In one case, that included a dental chair to address the toothaches that got in the way of student learning.
The focus, however, over 11 years and more than $100 million of giving to Bay Area schools has long been to upgrade technology, boost math skills and launch computer science classes across the districts. This year, for the first time, some of that funding will push the public schools well into the world of artificial intelligence.
That could include teacher training to use AI for lesson plans and to translate materials for non-English speaking parents. Or it could incorporate the field into computer-science classrooms, where students can start to prepare for new jobs that will lead to AI performing a large range of functions now done by humans.
"We're just exploring that. It's very early days," said Suzanne DiBianca, Salesforce executive vice president and chief impact officer. "It's going to radically transform education."
Salesforce officials are expected to join San Francisco Unified School District administrators and city leaders to announce the new round of funding Monday at Washington High School. San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Chicago and Indianapolis districts will split the $14 million grant.
Over the past 11 years, Salesforce has given San Francisco schools $72 million and Oakland Unified $52 million, starting with a $2.5 million grant in 2013.
It's money that supplements state and federal funding, which public school advocates say is never enough to cover the needs of students. For both good and bad, they say, corporate philanthropy has stepped in to fill the gaps, although often with too many strings attached to special interests.
But the corporate philanthropy has never just been about cash, Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff told The Chronicle days prior to the Monday announcement about this year's education grants.
Boosting public education is a mantra to Benioff, who will push the tens of thousands of attendees at his annual Dreamforce convention in San Francisco this week to adopt a school.
Rather than just writing a check, he will encourage them to "knock on the door and ask a principal how to help," he said, adding that's what he did at his adopted site, Presidio Middle School, where he helped build a new playground. "It's been very important for the kids in my neighborhood."
The company also sends hundreds of workers into the schools to volunteer, a component of Benioff's commitment to donating time as well as money to education and other causes.
Benioff initially promised to sustain the grants for 10 years, but after passing that goal, said this year, they are "just getting going."
That commitment is unusual in the world of billionaire corporate philanthropy, where pet projects are often funded and then abandoned when there's no immediate indication of significant success.
The Salesforce Foundation is the largest corporate philanthropy focused on education and public health care, Benioff said, adding that includes more than $200 million for education efforts around the world and $100 million in the company's donations to public hospitals, including UCSF.
"It's unprecedented in corporate America," he added. "This has got to be one of our great accomplishments."
The Salesforce funding also comes with an annual $100,000 for every middle school principal in San Francisco and Oakland to spend however they want to support programs or other purchases to benefit students and staff.
The company's foundation is taking a look at how effective the money has been and what it has helped districts accomplish, contracting with a third party to do the analysis, DiBianca said.
"It's just a good moment in time to reflect on where we've been and where we want to go," she said, adding that information will be made publicly available in the fall.
The Salesforce money in San Francisco has largely focused on middle schools, where officials initially used it to upgrade Wi-Fi and access to laptops or other devices. In recent years, the money has expanded computer science curriculum and courses, with nearly 18,000 students taking the classes this year, up from less than 900 a decade ago.
"We are ahead of nearly all districts in the country in computer science education; that has been due to Salesforce," said Irene Nolan, a SFUSD computer science teacher and content specialist. She added that computer science course enrollment by race and gender reflects the district demographics. "It has been amazing," she said.
In San Francisco, school district officials are incorporating AI into those computer science classes as well as media literacy, while working to keep teachers up to speed on what it is, where it is and how to use it, said Zareen Poonen, SFUSD's director of digital learning.
"Teachers are already starting to use it, to start trying it out," she said. "We really want to show students the creative possibility of all these tools."
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