Best Buy Gives Teens the Power to Direct $1 Million to Nonprofits

Best Buy Co., Inc. today announced that teens participating in its @ 15 Exchange distributed $1 million to 16 nonprofits in the program’s first year. The Best Buy initiative empowers teens to be the drivers of change by giving them the opportunity to direct the company’s charitable donations through online activities and voting.

The @15 Exchange was launched in January 2009 as an innovative component of Best Buy’s @15 commitment to elevate the unique voices of teens as important players in public dialogue. Over the course of one year, Best Buy featured 16 nonprofit partners, four each quarter, to mobilize teens to earn points through activities on www.at15.com. Teens then “vote” on where the money is directed by allocating their points to the nonprofits. Nearly 10,000 teens participated in the @15 Exchange, donating more than 21.5 million points, which translated into a percentage of $250,000 for each of the four rounds.

“The overwhelming response to the @15 Exchange demonstrates that teens are motivated by opportunities that allow their voices to be heard,” said Brian J. Dunn, CEO, Best Buy Co., Inc. “Best Buy is thrilled with the efforts of the nonprofit partners to bring the @15 mission to life and empower teens to use these diverse and powerful voices for social good.”

In order to drive teen support to www.at15.com and earn points for their nonprofit organization, the partners held concerts in malls, connected with teens directly in their schools and activated their social media networks. Outreach efforts allowed the organizations to raise awareness about their work as well as engage new audiences.

“Best Buy’s @15 Exchange offered Do Something a great opportunity to motivate all of our awesome Do Something members, especially our Youth Advisory Council, to take the lead and get involved,” said Aria Finger, Chief Marketing Officer at Do Something, the partner that accumulated more than 8 million points, the most points out of all 16 nonprofits. “One of Do Something's core beliefs is that teens can lead right now, so putting teens in the driver’s seat and giving them the power to decide how the funding was allocated, was a great way to show that young people can be key influencers and promoters of social good.”

@15 is open to all teens, ages 13-18, in the United States. Members on www.at15.com earned @15 Exchange points by participating in activities such as creating a profile, participating in polls, inviting a friend to join @15 or writing a blog post on a key issue. During the final two weeks of each quarter, teens were invited to donate their points among the four nonprofit organizations. The percentage of the available points each organization earned determined the organization’s percentage of the $250,000 awarded each quarter.

About @15

Best Buy believes in the power of teens, and @15 is a platform to connect with them, give voice to their perspectives, and invest in our resources – including the energy and talents of our employees – to turn their ideas into action and support their efforts to lead social change. Teens bring passion and enthusiasm to tackling tough issues. They’re also important to our business – they shop in our stores, and they’re our future employees. There’s a real opportunity to listen to – and learn from – what teens have to say. And through the @15 Fund, we’ll put the philanthropic power of @15 directly into their hands. To learn more, visit www.at15.com.

About Best Buy Co., Inc.

With operations in the United States, Canada, China, Europe and Mexico, Best Buy is a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services with a commitment to growth and innovation. The Best Buy family of brands and partnerships collectively generates more than $45 billion annual revenue and includes brands such as Best Buy, Audiovisions, The Carphone Warehouse, Future Shop, Geek Squad, Jiangsu Five Star, Magnolia Audio Video, Napster, Pacific Sales Kitchen, Bath and Electronic Centers, The Phone House and Speakeasy. Approximately 155,000 employees apply their talents to help bring the benefits of these brands to life for customers through retail locations, multiple call centers and Web sites, in-home solutions, product delivery and activities in our communities. Community partnership is central to the way we do business at Best Buy. In fiscal 2009, we donated a combined $33.4 million to improve the vitality of the communities where our employees and customers live and work. For more information about Best Buy, visit www.bestbuy.com.

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