C haritable arm of Salesforce helps build virtual veterans hall for post-9/11 vets

NEW YORK (December 16, 2015) — Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the first and largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to supporting post-9/11 veterans and their families, today announced that it was chosen as a recipient of a Force for Change grant from Salesforce.org, the philanthropic arm of Salesforce. These funds will be used to help build a 21st century virtual veterans hall supported through the expansion of IAVA’s innovative “myIAVA” platform.

“The grant from Force for Change is another sign of Salesforce’s tremendous commitment to vets. From its creation of VetForce — an initiative to provide vets with Salesforce training, certification and related employment — to highlighting IAVA’s work at Dreamforce and the integration of leaders like Army veteran and Senior VP Dan Streetman, Salesforce has been a leading partner for veterans,” said IAVA CEO and Founder Paul Rieckhoff. “Since its inception over a decade ago, IAVA was envisioned as a digitally savvy organization that would reflect the sensibilities of a new generation of veterans. Today IAVA continues to advance our in-person and digital programs and leverage technology through the myIAVA custom platform. The most exciting recent example of how we use myIAVA is our Rapid Response Referral Program. We have been able to use this technology to stop suicides, put people in housing, get them jobs and send them back to school. Salesforce is helping us save lives.”

In late 2014, IAVA chose the Salesforce platform to begin to test the core functionality of the myIAVA community—including its social platform with discussion groups, a New GI Bill education support calculator, an event tool that allows members to connect in person nationwide and an integration into IAVA’s Rapid Response Referral Program (RRRP), which connects transitioning veterans to the services they need ranging from mental health support to housing. The $200,000 grant from Salesforce.org will be part of a three year, $9 million project to allow IAVA to grow this community from several thousand to several hundred thousand, allowing for community innovation and connectivity to more of the services and resources veterans desperately need

About the Salesforce.org Force For Change Grants Program
Salesforce.org’s Force for Change Grants Program accelerates social impact by funding innovative ideas spearheaded by the nonprofit and higher education sectors. The program is open to nonprofit organizations and nonprofit higher education institutions that are focused on using technology in innovative, forward-thinking ways that will have meaningful social impact.

About Salesforce.org
Salesforce.org is based on a simple idea: leverage Salesforce’s technology, people and resources to improve communities around the world. We call this integrated philanthropic approach the 1-1-1 model. Since 1999, Salesforce technology has powered more than 27,000 nonprofit and education institutions; we’ve provided more than $100 million in grants; and our employees have logged more than 1.1 million volunteer hours throughout the world. For more information on Salesforce.org, please visit www.salesforce.org