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Bags assembled by Dreamforce volunteers for Project Night Night

The Dreamforce conference presented by Salesforce.com had plenty of people interested in learning how to use cloud-based products to grow their own businesses. In addition to helping companies make more money, the organizers at Dreamforce also gave those companies a way to give back in the midst of networking.

At several stations that week, Salesforce.com partnered with several local humanitarian groups in the San Francisco area to provide quick volunteer projects for Dreamforce attendees. Some of these stations mainly included assembly of different care packages that provided supplies helping such as Stop Hunger Now, World Vision and Project Night Night. One station even gave attendees the opportunity to assemble bicycles in teams, yet I am not aware of which organization that went to help.

The group that particularly caught my eye was Project Night Night. They help provide care packages to give homeless children the supplies that they need for better comfort and education. Volunteering at their station in between sessions, I was able to assemble gift bags for children that included blankets, a toy, and a few books to distribute to children in need. The books available to choose from for the packages included a wide selection – from “Goodnight Moon” to Harry Potter books and even a few teen novels.

Leveraging the thousands of people in attendance at Dreamforce, these organizations were able to make a huge impact for social good with relatively minimal effort by volunteers. If all the attendees (several thousand) took just ten to fifteen minutes to help out, think about the impact these socially responsible organizations were able to make. It’s amazing how tiny contributions can be scaled to make a huge impact.

This is the first instance of active volunteerism I’ve seen at an event like this. Where else have you seen similar events crowdsource social good?