Dreamforce Gives ’14: By the Numbers

Cross-posted from Salesforce

By: Emily Stanford

Throughout the history of Dreamforce, giving back has been an integral part of the conference. But for 2014, philanthropy was front and center — and we’ve got the numbers to prove it.

Dreamforce 2014 had the distinction of being the largest nonprofit tech conference in the world—with more than 7,000 nonprofits and higher education institutions joining us for a dedicated conference within a conference with sessions and networking on accelerating their mission with Salesforce.

But making a difference wasn’t just for the nonprofits and universities in attendance. Throughout Dreamforce, there were sessions and keynotes surrounding the importance of giving back, and every day of the conference was devoted to supporting a different cause–including hunger, children’s health and education, veterans and integrating philanthropy into every business.

In addition to the daily initiatives, participants were encouraged to donate online or bring cans of food to help us reach One Million Meals for those in need.

DFGives ’14 was an enormous success; take a look at the final numbers below:

3,000 bags stuffed for Project Night Night.

Project Night Night is an organization devoted to providing homeless children with sweeter dreams. The Night Night kits included books, blankets and stuffed animals and will be distributed to children around San Francisco.

275 letters written to troops and veterans

Attendees took time out of their busy Dreamforce schedules to write a supportive note to active duty troops, as well as veterans.

2,000 bags stuffed for Talk, Read, Sing

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s initiative Talk, Read, Sing is devoted to providing parents with educational materials to encourage them to spend more time talking, singing and reading to their young children.

$9m raised for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals

Bruno Mars and Cake rocked out for a good cause at the Dreamforce Gala and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Benefit Concert.

75,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now

Volunteers sorted and assembled 75,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now, contributing to the grand total of…

…3 million meals donated

Dreamforce attendees raised a total of 1,012,048 meals through their donations. Both Marc Benioff and Tony Robbins vowed to match the 1 million meals mark, bringing the total to over 3 million meals donated. Along the way, Salesforce.org worked closely with one of our amazing partners, Classy, to deliver these meals with the help of their next-generation fundraising tools.

“We were honored to work with Salesforce.org on #DFGives this year,” said Scot Chisholm, CEO & co-founder of Classy. “Hitting the one million meals milestone was amazing, and it gave us the opportunity to demonstrate the power of technology to help corporations and nonprofits come together to tackle a social challenge in new ways.”

We’re very proud that the entire Dreamforce community is as committed to giving back as we are. Here’s to Dreamforce ’15 being even bigger!