Dear Liferay Employees,

It's been a little over a month since my wife and I moved down to the LA area to take a more active part in Liferay Foundation. First off, let me just say a big "Thanks!" to those of you in the LA office for the warm welcome and helping us feel at home :) As I've been getting to know you all more, I'm excited at how much your talents and passions naturally fit into what we hope to do with the Foundation.

•   Grants and Sponsorships – This is how we started, and this will continue to be a huge focus for us. We have set aside a large percentage of our budget to donate to causes and organizations that are in line with our values and beliefs. Our matching donation programs for both Haiti and Chile relief are a great example of this initiative in action. But this initiative will not just include company-mandated grants -- you will also be able to propose grants for board approval.
• Employee Volunteer Plan (EVP)  – This was created just for you. We know that many of you have passions and interests outside of technology and portals, and our hope is you can live them out here. The goal of this plan is to promote and instill a spirit of service in our company. You are encouraged to serve in your local community or across the world, both on your own but especially with your co-workers, and you will be given a certain number of paid “service days” each year to do so. In addition, your home office will be responsible for forging long-term partnerships with nonprofits in your area. Our plan is to not only supply them with volunteers for service events, but also learn their technical needs and build nonprofit solutions customized for them. Complete details to come soon!
• Open Source Distance Learning – This is where our unique skills can directly benefit underprivileged youth. The Foundation is committed to creating open source technical curricula that will be taught to youth in developing areas of the world. The purpose is to give them skills that will afford them opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have. You will have opportunities to train course instructors remotely, or even better, you can personally go and be a teacher and mentor to these youth! Initially, we will continue to focus on the vocational school in China as our pilot program school.

**Due to funding reasons, for 2010, only US employees will be able to participate in the EVP, but we hope to have more offices participate in 2011.