The final keynote presentation at this year's Dreamforce, by Larry Brilliant of Google.org and Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, brought up two very important ideas for our community to consider.
Larry Brilliant shared his inspirational story of leading the first organization of doctors to rid the world of smallpox and explained how this eventually brought him into his current role managing Google's Global Philanthropic efforts. He termed the practice of weaving service into a corporate culture "Hybrid Philanthropy." Salesforce calls it the 1:1:1 initiative - providing 1% of profit, 1% of employee resources, and 1% of product to non-profits and community projects.
I was fortunate enough to take part in the annual Salesforce Foundation event in San Francisco on the Saturday prior to this year's Dreamforce. In one day, SF.com assembled over 100 customers, partners, and employees from all over the world to repaint and landscape a single inner city school. Even though the weather was cold and rainy, I left inspired by what we were able to achieve together in a single day. I was energized by the idea of seeing the faces of the kids as they walked into their new library or cafeteria on Monday morning, a little brighter and warmer.
Malcolm Gladwell brought it down to a more personal level. He encouraged us to consider the limitless possibilities of individuals when we all put our entire hearts and minds into our work or into a single mission.
Whether it's Bill Gates programming at the age of 13 on a mainframe, or a a team of students tackling a tough math problem, it's through persistence and effort that we achieve great results. Leaving the session, I considered how many VerticalResponse non-profit customers come by our booth or meet us at events and thank us in person for our free service contribution (VR's version of 1:1:1). They are so grateful and so passionate about their cause and their story, it can't help but inspire VR employees in our efforts to provide better service and share in their success. Whether it's our non-profit customers or a tech start-up, it's the passion behind their intellect that catapults their success.
A point I think both the great speakers failed to mention is how contagious this kind of attitude can be. Like a virus that can just as easily spread to destroy, the more we share and hear about efforts to affect the greater good, the more likely we are to push ourselves just a little bit harder to contribute as well and put our heart and mind behind our work. Then, collectively, we are one step closer to achieving the capitalization of our community!
Erin Jacobs - Director of Marketing
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