Get ideas

After 10 years of integrating philanthropy into our company structure and studying how other companies do it, we’ve learned a lot about what works—and what doesn’t. Find out how you can benefit from these lessons and check out the following resources, including three books by salesforce.com’s Chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff.

• Compassionate Capitalism is the first-ever guide to best practices in corporate philanthropy, covering everything from how to establish a culture of philanthropy to how to measure results.
• The Business of Changing the World demonstrates the profound interdependency between businesses and the communities in which they operate. You’ll get the stories of 20 outstanding business leaders who candidly discuss their approaches to philanthropy.
• Behind The Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company and Revolutionized an Industry. Play #65, “The Business of Business is more than Business,” which summarizes how to make your company about more than the bottom line.

Once you decide you want to make corporate giving part of your culture, there are two steps to designing your model: Setting up your foundation and developing your initial programs. 

Set up your foundation

The first step to building an effective corporate philanthropic foundation is to decide your foundation’s structure. You can either use your own resources or outsource this step. Learn about the costs and benefits of different structural models and of creating a corporate foundation versus community programs.

To set up your own foundation

• If you want to set up your own foundation we recommend that you speak with your company's legal counsel to get recommendations on attorneys who specialize in doing this in your area. We found the up front cost of setting up a foundation is about $15,000 in legal fees and about 100 person hours to get the original documentation filed through the IRS.

To outsource setting up your foundation

There are many good organizations that can help you get started.

• The Entrepreneur's Foundation is a national group of nonprofit organizations that seeks to strengthen ties between entrepreneurial companies and their local communities. Find a local entrepreneur foundation.
• Foundation Source is the nation's leading provider of support services for private foundations. Nearly 900 foundations rely upon Foundation Source for their back office, technology and philanthropic advisory needs
• Silicon Valley Community Foundation is a leading voice and catalyst for innovative solutions to the region's most challenging problems.