Source: Venture Beat
February 27, 2018
By Berenice Magistretti
Salesforce.org announced today that it is partnering with nonprofit group United Way to launch the Salesforce.org Philanthropy Cloud — a platform that connects corporations and employees with causes they care about. Companies do not need to be previously using Salesforce products to access the Philanthropy Cloud.
Built on Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform, the Philanthropy Cloud will provide corporations with a suite of nonprofits to choose from. Employees will log onto the platform, answer a few questions about their preferences, and receive tailored recommendations from Salesforce’s AI-powered Einstein.
“Einstein can surface the most relevant nonprofits, impact funds, fundraising campaigns, and related stories based on an employee’s interests, location, giving history, and other signals,” wrote Nick Bailey, Salesforce.org VP of innovation and products, in an email to VentureBeat.
What’s smart about this initiative is that employees create “portable profiles,” meaning their volunteering and giving history is not tied to just one company. Therefore, if employees switch jobs and join a new company, they remain connected to the organizations and causes they support.
The 1-1-1 model Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff created has inspired many in the tech community to give back and build charitable models of their own. Twilio, for example, created Twilio.org in 2013, and Dropbox recently launched the Dropbox Foundation. Other initiatives that connect corporations with nonprofits include the Epic Foundation, which is spearheaded by French serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Alexandre Mars.
The Salesforce.org Philanthropy Cloud will be available this summer, according to a statement, and will be sold exclusively through United Way. The price is still to be determined. Employees will initially be able to give to all eligible nonprofits and charities in the U.S. and Canada, and the platform will expand to the rest of the globe shortly, according to Bailey.
The selected nonprofits have reportedly been vetted by United Way and GuideStar, which Salesforce.org has a relationship with.