Background
Salesforce was looking to update its philanthropic model after 18 years without major changes. I worked with the Global Philanthropy & Engagement team to gather feedback from employees worldwide and redesign programs to increase participation and nonprofit impact.
Workshop design
This was the first project during quarantine, so I had to adapt our co-creation process to a fully virtual environment. I designed and co-facilitated four workshops with ~100 participants across the globe.
To keep the sessions engaging, we designed the workshop environment like a top-down adventure game where each section of the session was a different area of the map. Participants could scroll and explore as we moved through activities.
Each session walked participants through existing research, then broke into focused problem areas where groups brainstormed, refined ideas using analog examples, and created project pitches that defined the problem, audience, involvement model, and impact measurement.
We synthesized participant input into five concepts that addressed key challenges the GPE team had identified:
- Lack of communication about ongoing opportunities and community impact
- Employees don’t know how their skills can help organizations, and organizations don’t know how to utilize different skill sets
- Benefits aren’t optimized for the majority of employees (e.g., grant opportunities available to only a select few)
Concepts created:
[Concept 01 - Carousel]
[Concept 02 - Carousel]
Impact
The concepts influenced the creation of a volunteer hub where employees log volunteer hours and donations and find opportunities. The final design included several elements from our workshop:
- Unlocking higher employer matching after volunteer milestones
- Volunteer profiles and skill-based opportunity matching
- Tailored volunteer search based on individual preferences
