Earth Day ‘22: Salesforce.org Customers Tackle Climate Challenges by Land, Air & Sea

Earth Day reminds each and every one of us of our responsibility to the planet. It is not a time to reflect, it is a time to act. At Salesforce.org, we are proud to see how much of our community — whether it’s our employees, our partners, or the nonprofits we support — is jumping in through funding, advocacy, or volunteering.

We believe, we know, that moving the needle on climate change requires collaboration on all levels. No one individual, company, government agency, or nonprofit can go it alone. We need new policies, new technology, new strategies, and local support in order to build, implement, and sustain the kinds of solutions that will help us make progress on our goals.

Last week, we shared 3 Ways to Engage Community on Climate Justice, authored by members of the Salesforce.org Impact Labs cohort on Climate Justice. These principles — Seek Community Validation, Implement Sustainability, and Design for Reuse — are intended to guide us toward solutions that will help us drive equitable shifts in climate change. Today, on Earth Day, we want to recognize organizations in our nonprofit community that embody these principles as they work tirelessly year-round to advance their mission and improve the state of our planet.

Mission: Improving air quality through community partnerships.

ValleyCAN seeks to improve public health and quality of life in disadvantaged communities by qualifying low-income residents for multiple incentive-based programs. ValleyCAN primarily focuses on vehicle repair and replacement in the San Joaquin Valley, but recognizes that many of the people attending their events also qualify for other incentive programs as well. These programs, which include car emissions repair or vehicle replacement and access to utility debt relief assistance and home energy efficiency incentives, offer cost savings and have a positive impact on the environment.

To efficiently gather information about participants and then use that data to qualify for all available incentives, ValleyCAN recognized the need for technology to scale and turned to Salesforce as a trusted solution. ValleyCAN has not only used the Salesforce platform to reach more participants in disadvantaged communities, but they have also shared the benefits of using technology to scale with other communities offering similar programs.

“Integrating our customer process into Salesforce has been a big step forward for our programs,” said Tom Knox, Valley CAN’s executive director. “We’ve found that the more efficient we make our customer process, the more customers are comfortable with sharing their information, and the faster we can deliver needed support to where it is needed most.”  

Mission: Empowerment of children and youth and mobilize for and enable the restoration of 1 trillion new trees worldwide.

Trees are one of the most powerful tools we have to combat the climate crisis. Through their own reforestation, regeneration, and restoration projects around the world as well as the empowerment of others with the same goal, Plant-for-the-Planet aims to facilitate bringing back 1 trillion trees, helping us keep global warming below 2°C. With their global scale, the organization leverages Salesforce technology to direct supporters to tree planting projects around the world. Their platform allows people to support local, community organizations easily and all in one place.

Plant-for-the-Planet’s projects are highly local, with global impact. For example, their work on the Yucatan Restoration employs 124 local staff to plant over 20 native species. This partnership with the local community to increase biodiversity not only has a direct economic impact, but by planting almost 8 million trees in the past 6 years, they will also help move the needle towards our climate goals.

“Plant-for-the-Planet’s goal is to build the bridge between such a huge goal like bringing back 1 trillion trees globally and the people and families at the individual level; we want to meet people where they are. This goes for both the practitioners putting the trees in the ground and the individuals who feel the urgency to act and want to help but so far did not know how to best do so. We aim to support community-led restoration projects that also provide livelihoods to the local families and at the same time allow donors from around the world to fund these wonderful, high-quality projects with just a couple of clicks.” – Felix Finkbeiner, Founder and board member for Plant-for-the-Planet

Mission: Healthy seas, healthy seals.

Seal Rescue Ireland (SRI) is a Registered Charity (RCN 20108519) that works around the clock to rescue, rehabilitate, and release seal pups found sick, injured, or orphaned across the coast of Ireland. As the only seal rescue center within the Republic of Ireland, they respond to reports nationwide and aim to rehabilitate the pups back to full health so they can be returned to the wild. SRI promotes ocean conservation and sustainability through proactive education, research, community engagement, and habitat restoration programmes in order to protect our seas and all life within.

Seal Rescue Ireland works to rescue, rehabilitate, and release seal pups found sick, injured, or orphaned across the coast of Ireland.

SRI provides a number of ways for their supporters and seal lovers all over the world to support their mission. One of their most popular programs is their adopt-a-seal program, which connects their supporters directly to the seals they’re rescuing. With the help of pro bono volunteers from Salesforce, they also have developed an app to keep their animal care records efficient and organized, as well as their supporters engaged so they can receive PUPdates on the seals they’ve adopted! Salesforce has also been a proud supporter of SRI’s Habitat Restoration project that will plant over 20,000 native trees in Ireland.

These nonprofits are taking on climate change from air, land, and sea — which serves as an important reminder that protecting the earth is a complex issue that needs to be addressed in a number of ways. Scaling this critical work and maximizing impact efficiently requires the help of technology. Each of these organizations were able to get support via pro bono volunteers, which enabled them to access the technical expertise of Salesforce employees.

About the Author

Cheryl Timoney
Vice President, Tech for Social Impact, Salesforce.org

Cheryl is the VP of Tech for Social Impact at Salesforce.org helping change-makers realize the promise of technology to scale their missions and impact. Cheryl has designed and scaled high-impact programs, including the Pro Bono Program, Technology Grants, and Impact Labs. Previously, Cheryl led program teams in the nonprofit sector building community solutions for economic and community development. Outside of Salesforce.org, Cheryl serves on the Board of Directors for Community Action Marin.