Salesforce.com Foundation Unveils 'The Power of Us' Partner Program: Leveraging the Partner Network to Support Nonprofit Customers
Program Kicked Off Today at 'The Power of Partners' Event in New York City With Inaugural Partners Vertical Response, Blue Wolf, Thiekos, CRM Fusion and AppExtremes All Embracing the Integrated Philanthropy Model
In Honor of National Corporate Philanthropy Day, Nonprofits Will Gather to Learn About Technology
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26 -- Salesforce.com Foundation, the global leader in integrating philanthropy and business, today announced that it is launching one of the most ambitious and groundbreaking programs in corporate philanthropy with the Power of Us partner program. The objective of the program is to assist salesforce.com partners who are interested in giving back and connecting them with current salesforce.com nonprofit customers who need their expertise. Partners must give at least two of the four pillars of the salesforce.com 1% model -- time, equity, product or environmental stewardship -- in order to join the Power of Us partner program. The Foundation will help teach the partners how to implement an integrated philanthropy model similar to the Salesforce.com Foundation's unique 1/1/1/1 model to help serve the nonprofit sector and facilitate the donation of their services through existing nonprofit customers. This program will be launched today at the "The Power of Partners," a free educational event for existing nonprofit customers put on by the Salesforce.com Foundation.
Salesforce.com Foundation - "Doing Well, While Doing Good"
The Salesforce.com Foundation is guided by a unique vision, the 1/1/1/1 model, which signifies that 1% of product, 1% of employee's time, 1% of equity and being 'one' with the earth will combine to make an effective impact on the global community. Since being founded in 1999, the Foundation has been responsible for donating Salesforce applications to more than 1,600 nonprofits, donating 40,000 hours of volunteer work by employees, giving millions of dollars in grants to help the community and working to become carbon neutral. The Salesforce.com Foundation focuses much of their activities and donations on the use of technology and especially how it relates to youth development.
The Power of Us - A Roadmap for Corporate Philanthropy
The Power of Us partner program was created to grow Salesforce.com Foundation's community benefits exponentially by increasing the number of companies committed to a similar method of corporate social responsibility. The prospect of adopting a philanthropic model that will be embraced by employees, customers and investors alike is a daunting task for any company. Many companies look to salesforce.com and the Salesforce.com Foundation as an example because of their ability to "do well, while doing good." With the Power of Us, the Salesforce.com Foundation is committed to mentoring companies to successfully incorporate integrated philanthropy into their business model. While the initiative is still in the early phase, the Salesforce.com Foundation has already successfully inspired partner organizations like Blue Wolf, Vertical Response and AppExtremes to incorporate philanthropy into their "for profit" company.
"Since the inception of the Salesforce.com Foundation, we realized that there was a wealth of committed salesforce.com partners with the desire, means and resources to make a meaningful impact on the nonprofit community," said Suzanne DiBianca, executive director at the Salesforce.com Foundation. "The Power of Us partner initiative allows our existing partners to get involved quickly and in a meaningful way without having to spend time or money setting up their own Foundations. Facilitating this kind of giving increases the impact on the nonprofit customers of salesforce.com -- these donated services and products are what leveraged giving is all about."
The Power of Partners - A Summit Bringing Together Business and Nonprofits
At "The Power of Partners" event, salesforce.com business partners will describe how they are giving their products and services to the nonprofit organizations that are using donated salesforce.com products. In addition to the educational opportunities, this event will also be a networking event for the business and nonprofit leaders in attendance including the United Way, Goodwill Industries, and the Acumen Fund. The event is being held in conjunction with National Corporate Philanthropy Day, which is aimed at building awareness of philanthropic achievements, sharing the benefits of corporate giving, and inspiring businesses across the country to engage further in philanthropy.
"After I read Marc Benioff's book, Compassionate Capitalism, in 2004, I became involved with the Salesforce.com Foundation and learned how I could successfully integrate philanthropy into my business, just as salesforce.com had," said Jason Masciarelli, CEO of Theikos, Inc, a Premier Consulting Partner of Salesforce.com. "With the help of the Salesforce.com Foundation, our company has donated over $150,000 worth of professional services to nonprofit organizations. However, the true benefit we have experienced as a company is the pride we have in knowing what we already have given back to the community and what we plan to give in the future."
Salesforce.com chairman and CEO Marc Benioff, a respected leader in corporate philanthropy, has written two books on the topic. Compassionate Capitalism (Career Press, 2004) was the first-ever best practices guide for corporate philanthropy. Benioff recently release The Business of Changing the World (McGraw-Hill, 2006, thebusinessofchangingtheworld.com), a collection of essays by twenty business leaders, including Michael Dell, Mike Eskew, Steve Case and others, that cover how their companies and organizations have implemented an integrated approach to philanthropy.
For more information on National Corporate Philanthropy Day, please visit the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP)'s website at corporatephilanthropy.org/day/. In addition, the CECP awarded salesforce.com with the 7th Annual Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award for Small Company at an award luncheon today. Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award was announced in a separate release today.
About Salesforce.com Foundation
The Salesforce.com Foundation mission is to remain the leaders in pioneering, evangelizing and implementing the 1% Model, and using this model as a means to improve the lives of people around the world. The Salesforce.com Foundation harnesses the power of product and people to improve the lives of those in need. Using the unique 1/1/1/1 Model -- 1% Time, 1% Equity, 1% Product, "one" with the earth-the Foundation reaches out to the community and increases the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations so they can better achieve their goals. We call this the Power of Us. We concentrate on the use of technology, specifically as it relates to organizations with youth development programs. We have supported technology centers around the world that help kids in technology-bereft urban and rural areas create a better future for themselves. Since July of 2000, salesforce.com employees have given over 40,000 hours of their time and expertise, feeding the homeless, tutoring kids, improving nonprofit spaces, and offering hundreds of helping hands when the world is faced with devastating natural disasters.
About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the market and technology leader in on-demand business services. The company's Salesforce suite of on-demand CRM applications allows customers to manage and share all of their sales, support, marketing and partner information on-demand. Apex, the world's first on-demand platform, enables customers, developers and partners to build powerful new on-demand applications that extend beyond CRM to deliver the benefits of multi-tenancy and The Business Web across the enterprise. All Apex components and applications can be easily shared, exchanged and installed via salesforce.com's AppExchange directory, available at salesforce.com/appexchange. Customers can also take advantage of Successforce, salesforce.com's world-class training, support, consulting and best practices offerings.
As of January 31, 2007, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 29,800 customers and approximately 646,000 paying subscribers including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), America Online (AOL), Avis Budget Group, Inc, Dow Jones Newswires, Nokia, Polycom and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM". For more information please visit www.salesforce.com/, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.
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CONTACT: Jane Hynes of salesforce.com, +1-415-901-5079, or jhynes@salesforce.com
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