Salesforce Celebrates 10 Years of Supporting Schools by Focusing on Student Wellbeing

Over the past 10 years, Salesforce’s commitment to education has been unwavering — with more than $165 million in support going to help schools and educators worldwide. As part of our continued investment in school districts and educational nonprofits across the United States, Salesforce announced $25 million in grants this week with a focus on student wellbeing and educator support.

The education system needs more support now than ever as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The devastating impacts of the pandemic on students and teachers have been well documented, with students of color being the hardest hit. In addition, teacher shortages increase workloads and class sizes, putting additional pressure on the education system as a whole.

These grants will fund a range of important initiatives, including social and emotional learning, behavioral and mental health programs, trauma-informed therapy, and support to improve educator and school resiliency.

Celebrating 10 Years of Giving

To celebrate reaching a milestone of 10 years of giving, Salesforce hosted a special event at Presidio Middle School in San Francisco. The event featured remarks from Salesforce Co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, San Francisco Superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne, and Acting Oakland Superintendent Dr. Sondra Aguilera. As part of the celebration, Salesforce also hosted a student fair, staffed by Salesforce employee volunteers, with wellbeing and mindfulness activities for 1,000 Presidio students. 

To date, Salesforce employees have given almost a million volunteering hours to schools and education — including almost 100,000 hours in 2022 alone. Through Salesforce’s Circle the Schools program, employees have adopted 130 schools globally, including 34 San Francisco and Oakland schools. Employees have been part of volunteer activities designed to advance student skills, including literacy in elementary schools, STEM in middle schools, and college and career readiness in high schools.

Focusing on Student Wellbeing and School Resilience 

Salesforce has been focused on education since the beginning. What started as a $2.5 million donation to San Francisco Public Schools has since grown to more than $165 million in support of education worldwide.

Over the past 10 years, Salesforce has also developed deep partnerships with local educators. Through the Principal Innovation Fund, Salesforce provides unrestricted funds to support principals’ top needs — from STEM education and computer science, to teacher recruitment and retention programs, to programs designed to boost students’ and teachers’ social and emotional wellbeing.

This week’s exciting announcement builds on Salesforce’s longstanding partnerships with schools and other organizations, supporting students’ urgent wellbeing needs and improving school resilience by investing in educators at all levels. For the full list of grantees, check out the Salesforce Newsroom post.  

New Product Innovations to Support Schools 

The full power of Salesforce is needed to tackle these challenges head-on, including technology. This week, new features will be introduced into Salesforce for Education offerings, specifically Student Success Hub for K-12, a product that helps schools intervene collaboratively, connect students with services faster, and better track their progress. 

Student Success Alerts, Data Mover, and Guidance Center offer schools new innovations to deliver holistic student support, automate processes, and boost staff productivity.

• Student Success Alerts: Quickly raise alerts about students from a Slack app that feeds directly into Student Success Hub, streamlining communication between student support staff.
• Data Mover: Easily bring external data into the Education Data Architecture (EDA) and Student Success Hub with ready-to-use importing, custom mapping, and duplication prevention logic. (GA Winter ‘23)
• Guidance Center: Admins get onboarding support with step-by-step instructions and resources to set up Student Success Hub quickly and easily. (GA Winter ‘23)