Article originally published on Salesforce.org
Together, Salesforce.org and roundCorner will power a unified CRM solution for fundraising, alumni and donor outreach roundCorner provides technologies to enable social good organizations to achieve their missions
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Salesforce.org, a nonprofit social enterprise, today announced it has acquired roundCorner, which specializes in enterprise CRM solutions for nonprofits and other impact sectors.
“Through our technology, industry expertise and employee volunteerism, Salesforce.org is dedicated to empowering the social good sector,” said Rob Acker, CEO, Salesforce.org. “Together, Salesforce.org and roundCorner will further power our community of customers with solutions to advance their missions.”
roundCorner: An enterprise solution to transform the social impact sector
roundCorner, the first Salesforce.org Platinum App Partner for the nonprofit market in North America, offers technology solutions for enterprise nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions and foundations to become constituent-centric with products such as NGO Connect, Advancement Connect and Foundation Connect.
roundCorner empowers customers with fundraising and grants management built on Salesforce, so they can connect with each of their constituents from one single place.
In 2016, roundCorner joined Pledge 1% – a corporate philanthropy movement started by Salesforce, dedicated to making the community a key stakeholder in every business.
Acquisition to accelerate innovation and impact for Salesforce.org’s community
roundCorner technology will extend the power of Nonprofit Cloud, Education Cloud and Philanthropy Cloud as Salesforce.org continues to deliver solutions for fundraising, alumni and donor outreach.
Together, Salesforce.org and roundCorner will accelerate customers’ impact in their communities, whether a nonprofit, educational institution or a foundation. By making a unified system for connecting fundraising, advancement and engagement systems, Salesforce.org and roundCorner will unlock new ways to connect to constituents and optimize existing technology solutions.
Details Regarding the Acquisition
The boards of directors of Salesforce.org and roundCorner have unanimously approved the acquisition.
About Salesforce.org
Everyone who wants to change the world should have the tools and technology to do so. Technology is the most powerful equalizer of our time, providing access to data, knowledge, and — above all — connections. Salesforce.org gets our technology in the hands of nonprofits, educational institutions, and philanthropic organizations so they can connect with others and do more good. As a social enterprise, the more missions our technology supports, the more we invest back into technology and communities, creating an endless circle of good. We’re here to help; visit us at Salesforce.org.
Originally posted: January 17th, 2019
Written by the asUgo team.
As a recognized member of the Pledge 1% program, asUgo has committed to donating at least 1% of the company’s time, product and resources. It’s a small commitment today that can make a huge impact tomorrow.
“While still being a young company, it is important for asUgo to give back from an early stage onwards,” says Jürgen Janssens, Senior Manager at asUgo, who coordinates the Pledge 1% program. “At asUgo, we want to make a sustainable, measurable contribution to the communities in which we work and live.”
“Whether it is by sharing time, technology, people or resources, we are convinced that integrating philanthropy and societal contribution from an early stage will help in building bridges and improving communities throughout our different worlds.”
At asUgo, the impact program is articulated around 4 axes:
- Building bridges with/for companies
- Building bridges with/for the young generation
- Building bridges through structural charity support
- Building bridges through spontaneous support
Matured in 2018, the program will continue to grow in 2019. Some initiatives are already under preparation for Q1 2019. For more details, contact Jürgen Janssens, Senior Manager (j.janssens@asugoconsulting.com) or Julien Blaise, Managing Director (j.blaise@asugoconsulting.com).
About asUgo
Based in Brussels (Belgium), asUgo thinks and builds Salesforce solutions to support clients’ Customer Journeys. asUgo is a cross-functional and committed team with one focus: helping its clients to embrace a new digital era and connect with their customers in an innovative and efficient way.
asUgo establishes a transversal approach between:
- Marketing, Sales & Customer Service
- Business & IT
- Agility & Project Management
As Silver partner, asUgo relies on highly-certified Salesforce resources to provide functional guidance and relevant technical expertise to its clients (ONE TEAM approach) in key-sectors such as service, banking, utilities, micro-financing and healthcare. asUgo works as well with (very) large companies, as with SME organisations.
#curious, #nimble and #committed, asUgo is more than a Salesforce consulting provider, it is a partner.
For more information about asUgo, visit the company website, or follow the company pulse on LinkedIn.
Originally posted: January 9th, 2019
Originally published on the vyn blog.
At vyn, we strive to create more human business environments, powered by more human communications and boosted by Artificial Intelligence.
What do we mean by this?
The most natural and effective type of human communication is visual and verbal. With recent technological advancements, we now have the ability to create a better work-life: One where digital tools work for us, rather than the other way round, and where curiosity, learning, and ambition are not just a privilege but a right.
Continuing to follow this purpose, we’re launching vynforGood, an initiative looking to use our platform, products and individual skills in creative ways to address societal problems. Here are three ways we’re trying to make a difference.
1. Corporate Social Responsibility
We know we need to be investing in our society today for sustainability for the future. Some of our clients are using vyn to make their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives more impactful and cost-effective. We’ve extended our product free of charge to help improve CSR project feedback, to make health advice more accessible, to help empower women from marginalised parts of society, and to promote digital upskilling of workers in the field.
2. Lifelong learning for everyone
Since the beginning, we have strived to build lasting learning moments through human interfaces. Last week we launched our first #vynsightsseries, where, powered by the vyn platform, the experience and wisdom of business leaders are shared in short videos. These learning moments are intended for the benefit of all – most importantly for those without access to further education or mentors. We encourage our partners, customers and advisors to share their unique expertise as we continue the series:
“At the core of our purpose is to create a quality life, and today is just another step. As we launch vynsights, your daily dose of insight for the global reach of many, we look to our customers, advisors, and partners to expand this collection of learning moments.”
– Kapil Singhal, CEO & Co-Founder
3. We want to help you make an impact
We’re proud to offer vyn to our customers free of charge for any CSR initiative that helps to build capability or to create a better community.
What social initiatives is your organisation involved in where short, structured communication is critical to success? Perhaps keeping stakeholders informed of progress and project feedback, which can be seen and heard, is a key enabler? We want to know how we can help further your cause: Let us know in the comments below or email us.
vynforGood makes part of our promise to Pledge 1%, a corporate philanthropy movement where member companies pledge to improve communities around the world. We are committed to donating 1% of our product to social causes.
Originally posted: November 28th, 2018
After almost 30 years in the nonprofit sector, TJ Warfield created her own company, Data Geeks Lab, which provides Salesforce setup, coding, and consulting services exclusively for non-profits. Because community is part of Data Geeks Lab’s core values, TJ joined the Pledge 1%.
But when she recently audited her contributions, she realized she was way off track. While her company makes annual charitable donations equal to about 1% of gross income, her direct service hours are way over 1%. In fact, donated staff time makes up 17% of billable hours.
And TJ isn’t planning on reducing this amount anytime soon.
Why such a big commitment? For TJ, it’s about giving back, but also about building community and pushing the Salesforce non-profit tools forward. And, of course, it’s also good for her relationships with existing clients.
Almost all of TJ’s direct service hours go to providing community support for non-profits around the world who rely on Salesforce to keep their operations running.
When TJ started in the Salesforce world, non-profits were on their own to figure out how to make the platform work for them. Documentation was slim, the user groups and forums didn’t exist, and there wasn’t even a universal platform that solved the basic needs of most non-profits. That changed, though, when Salesforce.org made a major commitment to its non-profit users, and built out an ecosystem to support them.
Having access to resources and knowing how to use them are two different things though. That’s where TJ and Data Geeks Lab comes in. TJ answers questions in “The Hub,” the online forum for Salesforce non-profit users, participates in the Salesforce.org Open-Source Community Sprints, and participates in meetings for the Bay Area Non-Profit Salesforce Users Group.
Participating in the Hub forums takes up a lot of the volunteer hours donated by Data Geeks Lab. Often TJ can help a user solve their problem more quickly and thoroughly than the standard Salesforce support people can, just because she has spent years dealing with the specific kinds of problems non-profits encounter. Sometimes she’s even jumped in and worked one-on-one with a user to solve their actual problem – no charge. When she can invest just a few minutes of her time to get an organization back on track to fulfill their social mission, that’s a lot of leverage, and it provides a lot of satisfaction.
One of TJ’s most rewarding contributions is the time she spends at the Community Sprints. These events, held 3 times a year, bring together in-house Salesforce developers, non-profit and education users, and implementation partners like Data Geeks Lab to discuss issues, write documentation, discuss and spec out new functionality, and sometimes even build new features. These in-person events are hosted by Salesforce and free to attend. The same people often attend each Sprint, and it becomes almost like a family reunion.
Contributing to the community is its own reward, but also brings benefits in Data Geeks Lab’s relationship with its customers. For example, TJ lets her clients know she’ll be unavailable during the Sprints, but her customers know she’s working on making their non-profit Salesforce experience better. And when they see her in the Hub forums helping others, they get proof of her depth of knowledge with Salesforce’s offerings, which leads to deeper trust.
One of the core values of Data Geeks Lab is to “Lift as you climb,” meaning that the company sees helping others as an integral part of its own success. The Pledge 1% program has been a natural fit, even if it has been hard to stick to just giving 1%.
Originally posted: November 27th, 2018
At Front, we recognize that actions can speak louder than words. That’s why we try to live out our team values in everything we do — in the product we’re building, in our conversations with customers, and in our actions towards each other every day.
Now, we’re excited to extend that philosophy to the community around us with the official launch of Front’s philanthropic arm, the Front Foundation.
With the Front Foundation, we’ve pledged to give 1 percent of our team’s time, equity, and product to the community around us. Here’s how we’re excited to be giving back:
Time
Our team will give 1 percent of our time to charitable causes. As a group, we’re focusing on positively impacting areas of our local community, including, but not limited to: homelessness, the environment, health and human rights, children, and education.
Since we started tracking our hours in July, we’ve collectively donated nearly 200 hours to nonprofit organizations, focusing on projects that help the homeless, domestic violence victims, and at-risk groups in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Paris, France.
To encourage everyone to participate in our mission to give back, Fronteers each receive three days of paid VTO, Volunteer Time Off, which can be used to support causes of their choice.
Some of the team assembled toiletry bags for victims of domestic violence at La Casa de Las Madres in San Francisco.
Equity
We’re setting aside 1 percent of our equity to be allocated for charitable giving through the Front Foundation during a future liquidity event.
Product
Front already helps a number of nonprofit organizations across the world efficiently manage email and collaborate as a team. To continue helping these organizations make a positive impact on the world around them, we’re now offering registered 501(c)(3) organizations a 50 percent discount on all Front plans.
Learn how nonprofit teams are using Front to fuel their communication and maximize their impact across the world:
- CHAYN collaborates across borders and languages to provide resources to women experiencing abuse
- Empower Work provides real-time support to people in tough work situations via their SMS text and live chat
- Code For America cuts the food stamp application process from hours to minutes with Twilio SMS + Front
Are you a registered 501(c)(3)? Reach out to our team at foundation@frontapp.com. We’ll be happy to help you get started with Front.
Originally posted: November 27th, 2018
Since our inception 21 years ago, Dayspring Technologies has had at its core a commitment to give back to the community. This has taken various forms, from a youth training program to setting up a low-interest fund for small businesses in our Bayview neighborhood. In recent years, we became a Social Purpose Corporation (SPC) committed to donating up to 5% of our time and 10% of our profits across a number of neighbor-organizations in need.
Two years ago, however, we had an opportunity to partner with Rise University Prep, a new school established in the Bayview with the goal of providing quality education to the most disadvantaged neighborhood of San Francisco. Their model was bold, fresh, and vitally important – by partnering with local churches, businesses and volunteers, Rise created a rich relational environment that matched academic rigor with individualized support and models of success.
Dayspring decided to shift a major portion of time and profit donations to Rise. But we went a step further – we share our physical space with the school and became an extension of their team. Some of our staff have built their website; others have implemented their Salesforce CRM to help track and support fundraising efforts. And many of our staff tutor after school and create coding courses, allowing us to use our marketplace skills to benefit students. All this happens seamlessly and organically given our proximity.
Most corporations struggle to increase employee satisfaction and loyalty. Dayspring’s partnership with Rise has allowed us to tap into our team’s inherent desires to do more than earn a paycheck. We end with their own words, which say it all. When asked how our partnership with Rise affects them in the workplace, this is what they had to say:
“Having Rise in the house reminds us that we are part of a larger community. We don’t know what the Rise students will become, but we are aware their life stories will include these years with us and that has a humanizing effect in our transaction-driven marketplace.” –John
“I could give $1,000 to an important charity, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get a view into how that money is used, and it might not impact me more than that. But, with Rise, it’s different. I can see every single day how this generosity is being used, and I see the children whose lives are impacted. And that’s pretty cool!” –Karisa
“I feel that seeing the Rise kids and staff every day is a tangible reminder of the non-work work that Dayspring does and tries to do. Especially for someone new to the company, it’s a much more present and powerful portrayal of doing good than just giving x dollars to charity.” –Alex
“When I see the smiling faces of the students, it makes me realize that the work I do for Dayspring is really for them. The better we do as a company, the more resources they have as students and the school can continue to serve more disadvantaged kids.” –Dale
You can read more about Dayspring’s structure of giving in their 2017 SPC report and learn how you can support Rise University Prep here.
Originally posted: November 27th, 2018
Nextep has always been active in giving back.
From preparing dinners for families at the local Ronald McDonald House to participating in charitable events and volunteering, we and our people have long been passionate about helping others.
But this year, Nextep got serious. Inspired by Salesforce’s philanthropy and following Pledge 1%’s model, we formed The Nextep Charitable Foundation to help accomplish our giving on an even bigger scale and put some official numbers behind it.
More than that, though, we wanted to make giving a core value; an integral part of our culture. We approached the Foundation with the mission of empowering our employees to elevate the lives of people in need, and to enrich the community in which they live.
“From families and schools to charities and businesses, the Nextep Charitable Foundation is working to remove the barriers that keep people in need from moving forward,” said Brian Fayak, Nextep’s founder and CEO. “We’re fortunate to be in a position to give back, make a positive impact, and to empower our employees to do the same.”
In business and in life, we realize that improvement comes when we commit to and measure our results. To accomplish this, we dedicated ourselves to Pledge 1%’s 1:1:1 model, donating 1,000 service hours, $100,000, and free HR services to select start-up nonprofits. At the beginning of the year, we at Nextep were excited but a bit nervous these goals might be too ambitious, that we might have trouble reaching them. Going into the final quarter of the year, though, we found that we had already reached most of them and were on track to meet or exceed them all by the year’s end.
Our main focus in the Foundation is helping children, families, and organizations that do the same, with our time, dollars, and know-how.
TIME
Our people are excited about being difference-makers in the community. They’re eager to serve, and we readily encourage them to do so by providing paid volunteer hours to employees. To us, there’s no better day’s work than one spent assisting children, families, and people or organizations in need within our communities.
DOLLARS
In addition to time and physical effort, Nextep Charitable Foundation is donating $100,000 to elevate people and organizations that need help. From families and schools to charities and businesses, we’re removing the barriers that keep people in need from moving forward, and we are donating our dollars to make a positive impact.
KNOW-HOW
We know starting an organization is hard. But Nextep has the know-how you need to succeed and we’re here to help make that happen. Nextep Charitable Foundation offers grants consisting of one year of free services to select start-up nonprofits. And what up-and-coming company wouldn’t want a certified expert in their corner?
During the year, our people have built meaningful partnerships with more than a dozen organizations in our communities, being humbled by the important work they are doing, and enriched by the inspiring people they’ve met.
“Empowering our people to help others is incredibly gratifying,” said Ashton Stephens, HR business partner and Nextep Foundation committee chair. “We’re making a real difference in our community, and I’m so grateful that Nextep gives us this platform to do good things.”
Originally posted: November 27th, 2018
Fluxx is a mission-driven company. Our platform powers both givers and doers in the philanthropic space – allowing them to fund more and increase impact throughout local communities and the world. And while giving back is something we do throughout the year, we especially look forward to Giving Tuesday because it’s when we set aside time to collectively donate our time as a team – it’s tradition!
This upcoming November 27th, our entire office will spend half a day volunteering at two amazing nonprofits. Our San Francisco headquarters will be returning to Alameda County Community Food Bank while our New York employees will be at Grand Central Neighborhood Social Services.
For over 30 years Alameda County Community Food Bank has distributed millions of healthy meals to communities in need. We’ll be helping their team to sort through pounds of fresh produce and then bagging them up for distribution. Last year we sorted 38,570 pounds of produce, the equivalent of over 32,000 meals for our community. While in New York, Grand Central Neighborhood Social Services provides basic necessities and social services for the New York City’s homeless. Our team will be serving dinner in their soup kitchen.
And of course, our volunteer work isn’t exclusive to Giving Tuesday. As part of our Pledge 1% commitment, we donate our time to the local community throughout the year – during the work week. These volunteer activities are factored into our day-to-day and we encourage our employees to set aside their projects and join in.
We’ve worked closely throughout the years with Project Open Hand, an incredible organization also focused on improving nutrition for communities in need. We’ve pitched in at GLIDE (a local community shelter) working to serve food and clean up after their lunch program, and we’ve held team beach cleanups at our local shorelines.
Joining Pledge 1% was natural for our team. We genuinely believe that you get more when you give. Whether we’re engaging in skill-based volunteering our large group activities aimed at accomplishing a momentous project all at once, our team commits itself wholeheartedly, and I truly believe it makes us a stronger company.
This November 27th will be a day of cross-functional comradery, smiles, and goodwill!
Originally posted: November 27th, 2018
Dallas, Texas based Concenter Services has been a Salesforce partner for nine years, offering customizable CRM solutions and ongoing support to the Financial Services industry. This year, Concenter Services and its team of experienced “computer nerds” was excited and honored to donate time, services and expertise to “Pledge 1 Percent” by assisting with the operational merger of two local non-profit organizations: My Possibilities and LaunchAbility.
My Possibilities (mypossibilities.org) is a pioneering leader in vocational education for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and LaunchAbility is the leading supported job placement organization for adults with intellectual and development disabilities. Despite the obvious synchronicity of mission between the two organizations, there were some challenging obstacles to the operational merger – especially with CRM.
Concenter Services was happy to work with these two incredible organizations, and provide the necessary expertise and guidance for a smooth transition. Initial confusion on how best to merge the two Salesforce orgs and most efficiently utilize the system going forward required teamwork and collaboration from all parties. Concenter Services provided training on best system practices, which allowed for the formulation of an effective project plan for the merger.
Taking the pledge proved to be a great learning experience for everyone involved. Not only did it allow Concenter Services to give back to a great cause within the community, but it also helped the “computer nerds” think outside the box and apply their knowledge in an unfamiliar industry. The My Possibilities -LaunchAbility merger has created a very powerful resource for the community and Concenter Services was pleased to be a part of the smooth transition. Of course, the Pledge does not end here, as Concenter Services looks forward to finding new ways to help the community!
Originally posted: November 27th, 2018