The Salesforce.com Foundation Helps Playworks Bring the Benefits of Play to Underserved Children

National nonprofit uses Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform to increase donor retention and fundraising capacity

Salesforce.com's community to volunteer with Playworks at Cloudforce 2011, impacting more than 4,600 children at local low-income schools

News provided by

The Salesforce.com Foundation

Mar 02, 2011, 08:15 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Salesforce.com Foundation, the global leader in integrating philanthropy and business, today announced the success of Playworks in using Salesforce CRM and the Force.com enterprise cloud computing platform to run its national nonprofit organization. Dedicated to support learning by providing safe, healthy and inclusive play and physical activity to schools at recess and throughout the entire school day, Playworks is exemplary of the Salesforce.com Foundation's 1/1/1 Model in action: As part of 1% product, it is using donated and discounted Salesforce CRM licenses to run its organization; for 1% time, salesforce.com employees are active volunteers as part of the company's active engagement approach to philanthropy; and as 1% equity, Playworks has been a beneficiary of grants from the Foundation.

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Connecting a National Nonprofit in the Clouds

To achieve its vision to make it possible for every child in America to play every day, Playworks needed a system to connect its work and different strategies across geographies. Playworks initially set out to deploy a more effective system for donor and contact management. It later discovered the possibilities of an easily accessible and flexible cloud-based system, as well as gained a true appreciation of the benefits of not having to maintain IT infrastructure.

  • Playworks uses Salesforce CRM for numerous functions across its organization. This includes individual, business and foundation development, tracking city contracts, tracking volunteers, interfacing with finance, running its training business and more. 
  • Salesforce has provided value-add to Playworks' mission. Being able to apply a sales process such as prospecting-to-close at a nonprofit resonated with its donor development process. It can now track the process of prospecting for money and not just the receipt of the money, for example.
  • Playworks has been able to increase donor retention by using Salesforce to better manage donor relationships and track frequency of communications. It has also been able to increase its capacity to manage more donors, companies and foundations, and track the more than 130 grant requests it submits each year. 
  • In addition, Playworks has improved its fundraising capacity by integrating Salesforce with its website so it can accept Internet donations that go directly into Salesforce and trigger correspondence. 
  • Playworks now has an in-depth system with the ability to track its more than 20,000 relationships over time with the city and staff person they're associated with, as well as the efforts of its employees in 23 sites across the country. 

The Salesforce.com Community Joins in the Mission

In addition to how Playworks is using Salesforce to run its organization, it is also working with salesforce.com employees and the company's greater community to put its vision into action. At Dreamforce 2010, the cloud computing event of the year, more than 25 salesforce.com customer executives came together to put together 65 bikes for youth from two local San Francisco public schools. For many, this was their first bike and they also received a helmet and lock. 

At salesforce.com's upcoming Cloudforce 2011 event taking place March 3, 2011 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York, attendees, as well as anyone in the community, will be invited to join in a set of volunteering activities as part of the company's priority to promote a culture of caring. More than 600 attendees are expected to participate, which will in turn impact over 4,600 children in low-income schools in the greater New York City area.

Comments on the News

  • "Salesforce.com is a leader in the business community where it is committed to changing the bottom line and to making a difference in the community through employee engagement," said Ellen Goodman, executive director of Playworks San Francisco. "Not only has the Salesforce.com Foundation been a great technological partner, but also a hands-on partner through the company's volunteerism with our organization."
  • "Our 1/1/1 Model and priority on employee engagement is making a huge difference for both the nonprofits we serve and to the morale of our employees," said Suzanne DiBianca, executive director of the Salesforce.com Foundation. "It's always been our intention to contribute in deeper and lasting ways and Playworks has provided a great opportunity for our employees and greater community to experience the reward of creating a positive impact on so many children."

Additional Resources

About the Salesforce.com Foundation

The Salesforce.com Foundation is the global leader in integrating philanthropy and business through its 1/1/1 integrated philanthropy model http://www.sharethemodel.org. The 1/1/1 model harnesses the power of salesforce.com's people and technology through 1% Time, 1% Equity and 1% Product to increase the effectiveness of nonprofits in pursuing their social missions. Since the Foundation's inception in 1999, employees have given more than 241,000 hours of their time; more than 10,000 nonprofits in 70 countries are using donated and discounted Salesforce CRM licenses as part of the Foundation's 1% Product Donation Program http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/product/?PR=02232010; and numerous organizations are benefiting from technology-related grants. For more information on the Salesforce.com Foundation, please visit http://www.salesforcefoundation.org.

SOURCE The Salesforce.com Foundation