Varian Medical Systems Employee-Guided Corporate Giving Campaign Raises $660,000 for Non-Profit Organizations

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Varian Medical Systems and its employees have pledged $660,000 to support nonprofits across the U.S., through the company's annual "Give Your Way" campaign, an employee-guided corporate giving program.  Through this campaign, Varian employees are able to pledge support for their favorite charities, and to obtain matching dollars from the company.

This year's campaign ran from June 14 to June 25. Varian employees pledged $330,000, during the campaign and the company is matching those pledges dollar for dollar.

"This year, Varian employees stepped up with record contributions," said Elisha Finney, Varian CFO who served as one of five executive sponsors of this year's campaign.  "We were hoping to raise $220,000 from employees this year, which would have been about 5 percent above what was pledged in 2009.  Employees topped our goal by more than $100,000."

This was the first year that the full value of the Varian match was earmarked to go to employees' chosen agencies.  "As a result of this change in our program, we saw higher participation rates and greater generosity among employees," Finney said.  "They gave more because they knew that their company would double the impact of the gifts they made to their favorite charities."

Agencies receiving support through the program include homeless shelters; children's hospitals; food banks; local United Way chapters; museums; arts organizations; schools, colleges, and local PTA groups, as well as organizations focused on child advocacy; animal rescue; wildlife and environmental preservation; medical services; international and children's relief; and housing development.  "About 475 different agencies received pledges through this year's campaign," said Finney.

"Varian is engaged in business activities that make an enormous difference in people's lives," said Tim Guertin, president and CEO of Varian Medical Systems.  "Since our mission is to focus energy on saving lives with products and services for cancer therapy, medical diagnostics, dentistry, veterinary care, and security, we tend to attract altruistic employees, and we are proud to support their philanthropic priorities."

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,000 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 79 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com.

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems