By Michael del Castillo. Originally published in New York Business Journal.
Investor Ron Conway today announced that two powerful philanthropic organizations have joined forces to help make sure aspiring entrepreneurs in New York have the resources they need to get started on the right foot.
“Pledge 1 Percent is teaming up with the Robin Hood Foundation to launch in New York,” said Conway, who sits on the board of the Salesforce.com Foundation, while speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in midtown.
Launched in 2014, Pledge 1% was co-founded by Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce, Scott Faquhar, co-founder of Atlassian, and others to encourage companies to pledge 1 percent of their equity, product and employee time to their communities.
Based in New York City, the Robin Hood Foundation launched in 1988 to serve the city’s poorest neighborhoods. The company has raised $1.95 billion in goods and services since its founding.
“It’s important that each city’s tech community create some sort of volunteer system,” said Fred Wilson, founder of Union Square Ventures, who was also on stage with Conway at Disrupt. Wilson said it is important for everyone in tech to know who needs their skills, which Salesforce for Startups will help make happen.
Less than a month ago, Saleforce for Startups launched in Boston to fulfill its mission of helping build any kind of app at scale, gain access to content and tools, and in return, build philanthropy into their corporate core.
Those who sign up for Salesforce for Startups gain access to a distribution channel of 150,000 enterprise customers, according to their site. Existing partners include Accelerprise, Upshift, and Work—Bench.
