October 5: Salesforce’s 1/1/1 Model

In 1999, Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff had a vision of profitability and philanthropy as core pillars of the company’s DNA - two ideas he believed didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Source: Salesforce
Published: February 2010

Salesforce’s 1/1/1 Model

When Salesforce was born back in 1999, co-founder Marc Benioff had a vision of profitability and philanthropy as core pillars of the company’s DNA, two ideas he believed didn’t have to be mutually exclusive. 

That took shape as the 1-1-1 model, which dedicated:

• Equity: 1% of the company’s equity to the Salesforce Foundation (the current market cap of Salesforce is $245 billion)

• Product: 1% of the company’s product (donation and discount of Salesforce CRM licenses to nonprofits)

• Time: 1% of employees’ time back to the community (employees are awarded six paid days of volunteer time to use each year)

In addition, over 8,500 companies in 100 countries (including companies like Box, Yelp, Docusign, Postmates, Twilio, and Okta) now participate in Pledge 1%.