08 November 2003
Net4kids Aid Foundation and salesforce.com/foundation announce their alliance in using technology to give underprivileged children a better future.
November 6th 2003 - Net4kids Aid Foundation and salesforce.com/foundation, the charitable arm of salesforce.com, today announced an alliance in which Net4kids will use salesforce.com technology to give underprivileged children a better future by bringing donors and project organizations together.
Net4Kids uses the salesforce.com application free of charge for its database and reporting systems, allowing charitable donors to select a project of their choice, and receive individual reporting to know exactly where their money is being used. With a number of new projects and its new website www.net4kids.org Net4kids is now ready to involve more people in helping underprivileged children. The salesforce.com technology contributes to making that possible.
In addition to linking their websites and other technological cooperation, the two organizations will collaborate directly on projects benefiting children and publishing youth voice through the use of multimedia. In particular, Net4kids and salesforce.com/foundation will work together on providing a safe platform on the web where children can publish their videos and music.
“One of the many things I like about salesforce.com is that it institutionalizes corporate philanthropy in 1% of everything it does”, says Loek van den Boog, chairman and founder of Net4Kids. “We share a common view of the power of technology, the Internet and multimedia to improve the lives of underprivileged children around the world. We also share a high level of commonality in our business model, ensuring transparency, accountability and innovation. Using salesforce.com’s technology enables us to get the most out of donations and report on our projects, guaranteeing help for tens of thousands of kids.”
“The philosophy of Net4kids, to connect individual donors with projects and to use technology to facilitate this, parallels our vision on customer relationship management and the integrated corporation“, said Marc Benioff, chairman, and CEO of salesforce.com. “Through the use of salesforce.com technology Net4kids offers a level of transparency and accountability that answers to the demands of many individuals and corporations that want to give money to projects and want to know exactly how it is spent.”
About Net4kids
Net4kids Aid Foundation was founded in 1999 by Anke and Loek van den Boog. Net4kids’mission is to give underprivileged children a better future. In essence Net4kids is a non-profit Internet brokerage that brings donors and aid projects that benefit children together. On its website www.net4kids.org, Net4kids offers potential donors the possibility to directly select and support individual projects, rather than make a general donation to an organization. It guarantees that 100% of the contribution is allocated to the selected project and that all indirect costs are paid for by Net4kids. Donors get individual reporting on projects supported by them over the Internet. Vice versa, aid projects get access to a large potential of donors they otherwise are not be able to reach. They can make use of Net4kids’ IT infrastructure and are included in all the Net4kids marketing activities.
The focus is on projects in developing countries, primarily in Africa and Asia. Projects should be aimed at long term benefits of children and can cover education, health care, safe water and housing. Net4kids currently supports projects in Africa (South Sudan, Ghana), Nepal (Katmandu) and India (Calcutta). The Internet is the center point of Net4kids’ strategy and activities.
More information is available at www.net4kids.org .
About salesforce.com/foundation
Salesforce.com/foundation is the leader in integrating philanthropy and business. Through its model of donating 1% of profits to the community annually, 1% of salesforce.com equity to its programs and 1% of employee working hours to community service, the Foundation is building a new model for corporations to better serve the communities in which they operate. The Foundation also strives to better the lives of youth by providing relevant access to technology for youth in underserved communities both domestically and abroad. The Foundation works with other corporations, youth development agencies, and NGOs to create a society in which children, regardless of socio-economic background, ethnicity or learning level, have access to technology and understand how to use it to enhance their lives. Since July 2000, the Foundation has opened 43 Community Technology Centers across the globe serving nearly 50,000 youth and other community members; has provided close to 8,000 hours of service to the community through salesforce.com's 400 employee volunteers; and offers the salesforce.com award winning online customer relationship management application to more than 100 qualified nonprofits globally saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. More information is available at www.salesforcefoundation.org/.
Contact persons:
Veronika Uhl, veronika.uhl(a)net4kids.org
Loek van den Boog loek.vandenboog(a)net4kids.org
Tel.+31 (0)20 4724875
Fax: +31-(0)20 472 4876
Website: www.net4kids.org