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When a successful IT trend takes root—cloud services, social networks and IoT are three examples—leaders in the sector inevitably expand their successful-in-the-trend products to get more specialized.
Salesforce.com, which next year celebrates its 20th birthday, has been a leader in following this pattern. Starting as a relatively simple customer-relationship management app in 1999, Salesforce has morphed into a wide array of different services, including Force.com (development platform), Heroku (platform building), commerce cloud, marketing cloud, sales cloud and a list of others.
At the same time, Salesforce also always been been genuinely caring about its community; this is a longtime preference from the founder in the CEO chair, Marc Benioff. So it follows that the company would eventually use its cloud muscle to help start a new cloud devoted to support for charities.
That’s exactly what it announced Feb. 27. Salesforce.org, the philanthropic arm of Salesforce, and United Way Worldwide revealed their partnership to launch Philanthropy Cloud, which Salesforce described as a first-of-its-kind enterprise app to help companies engage their employees in giving back and supporting pet causes.
Built on Salesforce Platform
Philanthropy Cloud, built on the Salesforce platform, connects all aspects of employee giving in one place. Individuals will have personal portable profiles that move with them throughout their career, allowing them to amplify and measure their lifelong contributions, the company said.
The goal is for Philanthropy Cloud to make giving back simple to do and to help enable companies integrate philanthropy as a core part of their workplace culture.
Philanthropy Cloud uses Salesforce Einstein artificial intelligence to connect employees with causes and opportunities to engage in communities that are personally meaningful.
Salesforce pointed out that according to recent research by Povaddo, more than half (57 percent) of those working in America’s largest companies believe their employers should play a more active role in addressing important societal issues.
Connects Employees with Causes They Select
“Employees are demanding that their companies support their personal values, companies need a way to optimize employee engagement programs and understand their impact, and nonprofits need to reach new donors and volunteers,” Salesforce Vice-President of Innovation and Products Nick Bailey wrote in a blog post. “Philanthropy Cloud will connect employees to the causes they care about most in this brand new philanthropy marketplace. Companies can manage all their philanthropic efforts on one network that tracks employee giving and volunteering activity, and can easily measure their impact.”
Philanthropy Cloud profiles will follow employees throughout their career and guide them on their journey as citizen philanthropists, Bailey said.
“Giving is a team sport, and through this new network, employees can work with their teams, colleagues, and friends to expand their impact,” he said. “Through Philanthropy Cloud, we will empower the next generation of citizen philanthropists to find their passions, invest their money and talent, and drive social impact in their communities.”
In past years, Fortune has named Salesforce as both the No. 1 “Workplace for Giving Back” as well as the No. 1 “Best Company to Work For.”
United Way Serves 115,000 Workplaces
United Way is the world’s leader in workplace philanthropy, serving more than 115,000 workplace campaigns that reach more than 47.5 million employees. Philanthropy Cloud will let companies tap into the combined power of our two organizations and connect to bigger movements, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in order to drive personalized social impact, Bailey said.
For more information on how to connect your employer with Philanthropy Cloud, go here.