On Tuesday, October 19th, over one hundred thousand attendees of Dreamforce, the world’s largest cloud computing conference, watched the CEO of Salesforce.com deliver the opening keynote in the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. The city was taken over by blue badges, freebie backpacks and, when the rain started to pour, blankets of blue umbrellas moving down the sidewalks.
Attendees of Dreamforce come for the product releases, the networking opportunities and to learn how to better connect with their customers. Alongside those business goals, a large part of the conference focused on the 1/1/1 model of philanthropy, the idea that 1% of your resources, technology and time are allocated towards non-profit giving.
With this model in mind, the Salesforce Foundation not only gives deep pricing discounts and grants to non-profit organizations but also helps create relationships with partner organizations and employees who donate time and resources to help these organizations use technology to better accomplish their mission.
One great example of the 1/1/1 model in action is how Salesforce teamed up with the Government of Haiti and the Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe to help implement a Cash Transfer Program that allows mothers to receive a cash subsidy if their children are kept in school. In one of the poorest countries in the world, this program is being used to connect the government with the people in need as well as invest in a generation of young people. The Salesforce software is used to track the children, teachers, mothers and schools participating and maintain the effectiveness the social assistance program.
As a results of this program, attendance in primary schools was increased from 54 to 88 percent.
I love this example of technology, paired with human power, being used to improve the lives of others. Do you volunteer or support a certain cause? I’d love to hear about great examples of giving back in the comments below.
If you’d like to learn more about the 1/1/1 model visit the Salesforce Foundation site here. If you know of a non-profit looking for volunteers, Salesforce employees receive six days of paid-time off to dedicate to volunteer work. Volunteer Requests can be madeĀ here.
Happy volunteering,
@laurylkitson
*I am an employee of Salesforce although I am no not writing this on their behalf and my opinions are my own.