 2010 – was launched on December 14 to share what we stand for and are investing in across Asia Pacific. The event attracted more than 55 journalists and analysts representing local newspapers, industry publications, international news wires, and other regional press.

Opened by the newly announced Area Vice President for Asia Pacific (and former Country Manager for Australia) Tracey Fellows, the morning session was followed by Orlando Ayala, Corporate Vice President, Chairman of Emerging Markets, Chief Advisor to the COO, who delivered a keynote address on “National Competitiveness - Asia in the Global Context” discussing the important role of cloud computing in the context of national competitiveness and the way in which the IT industry drives both social and economic impact for local economies. 

Tracey Fellows, Area Vice President for Asia Pacific at Microsoft addresses the Summit

Over the course of the first day, the audience heard stories about how technology and Microsoft’s partnerships are having an impact on addressing societal issues like, child safety, education, workforce development and disaster response.

Bindu Sharma, Policy Director, International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), Singapore making a point during the Technology to Protect Those Most Vulnerable session during the summit which highlighted how technology can drive major scientific breakthroughs and help solve some of the world's most pressing societal issues such as child online safety. The discussion covered how technology can track online predators and the importance of the first 24 - 48 hours when a child goes missing. Also pictured are Bindu’s fellow panelists Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, Founder & President, Visayan Forum Foundation, Philippines and Deborah Henry, Founder, Save Education Centre, Malaysia.

On the second day of the event, speakers showcased ways in which Microsoft solutions are enabling the healthcare, education and defence sectors to deliver services to the public and how government are using technology to raise their economic productivity and national competitiveness.   All up the event comprised of more than 40 speakers from within Microsoft, our non-profit partners, government and industry.

If you would like to see more videos of all the presentations and demonstrations are available for viewing here.