Saleforce.com Foundation - Only Just Begun
The Salesforce.com Foundation just put on an event in NY that I am very proud of. (...of which I am very proud.)
I started at Salesforce.com Foundation in September of 2000. In that year we donated our first instance of salesforce.com to a nonprofit organization, Business Today. It wasn't until 2004 that we hit triple digits. As of today, we have donated licenses to over 3,000 nonprofits in 56+ countries. It is reasonable to say that our work has increased the efficacy of the global social sector. (Maybe a very small amount but it is a reasonable thing to say.)
What was most exciting about this event is that it represented our coming of age. 250 people came to a hotel in NY on a very sloppy, snowy, rainy day, to spend the day with us. We were able to provide a keynote address from Holy Ross, E.D. of NTEN. There was a lunch conversation on social entrepreneurship with the directors of Endeavor, Kiva, The Rockefeller Foundation and Donors Choose. We had a closing session with Monica Sharma, MD, UN Director of Leadership and Capacity Building. The fact that we can now attract influential people like this is a great thing. It is great because it creates pull.
What we are doing is not Corporate Social Responsibility (except in the way that a square is always a rectangle regardless of the perfect symmetry that the square is trying to achieve.)
To me, the Salesforce.com Foundation is a social enterprise, an independent NGO working to increase the efficacy of the global social sector. I am grateful for the philanthropic vision of our founder, Marc Benioff. I am grateful for the ongoing dedication and largess of every salesforce.com employee. And it is this perfect storm of resources and dedication, that has made it possible to begin.
It is these contributions of vision, capital, product, time, and extensive, heartfelt, passionate, over and above contributions of operational support (like those which created our recent event); it is these contributions that have made us real and tangible.
What has made us effective, what has given us impact, is the participation of the global NGO community. That they chose to trust us, that they let us in the tent, that they let us deep in to their organizations, continues to amaze me. I am in awe of the ability of these extraordinary people. And, I am immensely proud to be one of them.
I guess this is the point of this post. I believe that we just started.
On Feb 13th, 2008, after a lengthy and thorough proof of concept, the Salesforce.com Foundation started an initiative to dramatically increase the efficacy of the global social sector.
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