Announcing Volunteering Capability in Philanthropy Cloud

As the workplace continues to evolve, the need for purpose-driven employee engagement grows. Employees increasingly want to work for companies that share a responsibility for social good and empower employees to give back to their communities. People want their companies to take action in making the world a better place, and they want a say in how that happens.

To address this new era of social impact in the workplace, Salesforce.org, in conjunction with United Way, launched Salesforce.org Philanthropy Cloud in June 2018. Philanthropy Cloud combines world-class technology from Salesforce.org with United Way’s unparalleled expertise in workplace giving. Working together, we have been building a comprehensive platform for corporate philanthropy, populating it with millions of opportunities for employees to give back and helping companies successfully deploy it to their workforces. The platform seeks to provide individuals and companies a 360-degree view of how dollars, time, and expertise come together to create social impact.

Today, Philanthropy Cloud offers a personalized experience for creating and tracking social impact. Employees can choose how to contribute to society. With the general availability of the volunteering capability in Philanthropy Cloud, users can select a campaign and decide whether to give money, time, or both in one streamlined interface. And then they can see how much they’ve donated and how many hours they’ve volunteered over time. They can also view company-featured and Einstein-recommended campaigns and stories. (Read more about what drives Einstein’s recommendations in the Values Behind Philanthropy Cloud blog post.)

The overall vision for Philanthropy Cloud is to engage and educate employees on the issues in their communities — and the nonprofits that are working tirelessly to solve those issues — and surface all of the ways employees can engage in a cause they care about and provide transparency for how those efforts make a difference.

Philanthropy that matches individual skills to nonprofit needs

Nonprofits rely on dollars, volunteering, and knowledge to move initiatives forward. But they may need more of one thing at different phases of a given project: skill. For example, a nonprofit building water wells in Zambia may have the necessary funds needed to complete the project but still need engineering expertise and guidance to move the project forward. Philanthropy Cloud harnesses the power of AI to surface these needed skills to matched individuals, so they can provide expertise.

The platform also offers more robust notifications and tailored campaigns. When an employee signs up to volunteer, Philanthropy Cloud intelligently pulls the skills they’ve listed in their profile and matches them to a specific job. It will also export their registration from the platform and push specialized email notifications that detail the volunteer effort and skills needed.

Real-Time Reporting

Giving and volunteering are tracked side-by-side and in real time, so employees can see reports of how, where, and how much they contributed to each organization in both dollars donated and hours volunteered. Admins can also see aggregate company data on how much their employees are giving and volunteering and align those contributions to causes, nonprofits, and even Sustainable Development Goals.

Create a community around social impact

Philanthropy Cloud goes beyond being a portal for employees and companies to track metrics around philanthropy. It allows individuals, companies, and nonprofits to partner in creating an ecosystem of giving back. Everyone brings their skills and passions to the platform, and they see how their contributions make an impact. By surfacing individual skills, empowering thought leaders who are passionate about causes, and partnering with nonprofits to offer strategic philanthropy opportunities, Philanthropy Cloud makes giving back a group effort.

Coming Soon:

A role for champions to lead teams in corporate philanthropy

What if we could inspire others to contribute to the causes we care about? In an effort to democratize philanthropy, Philanthropy Cloud offers employees the opportunity to champion their cause and mobilize their colleagues to join their efforts in achieving a worthy objective or community impact. A champion might be a thought leader or influencer from any part of the company who is enthusiastic about causes and social impact. They would be granted additional rights in the platform to create campaigns, share impact stories, and organize efforts. This role is especially helpful for companies without a dedicated CSR team; it allows companies to scale corporate citizenship organically and without a concentrated effort from an administrator.

Philanthropy on the go

Much of volunteering does not happen when you’re behind your desk. It happens when you’re out in the community listening, understanding what the needs are, and taking action. In addition, not every worker sits behind a desk. For workers in retail, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, and many other industries, they rely on their mobile phone to stay connected. They expect to find and sign up for volunteering opportunities through their mobile device. Philanthropy Cloud envisions a world in which a native mobile app prompts employees to provide real-time engagement with the platform. When someone is volunteering at a local community garden, they can snap a picture and upload it for others to follow along. After they are done tilling the soil, they can log their hours and make a donation from their mobile device.

Learn more about Philanthropy Cloud’s latest capabilities in our Volunteering Solution Brief.

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