The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented situation for all of us. But these tough times have brought about a remarkable worldwide response. For me it’s been incredibly humbling to watch the bravery and dedication of healthcare providers and other public service workers around the world.

At Salesforce we believe it’s incumbent on businesses to play their part in tackling the virus and the effects it’s having on our society.

Supporting our Ohana

Our number one priority will always be the wellbeing of our employees, partners and communities. This is why Salesforce is donating $1 million to the University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) COVID-19 Response Fund and $500K to the CDC Foundation's Emergency Response Fund, which are meeting rapidly evolving response needs around the world.

We’re also making some of our technology available, such as Salesforce Care which is helping companies in any industry to stay connected and responsive to their stakeholders at this time. Being informed with real-time information can help increase safety and wellness, as well as reduce uncertainty where possible. Through Health Cloud, Salesforce will provide free access to technology for emergency response teams, call centres, and care management teams for health systems affected by coronavirus.

In the UK and Ireland specifically, we’ve seen partners in our ecosystem use our technology to create e-learning documents to help parents teach their children from home. Some of our customers have re-prioritised their factory lines to build the supplies needed, such as ventilators and face masks, to support health providers. The ingenuity and resourcefulness is truly inspiring.

Supporting the NHS

Given the sacrifices that doctors, nurses and fellow NHS workers are making for us, we want to do what we can to show our appreciation and help them too. Over recent weeks, having arrived at supermarkets after finishing long shifts many have encountered empty shelves due to the surge in bulk buying. A group of Salesforce UK volunteers have played a key role, alongside partners in creating an app called “Pop-Ups for Heroes”.

Built on the Salesforce platform, the app aims to help NHS staff working long, unpredictable hours to get the food essentials they need brought to them. Using the app, they can purchase, reserve and collect pre-packed food boxes at hospital pop-ups, each containing enough groceries to feed a family of four for two days.

The programme, launched at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, part of the East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, has seen over 1,700 registrations for the service. And Salesforce is looking to scale the project so we can help more NHS staff across the country. This is just one of the projects we’re working on, which was discussied during a webinar with the people that built it, and I hope to be able to share more details of other projects in future.

In this together

This is a difficult and challenging time for everyone. But it reminds us again that we are all connected like never before, and when we come together as a single community we are incredibly powerful.

We talk a lot about our values at Salesforce. Building trust, supporting our customers’ success, ensuring equality and driving innovation. At moments like this, faced with a global crisis, it’s more important than ever to put those values into action.

Find out more about how we're supporting our communities and NHS heroes during this Leading Through Change on-demand webinar.