At Salesforce, we believe we have a responsibility to give back to our communities, and we are using our philanthropic investments, our employee engagement efforts, and our technology to help 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.
We are deeply committed to advancing equality by investing in equity, meeting the needs and empowering the most vulnerable communities around the world.
Updates on our philanthropic efforts
Our Future Ready grantee partners, focused on education, workforce development, and child welfare, are seeing immense disruption as they manage unexpected costs of switching to remote work, providing virtual programming, and filling the gaps of lost revenue from canceled fundraisers. We want them to weather the storm. The work they do is essential to removing barriers and creating a more inclusive post-COVID economy.
Today we’re announcing a $2 million fund to help current and past grantees working to break the cycle of inequality survive this crisis and continue providing the programs and services their constituents rely on.
We’re also announcing $1 million to support the City of Oakland’s Oakland COVID-19 Relief Fund, to deliver immediate assistance to vulnerable residents and first responders, with a focus on food security, services for homeless residents, community health organizations serving uninsured residents, and small businesses.
Employee engagement
To support our employees’ desire to give back in this time of unprecedented need, we’re providing recommendations for how they can donate time and money to our trusted nonprofit partners on the front lines of the response effort.
The world may be in lockdown, but Salesforce employees continue to do what they do best: give back to their communities. 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.
Our commitment to our communities
We are focused on supporting the most vulnerable individuals and families, nonprofits, and small businesses, both immediately and over the long-term.
In total, we have already committed USD $7.5 million in donations to support local, regional, and global efforts to fight this pandemic:
In the U.S., we’ve donated $3 million total to the City of San Francisco’s Give2SF Fund, the UCSF COVID-19 Response Fund and New York COVID-19 Emergency Fund to support small businesses and deliver immediate assistance to vulnerable residents and first responders in hubs where our employees live and work.
We’ve expanded our support globally for those affected by donating $1 million total to organizations like the Italian Red Cross, Madrid Food Bank the French Red Cross and more. The funds will support mitigation and direct relief for vulnerable populations. We’ve donated $500,000 to the CDC Foundation’s Emergency Response Fund, including the Foundation’s work supporting state and local health departments, global relief efforts, logistics, communications, data management, and critical response supplies.
Our donations aim to benefit populations disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. We will continue to look at how we can extend this investment and support those who need it most.
