On Salesforce’s $6 million education grant
by jrwestgarth
Salesforce is proud of its philanthropic credentials. The San Francisco based tech company employs a “1-1-1″ model where it sets aside 1 percent of its equity for a foundation (grants), 1 percent of its employees’ time as community service and 1 percent of its product as a donation. A few weeks ago the company announced it was donating $5 million to San Francisco’s public schools (an increase on last year’s $2.7 million donation) and $1 million to Code.org for computer science education. This is the biggest grant the company has ever gifted and represents 25% of the company’s annual grant giving budget (approx $20 million each year).
Here’s how the grant will be applied:
$2 million in 20 principal innovation grants of $100,000 each (no strings attached – generally used for 3D printers, classroom improvements, media studios, software licences etc)
$3 million will pay for infrastructure and training:
- 1,200 iPads
- 800 Google Chromebooks
- Expand to 48 Wi-Fi enabled digital classrooms across 12 middle schools and eight K-8 schools;
- Four full-time district technology instructors to assist the 20 schools
- Training for 100 teachers to go through professional development on computer science
$1 million for Code.org to support school computer science programs
- Computer science elective classes offered as a part of their school schedule
- Code.org’s “Code Studio” classes in middle and K-8 schools
- After school computer science classes hosted at salesforce.com offices in San Francisco
In addition, the Salesforce Foundation has pledged:
- 5,000 volunteer hours from Salesforce.com employees – an increase on the 1,500 hours in the 2013-2014 school year.
Sources:
- Salesforce Pours $6M Into SF Schools, Computer Science Education, TechCrunch, September 2014
- Press Release, Salesforce, Sept 2014
- Salesforce.com’s Benioff gives S.F. schools new $5 million gift, SF Gate, Sept 2014