Salesforce.com Foundation - APAC

Basketball Competition & Let Me Run With You

Joyce — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:38:57 -0400

Summary

Some Salesforce employees took part in a special run event by the Special Olympics Singapore.

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20 July 2008, Singapore

Salesforce.com Singapore sent in a small team to take part in Special Olympics Singapore (SOS) fundraising event - Let Me Run With You. This project was conceived to raise public awareness on SOS as well to challenge their athletes to stretch and reach beyond their potential.

It rained the night before so the park was a little wet and soggy when the event started. The shortest run is 3km and the longest 21km or 7 rounds of the Bishan Park. Luke Lin (IT Department), Sher Vin Chua (EBR) and Yiran You (SR) has initially signed up for the 3km with me promising that it would be a breezy and easy run. What we did not expect was the speed of the athletes.

The SOS athletes had trained hard for this - each of them is supposed to run at least one km in relay form with supports/volunteers running alongside with them, encouraging them and keeping their spirit up as they complete each respective leg of the race. They were in fact quite speedy on their feet; some of us had difficulty keeping a pace with them through the 3km run.

The athlete we ran with at the second round was Shirley. Shirley is a slim, small sized girl running in her jeans and sneakers but do not underestimate her size. She took every stride with determination and kept to a constant pace throughout run despite the fact that she ran more than what she had trained for. Due to a logistical hiccup, there was no replacement after her designated 1 km hence we kept on going and Shirley kept up with us. There were moments when she faltered but she uttered no complaint and with encouragement from us, she kept one foot ahead of the other. We did not realize how difficult it was for her until the end of the run when the organizer expressed great surprise (in my opinion, shock) that she ran so much and Shirley panting so hard, we thought she was going to collapse for a moment. And I am humbled by her perseverance that she did not think of stopping even though the distance was quite beyond her. And I saw the power of encouragement and support - I do think that the group of us running with her motivated her to keep on going.

We went over to see the basketball carnival to see how the games are doing. If you read our blog on the SOS Basketball Clinic and Carnival, here is an update: the athletes are good! They play in Unified Teams with 3 athletes and 2 volunteer players in a team. As I sat there, I marveled at their speed and agility and so proud that they are able to play a full game - the marked improvement that they have shown from the beginning to the present. It was indeed a Sunday well spent in the outdoors with the Special Olympics athletes. And boy, aren't they special indeed!

Be A Everyday Hero: Singapore and Australia Earth Week 2008

Joyce — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:21:39 -0400

Summary

Singapore and Australia celebrates Earth Week from 16-20 June.

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Singapore and Sydney, 16 - 20 June

A global effort to promote activities to combat global warming was co-ordinated across all the Salesforce offices with localized activities for the respective region. Here are some of the efforts done in the Singapore and Sydney office.

Day

Sydney

Singapore

Monday

16 Jun

Launch of Earth Week

Lunch time talk by OzGreen.

Launch of Earth Week

Lunch time talk by the Singapore Environment Council (SEC)

Tuesday

17 Jun

Save A Species Day

4 endangered animal species were placed for ‘adoption' - the winner is the Fairy Penguin who won the most votes.

Be a Everyday Hero Day

Pledge and do one ‘save the earth' activity of your choice

Wednesday

18 Jun

Be a Everyday Hero Day

Pledge and do one ‘save the earth' activity of your choice

‘Too Hot to Handle' @ 1130 - 1300

15 employees munched on popcorn and chips as they viewed the movie.

Thursday

19 Jun

Grow A Plant Competition

Each team was given a plant to nurture and make sure it thrives for the next 3 months.

Public Transport Day

The company donated S$280.00 to SEC as a show of support for 28 employees who took public transport that day.

Friday

20 Jun

Green Activity- Plant an Eco Garden

8 employees volunteered to restore a garden with low maintenance plants for a under-resourced family.

These Shoes Are Made for Walking: Southern Ridges Trail

30 employees took a mere 45mins to finish the walk - much faster than what we had expected. We will plan a longer trek for the next round.

All these efforts would have been possible without the Earth Taskforce members' initiatives, energy, and tenacity to get things done. They are:

Australia organisers: Andy Maston, Emma Robinson and Grant Symes
Singapore organisers: Benson Wong, PJ Leong, Veronica Rao, Luke Lin, Cheryl Teo, Sarah Yeom, Angie Lin, Vivian Lee

Big round of applause to all these volunteers!!!!!

Dine in the Dark- A different sort of volunteering

Joyce — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:52:49 -0400

Summary

Employees tried eating their lunch in complete darkness to glimpse the world which the visually handicapped lived in.

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Singapore, 13 June 2008

Dine in the Dark was a small social enterprise set up by the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) to provide a means of earning a livelihood for some of their more abled beneficiaries with a social objective - to promote awareness for their cause.

Customers eat their lunch in complet darkness - you would not even see your fingers in front of you - served and guided by visually handicapped servers. You are alerted of their presence and course servings through the bells on their ankles and their verbal instructions to you.

It can be a scary experience as 20 volunteers from Salesforce.com Singapore tried their hand (pun intended) when they had lunch with the SAVH that day. It took a while for everyone to get seated and used to the darkness and there were much laughter and giggling as people try to figure out who is their lunch partners and the food they are served it. Attempts to eat with cutlery are successful for those who are adept with their hands and senses but the rest resorted to using hands in order to get a better feel on what they are eating. Lunch lasted only an hour but it felt much longer than that.

SAVH also gave a tour of their premises and briefing of their programmes to the volunteers. The biggest takeaway for most of us is we appreciate our sight even more as we leave the dark room and realised that the experience also taught us trust as we had to rely on our lunch companions when food and drinks is passed around the table completely by touch or verbal instructions.

Global Earth Week 16-20 June in the Japan office!

Rendo — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:06:33 -0400

Summary

環境問題について知り、小さなことから取り組んでいくことの大切さを学んだ1週間でした！ The first Environmental Awareness Campaign in the Japan office to think about what they can do for the environment, to learn about the issues, and to take actions to make our earth a better place!

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June 20, 2008 Tokyo/Osaka, Japan

セールスフォース・ドットコムの東京・大阪オフィスでは6月16日～20日までの一週間、Earth Week (環境週間)を実施しました。“Be an Everyday Hero - Live More, Consume Less”の標語の下、社員が環境のためにできることを考え、学び、実行する一週間となるように、環境に関する映画上映会や「私のチャレンジ宣言」(チームマイナス6%ホームページ参照)、清掃活動などを実施しました。今回のEarth Weekの内容は、2008年3月で日本の社員を対象に実施した環境意識調査の結果をもとに「学び」「成果の可視化」「意識変化から行動へ」を考慮した内容になるよう、14人の社員とファンデーションから成る社会貢献委員会で企画されました。

Salesforce.com's Japan office (Tokyo/Osaka) has just finished our first “Earth Week'', the Environmental Awareness Campaign from June 16-20. The purpose was for employees to think about what they can do for the environment, to learn about the issues, and to take actions to make our earth a better place. Movie screenings on global warming, declarations to reduce CO2 emissions, and clean-up activities took place during the week. These were planned by the Foundaiton Japan Committee, based on the results of an environmental awareness survey that was conducted in March 2008.

【私のチャレンジ宣言/Declaration to Reduce CO2 Emissions】

私のチャレンジ宣言は、チームマイナス6%が考案したもので、日常のちょっとした行動でどの程度CO2排出を削減できるかを数値化したものです。東京・大阪オフィスの社員一同が宣言したCO2削減量は1日約100kg、5日間で約500kg(スギ人工林約35本の年間CO2吸収量に相当)にのぼりました。成果が数値として目に見えることから、環境意識向上に役立ち、行動の変化へとつながりました。社内から多くの反響があり、CS-AEの今村和広は、「身近に出来ることは意外に多いことに気がついた。大切なのは続けることです！」とコメントしています。
私のチャレンジ宣言：http://www.team-6.jp/try-1kg/challenge/ (Japanese only)

Watashi no Challenge Sengen (Declaration to Ｒeduce CO2 Emission) is an interesting campaign and is advocated by The Ministry of the Environment. You can choose what actions to take to reduce CO2 emissions in your daily life on their website, and you can print out the total amount of CO2 you plan to save in just a minute! Everyone put their declarations on notice boards in the office. As a result, the total declared amount of CO2 to be saved by our 134 employees was 500kg in 5 days! This is equal to the amount of CO2 that 35 cedar trees absorb per year.
Kazuhiro Imamura, Account Executive, CS said “I realized there were a lot more things I could do for the environment in my daily life and the most important thing is to keep up theese eco-actions.” This campaign encouraged everyone to raise their awareness of green issues by quantifying the impact, as well as to take the first step to move forward for an eco-friendly sustainable earth!

【表参道クリーニング/Omotesando Clean-Up】

“きれいな街は人の心もきれいにする”をコンセプトに活動している非営利団体green bird 主催の表参道清掃活動に社員17名が参加しました。セールスフォース・ドットコムのパートナー企業である株式会社ウフルからも、小堀貴生さんが参加されました。小堀さんは、「表参道は美しい街並みというイメージがあったが、それはボランティアが清掃しているからなのだということを初めて知った。今後も是非参加したい。」とおっしゃっていました。今後も、ビジネスの場だけでなくボランティア活動においてもパートナー企業の皆様とお付き合いしていきたいと思います。
green bird:　http://www.greenbird.jp/　（Japanese only）

Green birdのblogにも、社員が活躍している様子が紹介されています！

April, 18　http://greenbird.jp/diary/index.php?ID=1810
April, 19　http://greenbird.jp/diary/index.php?ID=1813

17 employees participated in activities to clean up the streets in Omotesando, Tokyo. This is one of our favorite volunteer activities organized by a nonprofit called ’’green bird’’. This time we jointly worked with one of Salesforce.com’s business partners, Uhuru, Inc.. Mr Takao Kobori from Uhuru said, “I had an image that Omotesando was always clean and beautiful but I realized that this was because of the constant efforts by green bird volunteers.” It’s our pleasure to have a good relationship with our business partners not only in business but also in volunteering!

【映画上映/Movie Screenings】

昼休みおよび就業時間後に、環境に関する映画を上映しました。初の試みでしたが、「とてもわかりやすかった」「もっとたくさんの社員に見て欲しい」「またこのような機会が欲しい」と好評を博しました。いま何が問題で、どういうアクションを起こす必要があるのかとことの理解につながるため、今後も継続して行っていく予定です。

Movie screenings about global warming took place during lunchtime and after working hours in the office. This was afirst in the Tokyo office and we had a lot of positive feedback such as ’’It’s full of interesting contents and easy to understand,'' '’I want other employees to see these films,” “I want to see other ones,” It was a great opportunitiy for us to see what’s going on around the planet and what needs to be done to save our earth''.

Make a Wish Charity Marathon

Rendo — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:05:00 -0400

Summary

メイク・ア・ウィッシュオブジャパン（MAWJ）のチャリティーマラソンに参加しました！ SFDC employees run to create hope and happiness for children with life-threatening illnesses in Tokyo, Japan.

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April 19, 2008 Tokyo, Japan

4月19日にメイク・ア・ウィッシュ　オブ　ジャパン（ＭＡＷＪ）のチャリティーマラソンに参加しました！

メイク・ア・ウィッシュはアメリカを中心に世界28カ国に支部を持つ国際的な非営利組織です。対象とするのは難病のために日々様々な困難に立ち向かっている子どもたちで、メイク・ア・ウィッシュはこうした子どもたちの「サンタと遊びたい」「遊園地に行きたい」などの夢を実現を手助けし、そのすばらしい経験が厳しい環境を生きる子どもたちにとって明日への生きる糧となるよう活動しています。

今年は昨年よりも多い社員・その家族を含め29人が参加しました。当日は天候が心配されましたが、朝早くに雨があがり、皇居の周辺5km/10kmを気持ちよく走ることができました。SRディレクター小関貴志は1 歳の愛娘・愛茉ちゃんと一緒に参加しました。「普段は子供と二人だけの時間というのがあまりとれないので、とても楽しい時間をすごしました。自分が楽しめて、少しでも難病の方々のためになれたのであれば嬉しいです。色々な企業の方々も参加されており、皆さんの社会貢献に対する意識の高さというのも刺激になりました。」もちろん愛茉ちゃんも大好きなパパとの時間を楽しんでいました！

マラソン後、参加者は完走を祝して親睦会を開き、仕事とは違った場面での交流を楽しみました。自分の好きな活動によって社会貢献ができ、また、参加者同士の絆を深めることができた一日でした。

On 19 April, the Charity Marathon was held by Make a Wish of Japan (MAWJ).

Make a Wish is an international nonprofit organization which operates in over 27 countries to create hope and happiness for children with life-threatening illnesses. It assists these children's dreams to come true so that they will have hope even though they are in difficult situations.

This was the second time for us to participate in the Charity Marathon and 29 employees and their families enjoyed running around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Takashi Ozeki, Director, SR/ Enterprise Business Representative joined the team with his 1-year-old daughter Ema. He said "I don't have enough time to spend with my daughter during weekdays so it was a precious opportunity. I would be happy if my participation could lend support for the children. It's stimulating to see so many charity-minded companies and their employees support this event." Of course, Ema was so happy to run with her loving father!

After the event, participants went out for lunch as a reward for everyone's great run. It was also a great oppoortunity for all to get to know each other.

Make a Wish of Japan:http://www.mawj.org/ (Japanese only)

$80,000 in Relief Funds to Give2Asia

Conches — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:38:56 -0400

Summary

Thank you so much for your contribution to the Salesforce.com Foundation matching fund to assist with the recent disasters in Myanmar and China.

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With an outpouring of support from salesforce.com employees, friends and partners worldwide, the Foundation has donated over $80,000 to assist with the rebuilding efforts in Myanmar and China.

We wanted to let you know that we have selected our partner organization for the funds. We will be sending your donation along with our match, to Give2Asia disaster relief funds, who are working very closely with organizations on the ground to distribute aid and assist with rebuilding efforts.

Two examples of the organizations supported through Give2Asia’s disaster relief fund are the Foundation for the People of Burma who has been working with monasteries throughMyanmar for over 30 years and are currently very active in providing shelter and food for the millions of refugees in the region; and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation who are currently working to relocate and re-employ thousands affected by the earthquake.

These are just a few of the organizations that Give 2 Asia is teaming up with in the affected areas. For more information please visit their site directly.

For those of you who donated to the Salesforce.com Foundation's matching fund for the disaster relief in Myanmar and China, we thank you. Your donation certainly will help make a difference in these devastated regions. This program is now closed.

Sincerely,

Suzanne DiBianca
Executive Director
Salesforce.com Foundation

A Hot Day Out for Charity

Joyce — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:09:40 -0400

Summary

Volunteers take part in Assisi Hospice Fun Charity in Singpaore and raise close to S$2,000 from their booths takings.

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Singapore - 18 May 2008

It was a sizzling 35 degrees in the hot afternoon sun; you can almost fry an egg on the tarmac in front of us. A group of salesforce employees are valiantly putting on their best smiles and making eyes at the people milling around. We are not at a city tour or success tour; we are at the Assisi Hospice Fun Charity. With a gong in hand and leaflets in our hands, we are trying to get customers to spend their charity tickets in our booths.

Salesforce.com Singapore has taken up two booths - mini golf game and the dunking machine to help Assisi Hospice in their bi-annual fundraising carnival. They hope to raise S$500,000 from this event to supplement the running of the day care centre and palliative care to their patients. This is a special event for salesforce because despite of the scale of our involvement - 24 volunteers involved altogether and large amount preparation time -we did it almost cost free and everything by ourselves. The salesforce booth banner was recycled from Marketing, prizes were ‘sponsored' by the office (sweets and biscuits) with some provided by Assisi Hospice and spare souvenirs from Marketing; posters were drawn and painted by Jacqueline Cheng, our in-house nominated artist and everyone helped in the packing of prizes and logistics for the event.

This event was led by Ivy Lai, Senior Finance Manager for the Mini Golf booth and Sher Vin Chua, EBR Representative for the Dunking booth. Ivy even volunteered her children for the event and her son was one of the main dunkees throughout the day. A few of the employees also brought their children to help out at the booth and others invited family and friends to give us support. So all in all, it was a family day out cum volunteer activity for a few of us.

In order to increase sales, we also had local celebrities taking part in dunking booth to attract the crowd and raise more money. We even had our own salesforce ‘celebrity' - Duncan Pereira (EBR Representative) who gamely sat on the dunk plank for many times without nary a complaint only with a wide smile on his face. We raised a total of S$1,930.50 for 8 hours of hard work and many funny memories.

A big thank you to everyone who participated - the G&A team and the SR team - and all who supported us by buying tickets and inviting friends and family and coming to the carnival to cheer us on. Thank you!

Volunteers looking fresh and ready to go!

BBQ On the Streets

Joyce — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:51:06 -0400

Summary

The ANZ Services team goes a-volunteering at King's Cross.

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Sydney, 18 March 2008

On Tuesday, March 18th, the ANZ Services team took the afternoon to help out at the Wayside Chapel. The Wayside Chapel provides non-judgmental support for all people in their community; young people, the homeless, the elderly, victims of domestic violence, abuse and substance addictions and people with mental health issues. They are also a recipient of the Foundation's 1% Product Donation programme which they are planning to use it to manage their contact database and fundraising campaigns.

The Wayside Chapel is located in the heart of Kings Cross and we arrived right on lunchtime to get straight to work setting up, preparing and serving a BBQ lunch to the Wayside community. It was a beautiful day for a BBQ and it was a great experience for us all to work together and get to interact with this community and learn a little more about what they face each day.

After the BBQ, we cleaned up and spent some time learning a little bit more about Wayside and then took an hour long tour around the Kings Cross area to show us some of the facilities and shelters available for those in need. It was an eye opening day for us all and we were glad to have given our time to give something back to those less fortunate.

If you would like to learn more about The Wayside Chapel please visit http://www.thewaysidechapel.com.

- Written by Megan Turner, Customer Sucess Manager, ANZ

Foundation After Note: In line with our integrated philanthropy model, the Foundation is actively planning future opportunities where employees can continue to take part in the BBQ serving and provide assistance towards Wayside Chapel's Thrift shop as well as volunteer to provide ad-hoc consultation sessions on their use of salesforce technology. Keep your eyes peeled on the updates coming your way soon!

It’s A Christmas Party with A Difference!

Joyce — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:46:36 -0500

Summary

Attendees to the Salesforce.com Christmas party helped raise monies to benefit nonprfit customers.

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Singapore, 6 Dec 2007

On 6 December...for the first time in recorded history...it snowed in Singapore. To celebrate 1,000,000 paying subscribers and the holiday season, Salesforce.com Singapore hosted a special Networking Event at The Forbidden City, IndoChine.

The central theme of the event was a Winter Wonderland and as part of the celebrations, the company planted a Foundation Tree for attendees to give back to the community. Nearly $5,000 was raised by attendees purchasing decorations to decorate The Foundation Tree. The donations benefited 2 nonprofit customers - The Special Olympics Singapore and Food from the Heart.

Steve Russell's speech was delivered as a Breaking News Announcement (broadcasted from the venue). The event was interrupted by SNN (Salesforce News Network appeared on 10 screens in venue) anchor-woman Livian Soo who announced that it had started snowing in Singapore and handed over to onsite correspondent Steve Russell.

A true giver at heart, he took the opportunity to highlight the centerpiece - The Foundation Tree - and announced that the first $1,000 donation will have the opportunity to decorate the tree with a special Christmas star. Within minutes, two of our partners, InterAktive Technology and ITIS Associates came forward with their $1,000 pledges.

Thank you for making this party with a difference!

A Different Kind of Volunteering- Competitve Volunteering

Joyce — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:52:04 -0500

Summary

Four teams of volunteers created a difference for four families and their homes over the holiday season.

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Singapore, December 2007/January 2008

It started out as a simple one-day project where volunteers were divided into four teams to help their assigned families make over their home so as to improve their living conditions. Each team was given a budget of S$500.00 to pay for the necessary materials required. The two unique features of this volunteer projects are - first, volunteers have to consult their beneficiary family to find out their needs and customize their volunteer work according to their interests and second, all four teams are pitted against each other to win a prize money of S$500.00 which will be donated to the winning team's beneficiary family in form of a food hamper and vouchers.

An independent panel of judges made up by the General Manager of Tanjong Pager Family Service Centre* (the nonprofit whom we partnered), Mr Wong Kwong Sing; Mr Gary Luton, Director Asia Services (who is not involved in the project) and Mr Jason Wee, Assistant Director of Corporate Giving, National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, were selected to score the teams on their home makeover efforts. The judges' identities were not made known to the volunteers and the reports of their work were submitted anonymously to the judges in order to ensure a fair decision was made.

When the project was finally completed, we had some 33 Salesforce employees, with additional help from family and friends, clocked a whopping total of 316.5 hours or 39.5 days for this project. The project had burgeoned beyond the Foundation's expectations and took on a larger scale and impact as a result of employee's passion and determination to make a real difference to the families they are helping. Several volunteers appealed to their friends and families to donate or sponsor household items and furniture while others roped in contacts and business partners to purchase materials at discounted prices so that they could do more with the given budget. Despite the competitive nature of the project, teams shared information with each other and even pass down materials which could be re-used to the unfinished teams. Much of the work was done during lunch time where preparations was concerned and the actual home makeover on the weekends where the volunteers made repeated trips to the homes in order to make sure that the place is properly ‘renovated' before it is deemed completed.

A big thank you to all volunteers and especially the four volunteer leaders, namely Alyce Chow, Sarah Yeom, Sharon Sun and Fiona Salas who helped lead their teams in organizing and working with their assigned families on their home makeover needs.

And who won the prize money? The Happy House team made up by Sarah Yeom, Luke Lin, Stephanie Tang, Wan Zhen Liew, Lynette Tan, Byung Kyu Choi, Mickey Park supported by the other G&A employees in cash or in-kind donations. Congratulations!!

*The Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre is a community-based nonprofit whose aim is to enhance family functioning through the provision of remedial, preventive and developmental services. They position themselves as a generalist first-stop centre which families can turn to for assistance in any matter relating to family life and ensure that their programmes and services meet the specific needs of the local community in the Tanjong Pagar district.

Go here to see the links of the before and after pictures of the Home MakeOver projects by the respective teams: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15359131@N05/collections/

Team Happy House - BeforeAfter