This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19.
Read the original article on the Salesforce blog.
At Salesforce, we believe that business is the greatest platform for change and we have a responsibility to give back to our communities. We are proud to join the #GivingTuesdayNow movement and use our platform to support COVID-19 response efforts.
Through our philanthropic investments, employee engagement efforts, and our technology, we are committed to helping in every way we can during the COVID-19 crisis. We know that disasters magnify existing inequities. The people who are hurt the most are those who are marginalized: communities of color, low-income individuals and families, people experiencing homelessness, immigrants, and refugees for example. COVID-19 is no exception. We are seeing the pandemic disproportionately impact vulnerable populations around the world. You can read more about our philanthropic efforts around COVID-19 here.
Ahead of #GivingTuesdayNow, we shared resources to help our 45,000 Salesforce.org customers and others in the nonprofit community make the most of this global movement by engaging their supporters. We hosted a LinkedIn AMA to answer questions from nonprofits and partnered with the GivingTuesday foundation on a blog post: 5 Ways Nonprofits Can Prepare for #GivingTuesdayNow. We focused our broader #GivingTuesdayNow communications on sharing the multitude of ways that individuals and organizations can give back to support their communities. We shared original content on our blog and social media channels focusing on different ways to give, such as inspiring virtual volunteering examples and ideas for saying thank you to those on the frontlines of the pandemic.
We also called on our 50,000+ employees to give back in the ways that resonate most with them. We launched an internal communications campaign to share resources for employees to give back, including sharing Salesforce Pro Bono volunteer opportunities and drawing attention to our company donation matching program. Salesforce employees have now logged 5 million volunteer hours! The fact that we reached this milestone in the midst of a global pandemic that has disrupted how we live, work, and volunteer makes the achievement even more remarkable.
“The world may be in lockdown, but Salesforce employees continue to do what they do best: give back to their communities,” said Ebony Beckwith, Chief Philanthropy Officer of Salesforce.
Our Equality Groups, employee-led organizations that support and celebrate our underrepresented communities, answered the call-to-action by launching a campaign to deliver relief to those most vulnerable. Through this campaign, Equality Groups matched donations to philanthropic partners up to $10,000 in addition to Salesforce’s matches to employee donations.
We’re proud of our employees, customers, and Pledge 1% partners who joined this wave of generosity, engagement, and action. We look forward to continuing these cross-sector partnerships to support those who are most impacted.
