What volunteering means to me…

By: Emily Aslin, EMEA Recruitment Co-ordinator, Salesforce

In my two years at Salesforce I have logged over 170 hours of charity volunteering. My role is demanding but it’s also a priority to include Salesforce.org into my schedule.

I am very passionate about volunteering and the Foundation and recommend getting involved to all my colleagues. I’ve become the go to person in the Staines office for any queries, advice, or to inform my people of up-coming events that I could recommend specifically for them.

When I joined Salesforce I had no experience at volunteering – but I was quick to get started – trying out as many different charity volunteering events as I could.

From helping teenagers with their interviews skills and techniques, to attending the Friday MS Society group, painting a room at the special needs farm, present wrapping at the Kids Company, gardening at a Community Landshare, teaching a classroom of primary school children, and helping out at an animal sanctuary as well as the shoe box appeal at Christmas.

This was all in my first year!

Team Ambassador

I was really enthusiastic about it all, and the Director of Recruitment for EMEA saw my passion and asked me to become the Foundation ambassador for the EMEA Recruitment team, helping them achieve their goal of completing 6 days of volunteering in 2015.

Each month I create a Foundation Newsletter which I send to the team with a dashboard on how many hours the team has logged, photos of recent team volunteering events, and information on forthcoming events in their region which they can sign up to.

Rays of Sunshine

I am passionate about finding new charities to support and was happy to introduce Salesforce.org to children’s charity ‘Rays Of Sunshine‘. Since last October Salesforce employees have taken part in various fundraising and team events raising over £2k for the charity, which has been used to fund wishes for terminally ill children.

Champion Grant

I have just completed my 48 hours and donated my champion grant (we receive a $1,000 grant which we can give to a charity of our choice once we reach our target) to the MS Group. I help arrange their off-sites and rota, and visit the group once a month. They are an inspirational group of people who are really thankful to Salesforce, without whom their meetings would not happen.

The group suffer with their illness but are always smiling and make you appreciate how lucky we have it. They are a genuine and fun group who I will continue to support well into the future.

My Foundation Goals:

• To encourage as many people as I can to sign up to volunteering and hit their 48 hours (4 hours per month) and spread the word of this amazing opportunity we are given at Salesforce
• To build a continuing relationship between Rays of Sunshine and Salesforce
• To help manage and continue supporting for the fabulous MS Group
• Try new volunteering events myself and get more involved in fundraising

I love the fact that you can attend a volunteering event with a few colleagues or 50 colleagues, and you may not know any of them or even see them again, but on that day you all come together and make a positive impact on other people.

This is what Salesforce.org is all about!