Editor’s Note: Today, Salesforce released its annual Stakeholder Impact Report, which showcases the company’s continued commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency to keep the company’s stakeholders informed and track progress over time. Read the full text of Marc Benioff’s introductory letter below.
Twenty-five years ago, in a small apartment on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, we launched Salesforce with a dream to revolutionize the software industry.
We wanted to bring enterprise software to the cloud — with a new technology model, a new business model and a new stakeholder model. And even as we dreamed big, we never imagined Salesforce would become what it is today: the world’s #1 AI CRM, the third-largest enterprise software company and the largest enterprise applications company in the world.
This is the amazing progress we celebrate as we mark 25 years of Salesforce.
At the same time, fiscal year 2024 was an extraordinary year of transformation, thanks to the next generation of artificial intelligence. This could be the single most important moment in the history of our industry, and customers are turning to us to help them navigate this AI revolution and connect with their customers in a whole new way.
I’m especially proud that we’re achieving this incredible success by staying true to our values: trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability. Our values have remained our North Star, creating shared success with all of our stakeholders and multiplying the impact of our 1-1-1 philanthropic model beyond what we could’ve ever envisioned.
To date, we’ve given more than $700 million in grants and performed over 8.7 million hours of volunteer service by our employees. We’re honored to help more than 56,000 nonprofits and higher-ed institutions power their missions with our technology, and inspired that nearly 20,000 companies have adopted our 1-1-1 model to make their own impact.
Building responsible technology
In fiscal year 2024, we set out to make our AI products the most trusted in the industry. Led by the Office of Ethical and Humane Use, we focused on creating guidelines and acceptable use policies to ensure responsible development and deployment of AI products in the enterprise. We introduced the Einstein Trust Layer, which lets customers benefit from generative AI without compromising their data security and privacy controls.
Salesforce is also proactively engaging with governments, industry, academia, and civil society to advance responsible, risk-based, and globally applicable AI norms. This includes advising the White House on responsible AI policies and signing the Voluntary Commitments to help advance the development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI.
Creating an equitable, sustainable future
We’ve made progress on our equality commitments and have set new representation goals through fiscal year 2031 in our efforts to create a workplace that mirrors our society. And, we continue to be committed to equal pay for equal work.
We also continued our efforts to build a safer, more equal, and sustainable future. With the rise of generative AI, we are actively working to integrate sustainability, one of our key principles for responsible AI development, into our Einstein 1 Platform.
This year, we pioneered a first-of-its-kind long-term renewable energy purchase to support new, impactful projects across Brazil, India, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia that advance a just and inclusive energy transition. We are also more than half-way to our goal of funding the conservation, restoration and growth of 100 million trees — with 52 million trees to date.
Supporting our communities
In fiscal year 2024, we celebrated a decade of Salesforce’s strong support for public education. Globally, we’ve given over $190 million in education grants to provide students and young adults with STEM access and career-aligned learning opportunities preparing them with skills for careers of the future.
Salesforce also launched the Salesforce Accelerator – AI for Impact to provide nonprofit organizations with equitable access to trusted generative AI technologies. Leveraging our 1-1-1 model, Salesforce committed $2 million in unrestricted grant funding, pro bono expertise, and technology donations in fiscal year 2024 to support six education and workforce development nonprofits in developing innovative AI solutions on Salesforce.
Today, we are proud that more than 6 million Trailblazers around the world have used Trailhead, our free online learning platform, to upskill and meet the growing demand for digital talent.
And to support our global communities in moments of crisis, Salesforce and its employees raised more than $2 million to help humanitarian nonprofits’ relief efforts for disasters like the Turkey-Syria earthquakes and the Maui wildfires.
Thank you for your continued partnership and support. We’re so excited for what’s ahead and to be on this journey with all of you.
With gratitude,
Marc
