Salesforce foundation – credit where credit is due

19 Oct 2009

This post is a real ‘credit where credit is due’ comment.

I have long been an admirer of Salesforce.com and and their leadership under Marc Benioff, which covers a multitude of great business ideas and strategies that have carved out new markets. However, one area that I am really impressed with is the Salesforce Foundation and the good work that they do.

Their model is labelled a 1% model, which depicts the values that are dedicated to the different areas of foundation support (1/1/1/1), these are

 

• 1% Equity – Grants

 

• 1% Time – Volunteer

 

• 1% Product – CRM Donations

 

• 1% 1 with the Earth – Carbon offsets

 

There is a lot that Salesforce has done, to promote and grow the SaaS market, in fact it would be fair to say establish the SaaS model, and as I have said on many occasions, OpenCRM fills a gap that we believe Salesforce no longer occupy, but when it comes to good causes and helping to develop and build communities, then “I take my hat off to them”.

So what are we doing about it?

In response, Software Add-ons and OpenCRM have been actively supporting community based charities and projects, in the UK and also in Peru. The latest initiative is that we are offering Not For Profit organisations FREE Business Level hosting, so along with the FREE Client License approach, this makes OpenCRM a real alternative.

There are a lot of areas that I feel, as a more modest business, we strive to emulate Salesforce.com, the Foundation and its work is definitely one of them.