Employee-driven Philanthropy in Action

When you think of taking your customers offsite, you might think of a swanky dinner or a round of golf. But at Salesforce, a customer outing might involve digging in the dirt, picking up trash, or hanging out with kids.

Why? Because we love to connect with our customers by taking them out for a day of volunteering!

A joint volunteer activity can help you build more authentic relationships with your clients and share your company’s values in a fun, unique way.

What corporate social responsibility that drives results looks like

The Salesforce Account team for Delta and the Delta Salesforce Center of Excellence came together to plan a volunteer day at Biztown with Junior Achievement in Atlanta.

How they Picked the Volunteer Activity

Like Salesforce, Delta Air Lines cares greatly about their volunteering and giving. Delta Air Lines is part of the fun at Junior Achievement Biztown – from the actual Delta airplanes and kiosks to the Career Exploration Center where kids can learn what kinds of jobs they might have at Delta when they grow up. So they’re thinking about helping students be future-ready.

Creating an Entrepreneurial Spirit

Biztown at the Junior Achievement Discovery Center is a microcosm of Atlanta with all of Atlanta’s marquee corporations – Delta, Coca-cola, Chick-fil-A, UPS, Cox Enterprises, NCR, and many others. Every year, more than 30,000 Georgia 6th graders come to run Biztown for the day. From running the Bank of America branch to manning the Delta ticket counter to selling Chick-fil-A stuffed cows, the Delta and Salesforce teams had an action-packed, high-energy day. Children elect a mayor, choose CEOs and CFOs, build marketing campaigns and collect revenue! And, they get to be consumers and go shopping – their favorite part.

Social Impact Powered by Volunteers

And how does Biztown run so smoothly with 150 energetic 12-year olds running around? It takes volunteers – professionals that share their time and guidance to help these kids experience what it’s like to run a business!

Doing Good is Good for Business

This joint volunteer day was a great way for the Salesforce and Delta teams to spend some quality time together giving back and having fun.

The positive impact is clear. Here’s what people said:

• “The opportunity to provide middle schoolers with real-life scenarios to learn from makes it a unique and exciting experience. Spending time with coworkers and customers outside of the everyday office in a way that is meaningful and impactful to our youth is very rewarding.” – Katie Richardson, Principal Solution Engineer, Salesforce
• “It’s one of the many reasons why I love working at Salesforce – I get to do things like this with my customers. I’m proud of our commitment to the communities we live in, and this activity provided a complete change of scenery for spending time with the Delta folks and my fellow Salesforce employees!” – Jeff Tongel, Account Executive, Salesforce
• “Giving back to local communities where we live, work and serve is key to Delta’s culture and we were excited by the opportunity to team up with Salesforce to mentor students at Atlanta’s Junior Achievement Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center’s JA Biztown.” – John Clopton, Digital Marketing Manager, Delta Air Lines

All agreed it was an incredible experience and want to do it again!

Want to do something like this? Open up your calendar and add volunteering as a discussion item to your next client or team meeting agenda! Learn how your customer is giving back to their communities and consider planning a volunteering event for your next customer outing. If you do, share pictures of your volunteer activity with us on Twitter: #VolunteeringRocks

Jaime Davenport is the Success Manager at Salesforce for Delta Air Lines