Salesforce.org

By: Suzanne DiBianca, President of Salesforce.org, and Rob Acker, CEO of Salesforce.org

In 1999, Salesforce was founded with a clear vision to start a new kind of company—one with a new technology model and a new business model, as well as a new integrated corporate philanthropy model. The 1-1-1 model, pioneered by Salesforce, dedicates 1% of equity, 1% of product and 1% of employee time back to communities around the world.

Dedicating 1% of Salesforce’s founding equity to start the Salesforce Foundation ensured that Salesforce would be giving back for years to come. This 1% had huge impact, and funded the Salesforce Foundation for almost ten years. But after ten years, in order to continue to grow and scale the Foundation’s impact, we needed a new model that would allow us to accelerate our mission.

Salesforce.org was founded in 2008 as a non-profit reseller of Salesforce, delivering world-class technology to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. As part of the 1-1-1 model, Salesforce.org donates the first ten Salesforce subscriptions to nonprofits and educational institutions, and sells additional subscriptions at a significant discount. Since 2009, profits from Salesforce.org’s sales have helped fund the Salesforce Foundation’s grants and other philanthropic efforts.

Today, we are taking a natural next step in our evolution as a leader and innovator in corporate philanthropy by unifying all of Salesforce’s philanthropic activities under one brand: Salesforce.org. Salesforce’s philanthropic mission remains the same: to deliver the world’s best and most innovative philanthropy through the 1-1-1 model. Salesforce.org, a nonprofit social enterprise, will continue to leverage Salesforce’s technology, employees and resources to improve the communities in which we live and work.

In the 16 years since we created the 1-1-1 model to make the world a better place, we’ve delivered on our vision. We’ve provided technology to more than 27,000 nonprofits and higher education institutions, donated $100 million in grants and facilitated 1.1 million hours of Salesforce employee volunteer time. Salesforce.org will continue to grow and scale, and as a result, fund more grants and philanthropic activities than ever before.

None of this would be possible without our incredible employees, customers, partners and nonprofit partners. We look forward to seeing the impact that we’ll have together in the years to come!