Exclusive: 14 years, $156 million and counting: Why Salesforce keeps investing in Bay Area schools

In 2013, San Francisco’s schools got their first monetary donation from Salesforce, a $2.7 million check that the company’s CEO and founder, Marc Benioff, said was the down payment on $100 million over 10 years.

It was a bold, if not audacious long-term commitment during an era of philanthropic whim, with tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates bouncing from one trendy education reform to the next. 

Benioff met his promise and kept going. On Monday, he and his team are expected to announce this year’s annual round of education grants for $27 million, including $18 million combined for San Francisco and Oakland school districts. That brings the 14-year total to $156 million for the Bay Area schools.

“That’s more than any company in history,” Benioff said. “Obviously these numbers are consequential in our public schools.”

The fourth-generation San Francisco native said the annual funding has never been about telling the schools or districts what to do, but rather aligns with what administrators and the communities say they need. The only caveat is that there is “no hate, no discrimination” and the grants focus on quality and sustainability.

But it’s never just been about money, Benioff said. 

The annual Salesforce donation also includes a commitment of hundreds of hours of employee time dedicated to volunteering, including those in the C-suite, as well as free or reduced Salesforce technology.

Just days before the start of the school year in Oakland, Robin Washington was among the company’s volunteers in a middle school science classroom helping the teacher cut paper bags into DNA-labeled leafs to hang on a “tree of life.”

The task at Elmhurst Middle School was far removed from her day job, where she is the president and chief operating and financial officer at Salesforce — which is valued at about $200 billion. She’s also a board member for some of the world’s largest companies, including Alphabet, which owns Google.

Washington is one of the country’s most powerful corporate executives, but building a DNA tree out of paper bags and a metal pole should be part of the work, she said.

“I think it’s an investment in the future and it does require us to roll up our sleeves and engage as executives,” Washington said. “I can’t think of a better way to spend time.”

That volunteer time has been built into Salesforce’s DNA since the company’s early days, with the 1% of equity, 1% of product and 1% of employee time donated to a wide range of causes worldwide.

“This is not write a check and walk away,” said Sunya Norman, Salesforce senior vice president of impact, adding an army of company workers helped Oakland and San Francisco get reading for the school year. “We had employees literally carrying tables upstairs and downstairs.”

That ongoing commitment to local schools is part of the job at Salesforce, Washington said, but it’s also very personal.

My mom worked in the public school systems,” she said, describing her Midwest childhood. “I was a product of the public school system.”

Being in the community, in classrooms, not only builds personal relationships, but is also “level setting to what’s really important.”

“Being hands on, you get to see the great work behind done (in classrooms),” Washington said. “I think being a teacher is one of the most heroic things a person could do.”

The Oakland and San Francisco funding over the years has focused on improving access to technology, math instruction and increasing participation in computer science classes. In addition, the annual grants include a no-strings $100,000 check for every middle school principal to use as each sees fit.

In the past couple of years, some of the top-level funding has shifted to helping educators grapple with artificial intelligence, specifically focused on helping teachers and administrators “navigate AI responsibly,” including creating AI usage policies with help from Salesforce-funded organizations like aiEDU.

“Preparing students for the future means making sure they have the skills and confidence to navigate a world increasingly impacted by AI technology,” said San Francisco Superintendent Maria Su, in a statement. “Salesforce’s continued partnership helps us invest not only in our students, but in the educators who support them every day.”

Salesforce officials said the support for AI isn’t about getting the technology in front of students, but rather preparing teachers and young people for AI in the workplace.

“We know the reality that AI is a part of all of our futures,” Benioff said.

The backlash against technology in education has been growing into a battle cry in the past few years, with restrictions on cell phones and other screens in schools as well as AI, with Los Angeles recently banning AI from elementary and middle schools.

Benioff acknowledged the concerns, saying those related to social media offer a lesson in the need to implement constraints and guardrails.

“We believe there’s a lot of good in AI,” said Benioff, who chairs the AI for Good Coalition, a United Nations-led initiative. But “Technology is not good or bad, it’s what you do with it that matters.”

Along those lines, the Salesforce chairman and CEO said he’s also hoping to steer the future billionaires coming out of the AI industry to follow his company’s lead in giving money, time and services to their communities.

“I hope these executives will do more than just buy big houses,” he said. “We’re trying to model for these baby AI companies what adult companies do.”