by Matt Rosoff – Business Insider
When Marc Benioff started Salesforce back in 1999, he pledged to donate 1% of the company’s annual revenues, 1% of its employees’ time, and 1% of its product value to nonprofit organizations every year.
The company has held steadfast to this pledge as it’s grown to become the fourth-largest software company in the world, with more than $8 billion expected in revenue this year.
But Benioff’s social interest extends beyond that pledge. He’s been a vocal critic of state legislation that could be used to discriminate against LGBT people, threatening to withdraw business from Indiana and Georgia when they passed such laws.
He’s also a huge presence in San Francisco, where he grew up and where Salesforce is based – he and his wife Lynne donated $200 million to the University of California San Francisco (a medical school and hospital) to build a children’s hospital, and Salesforce has “adopted” 20 public schools in the city, donating $14 million and 10,000 hours of employee time.
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