During Global Holiday Spirit Weeks, over 1,250 salesforce.com employees joined with family and friends to contribute over 3,500 hours to spread holiday cheer.  Their kindness, commitment and generosity helped make this a more joyous time for our communities.

Here’s to the spirit of our volunteers!  We wish you a healthy and happy New Year. 

Highlights of our spirit around the world -  photo.

AMERICAS

• Glide challenge met.  Glide met the challenge in on-line donations alone, $51,753, and raised over $246,881 against the $50k match that the Foundation pledged to help them meet their 200% increase in demand for food and shelter this holiday season. 
• Over 350 youths adopted and gifts purchased for the youth of Heritage House. 
• Over 50 gifts purchased for the youth of the Peninsula Boys & Girls Ornament / Gift Giving Program. 
• 4,100 pounds of clothes donated to Goodwill.
• Over 100 employees helped prepare and distribute over 8,500 toys for the Glide Memorial Annual Toy Give Away helping the needy and less fortunate. 
• Ice skating with over 70 youth from Boys and Girls Club and Glide Memorial.
• Over 80 volunteers served holiday meals at Glide Memorial, Project Open Hand, Raphael House, and DISH.
• 50 employees volunteered with the Salvation Army to fill 5,400 bags of food and placed them into 270 boxes for distribution and assembled over 1,000 Christmas meals.
• Volunteering at the Tel-Hi Neighborhood Center Christmas Tree Lot to help them raise over $6500 in critical funding for their programs.
• Over 65 employees volunteered with Jean Parker Elementary students to build gingerbread houses, create festive holiday projects and read books with youth.
• Donated 35 pints of blood with Blood Centers of the Pacific.
• Each year the Yonge Street Mission distributes donated new toys, clothing and food during the nine days leading up to Christmas. Seven Toronto employees helped make this a wonderful festive event for the community families by decorating the facilities.
• Eight employees helped the Special Olympics Canada run their annual fundraising event by assisting with various duties such as managing the ticket booth, greeting event guests, and staffing the celebrity check-in desk.
• Eleven Toronto employees help the kids at the Kiwanis Boys & Girls Club decorate cookies and make crafts before their Christmas dinner and visit with Santa Claus.
• New York employees made medical dolls for use at the areas children’s hospitals.
• Employees prepared and packaged food for distribution at the Community Kitchen of West Harlem.
• Boston employees spent the afternoon distributing gifts with Christmas in the City.
• Atlanta and Chicago employees bought numerous gifts to give to needed families in their various cities.  

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

• 20 employees participated in the ‘Eco Eden’ – Completely renovating the garden of an elderly woman whose garden had become overgrown and dilapidated since her husband was hospitalized.
• 13 employees participated in sorting donated food to be distributed to charitable organizations reaching out to the needy. 
• Raised $200 selling ribbons in the office for World AIDS Day.
• Raising awareness and funds for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.  $3,388 raised for the Movember Foundation.
• Raised $442 which helped provide the Wayside Chapel Christmas party with close to 500 cans of soft drinks. 

EMEA

• Ice Skating Day with over 100 Kids from Citywise.
• Shopping trip for the visually impaired with NCBI.
• EBR team goes fundraising on the streets for the Lord Mayors Fuel Fund.
• Landscaping at Naomi House - a respite home for those with life limiting diseases.
• Kids Company outing with 30 primary school aged kids at Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood in conjunction with BT.
• Swiss volunteers act as taxis, and help prepare the Arc-en-Ciel (centre for those suffering from HIV) Christmas Party.
• Day trip for the kids at the KiNaBu Children’s’ Home.  

HONG KONG

• 7 employees participated in the charity run organized by UNICEF for Sichuan earthquake rebuilding efforts. Excited and thrilled for raising funds for the survivors of the Sichuan disaster, employees were out and running in the wee hours of a Sunday.   

INDIA

• The India team volunteered over 3 occasions to make this festive season truly special for 25 orphaned kids they have supported throughout the year. From bringing children to the office, which was like a trip to wonderland for these kids of a village orphanage, to collecting Rs 7,000 for Christmas presents and spending the last day of the year with them creating joyous magical moments at every step. 

JAPAN

• Almost all employees participated in 26 volunteer events donating over 1,000 hours to the local community.
• 127 employees gifted 127 Christmas presents to kids at two welfare facilities for children, Ayumi Gakuen and Sayuri no Ryo.
• Charity Live -The Power of Music- Ayaya To Oh!Yo!Yo!,  a rock band consisting of employees organized a charity live and the event revenue (JPY 102,150) was donated to Ayumi Gakuen, a welfare facilities for children. With the matching grant from Salesforce.com Foundation, JPY 201,300 was donated to Ayumi Gakuen for purchasing musical instruments for kids.
• One of the most popular activities was the dispatching of 'Picture Books' coordinated by Shanti Volunteer Association. These books are to be sent to developing countries (Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, and Myanmar Refugee Camp,) where books are hardly published. Employees were responsible for attaching the translations to the correct pages of the book. Throughout the period 300 books were completed.
• 10 people from 9 nonprofits attended the 4-day ADM class hosted by Education team. This was the first nonprofit only training in Japan!
• 29 employees from FS team, SR team and Finance team joined in disinfecting play equipment for babies and cleaning facilities at Futaba Baby Home.
• Nishiazabu Sagyousho, a vocational training center for people with disabilities is a 5-min walk from our Tokyo office. This center helps people with disabilities live independent lifves by providing vocational programs. Consulting Team and CSM team did a great job by wiping windows and floors together with the people with disabilities and the staff.
• Madeleine Selling in the office by the people with disabilities at Minato Work Acty Vocational Training Center.  8 Employees helped the people with disabilities selling cookies at our Tokyo office. 400 baked goods were sold in 30 minutes! 

SINGAPORE

• 14 employees participated to mentor and coach 15 physically challenged youth introducing them to various corporate functions and providing career guidance. The kids gained a lot from interacting with employees and left the office with lasting memories of their first ever corporate visit. 
• 27 employees visited the Assisi Day Care Center for children and aged suffering from illnesses. Salesforce employees organized activities, special treat and distributed presents to bring cheer and warmth to all the residents of day care center.