Salesforce.com Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary by Awarding Grants to 15 Global Nonprofits

SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, 2009 — The Salesforce.com Foundation, the global leader in integrating philanthropy and business, today announced its 2009 grantees in celebration of salesforce.com and the Foundation's 10 year anniversary. A total of $235,000 in grants has been awarded to organizations globally, including Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties, Micromentor and World Toilet Organization. For the first time, the winning organizations were voted on by salesforce.com employees using the company's own deployment of Salesforce CRM Ideas, the world's first cloud computing application that enables the wisdom of crowds to drive innovation.

"We could think of no better way to celebrate our 10 year anniversary milestone, especially in this economic climate, than by helping nonprofits around the world," said Suzanne DiBianca, Executive Director of the Salesforce.com Foundation. "After all, salesforce.com set out to change the way companies think about philanthropy ten years ago, and today more than ever, it continues to define us as a company."

The Salesforce.com Foundation's "Turn it Up" grants, a key component of salesforce.com's 1/1/1 integrated philanthropy model, are designed to support nonprofit customers who are using innovative technology solutions to help measure their impact. To be eligible, organizations were required to be active Salesforce.com Foundation 1/1/1 philanthropy partners working with salesforce.com volunteers and technology solutions. For two weeks, employees reviewed and voted on the top 34 innovative project proposals submitted by the Salesforce.com Foundation's global nonprofit community. More than half of salesforce.com's employees logged nearly 2,000 votes, demonstrating their passion for the nonprofits' projects. The top rated organization, Wildlife Victoria, had 1960 votes from employees in over 10 countries.

The winning organizations are:

* Action Against Child Exploitation - A Japan-based nonprofit that addresses the issue of child labor around the world.
* Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) - A San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit that works with youth around technology and media arts.
* Carmichael Centre - A Dublin, Ireland-based volunteer engagement organization.
* Florence - A Japan-based forward-thinking social enterprise that provides assistance when a child has fallen ill and working parents are unable to care for them during the day.
* Future Leaders - A United Kingdom-based charity whose goal is to inform the teacher recruitment process and see positive changes in teacher retention and student success.
* Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties - Goodwill provides education and career services to people who have disadvantages that would otherwise make it hard for them to find jobs.
* Grassroot Soccer - A nonprofit that provides African youth with the knowledge, skills and support to live HIV free using the power of soccer.
* HelpSudan - A nonprofit whose goal is to start new schools in Southern Sudan, providing pencils and notebooks for hands that might have taken up arms, and an education for minds that once only understood war.
* Micromentor - A San Francisco-based nonprofit that connects entrepreneurs with experienced peers and volunteer business mentors.
* Polaris Project - A nonprofit that has been providing a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery since 2002.
* Rainforest2Reef - A nonprofit dedicated to the conservation of a biological corridor in Central America.
* Screenreader.net - A London-based charity dedicated to making computer programs accessible to the blind.
* U-Turn Homeless - A nonprofit in Cape Town South Africa that works specifically to address the rehabilitation and reintegration needs of the homeless.
* Wildlife Victoria - A volunteer-based organization at the forefront of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation in Victoria, Australia.
* World Toilet Organization - A Singapore-based nonprofit that is the global leader and champion of the sanitation cause.

About Salesforce CRM Ideas
Salesforce CRM Ideas is the world's first cloud computing application that enables the wisdom of crowds to drive business innovation. Every organization has internal and external communities that generate ideas and can serve as an organization's innovation engine. Salesforce CRM Ideas allows organizations to unleash the power of these communities to improve their operations and to deepen valued relationships. Organizations can tap into customers, employees and partners across divisions and boundaries to drive the best ideas and innovations. Just like all Salesforce CRM applications, Salesforce CRM Ideas is delivered as a service, removing the cost and complexity of traditional software so that customers can focus on innovation, not infrastructure.

About the Salesforce.com Foundation
The Salesforce.com Foundation is the global leader in integrating philanthropy and business through its 1/1/1 integrated philanthropy Model http://www.sharethemodel.org. The 1/1/1 Model harnesses the power of salesforce.com's people and technology through 1% Time, 1% Equity and 1% Product to increase the effectiveness of nonprofits in pursuing their social missions. Since the Foundation's inception in 1999, employees have given more than 125,000 hours of their time; more than 5,200 nonprofits in 60 countries are using donated and discounted Salesforce CRM licenses as part of the Foundation's 1% Product Donation Program http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/product; and numerous organizations are benefiting from technology-related grants. For more information on the Salesforce.com Foundation, please visit www.salesforcefoundation.org/equity.

SOURCE Salesforce.com