Helping Victims of the Natural Disasters in Myanmar and China

The Salesforce.com Foundation will match your individual monetary donations, up to $5,000 and to a total of $250,000, toward the Asia Relief Fund. The Asia Relief Fund was established to "help support the relief efforts in Asia, for the recent cyclone in Myanmar and earthquake in China." You can find out more at the Salesforce.com Foundation website: http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/

I learned about this program only after taking a pause on the Salesforce.com (SFDC) login screen. If you're like me, you normally blow past that SFDC login screen without reading any of it's contents. Most often, it's advertising hubba-baloo for Salesforce training classes or month old news about fraudulent, maliciuos phishing emails targeting Salesforce.com users.

But some big, bright font, and the "Power of Us" SFDC logo caught my eye. Even though I had speedily entered my username and password, and already logged in, I hit the "back page" button on my browser to take a closer look. The blurb on the login screen asked SFDC users to "Join the Salesforce.com Foundation Matching Grant Campaign".

Clicking through to the Asia Relief Fund page, I found information and links to The Asia Foundation and the Give2Asia organization. There were also links for getting ongoing updates about the earthquake in China and the cyclone in Burma, and how relief organizations are using these funds. I made a modest donation -- the equivalent of filling my tank with gas at the pump (which these days, is becoming increasinly less modest). It was quick, easy, and of course tax-deductible.

If you've been thinking about the recent natural disasters in Asia, and the tragedy experienced by its victims, please consider this opportunity to lend aid. I think it's a great program.