2020 marks the 10th anniversary of Cloud for Good’s founding! While we celebrated the momentous anniversary earlier in the year, we can’t help but look back fondly at the many special moments comprising these past 10 years. From industry awards to group volunteer efforts, our “Goodies” have compiled 10 of their most memorable moments from Cloud for Good’s 10-year history.
Kristin Keister, Partner Alliances Manager
My Top 10 moment was calling Tal from the 2019 Salesforce.org Partner Summit to tell him we won the first-ever Nonprofit Partner of the Year award. I was so sad that he wasn’t able to accept the award in person for the company he founded and grew so successfully. But it was great to be there with Dana Genson, our VP of Services, and represent all the hard work our Goodies do that helped earn that award.
Terimarie Degree, Employee Experience Lead
When I look back on Cloud for Good’s history, some of my favorite moments have come from various volunteer experiences I’ve had with the company. Taking part in Cloud for Good Volunteer Week 2017 was incredibly rewarding and humbling to see the impact we could have in our communities. Utilizing our Volunteer Time-Off policy to support our local communities on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2019 was another great moment for our company. Many volunteers included their families and made that day really special for everyone involved.
Kat Luker, Senior Developer
My fondest moment with Cloud for Good would have to have been getting to meet all of my coworkers at last year’s in-person Cloud for Good Summit. One of my favorite things about Cloud for Good is the flexibility of being remote but I also have the privilege to work with a lot of amazing humans, most of which I had never met in person until the Summit. It’s a memory that makes me feel a bit like an impatient kid under the current travel restrictions. I can’t wait for our next opportunity to meet up in person and share food and laughs together.
Chad Martin, Director of Digital Services
My first month at Cloud for Good, our internal Marketing team asked me if I wanted to go to New York. And I enjoy traveling for work and I certainly enjoy New York, so I definitely signed up before knowing what I was actually going to be doing. It turns out, my talents were needed in presenting a 15-20-minute presentation to a group of nonprofits in the Salesforce Tower! With public speaking not being a favorite pastime of mine, I definitely wondered what I had done. Since I had committed to the task, I put together my presentation, practiced with the team, and still did not feel like I was going to be able to overcome my general trepidation and that I would fail miserably in front of Salesforce employees and nonprofit leaders. I practiced my presentation multiple times in my hotel room the night before and still was not satisfied with my performance. For dinner that evening, Kristen Kiester, our Partner Alliance Manager, and I met at an Italian restaurant. She was a great, calming person to talk to and listen to my public speaking anxieties. The next day, I put on my best performance, which is all I could ask of myself. And although I still dislike public speaking, forcing myself to get up in front of a room of 70+ and share my knowledge is the only way to overcome my anxieties. I was thankful for the opportunity and for my fellow co-workers being there to support me through it.
Emily Jakubiak, Principal Consultant
Something that I love about working at Cloud for Good is that even as we’ve grown as a company, we’ve retained close connections with one another broadly and in small, team groups. A story that exemplifies that to me is when Victor Almeida, who lived close to Connecticut College, sent each member of our project team (we implemented an Advancement solution for them on EDA) a t-shirt from their campus store. We all wore them on the same day and took a team picture… which made me feel like we were “together” even though we were virtual.
Craig Mabee, Senior Account Executive
I would say my most memorable moment has been the 2019 Dreamforce. This was my 10th Dreamforce and I think it was the most strategic and productive approach with well over a dozen strategic meetings scheduled, which kicked off our strategic partnership with ChildFund International. I also recall a wildly successful customer appreciation dinner at Hops and Hominy. I had my first ever opportunity to be a presenter and partner with Edima Elinewinga, Chief Technology Officer at Zero to Three, during this Dreamforce, and I wrapped up the week with an onsite visit and tour with another client, Family House.
Francis Scudellari, Senior Cloud Consultant
It’s hard to single out a particular moment as a favorite, but among the many fond memories I’ve had over my tenure here at Cloud for Good, there is one common theme, and that’s shared experiences with my coworkers and clients. Those memories started on my very first day at Cloud for Good, all of eight years ago. Back in that before-time, I had to fill out the HR paperwork in person. After an early morning flight from Chicago to Memphis, I spent a whirlwind of a day with Tal that featured lunch at a local BBQ joint, and my first taste of fried pickles. Many memorable trips have followed: the get-togethers at Dreamforce, which included a scavenger hunt and group-cooking classes; catching up with colleagues over a meal, a few beers, or a baseball game; and the chances to get to know clients at onsite discoveries and training. Central to all of these, have been the people who make Cloud for Good such a rewarding place to work.
Punita Virkud, Senior Cloud Consultant
One of my favorite moments at Cloud for Good was meeting everyone in person at the 2019 CFG Summit. I loved hearing all the “Impact Stories” from several of my colleagues. Another favorite one was the after-dinner karaoke and the fireside chat we had till the wee hours of the morning!
Jenn Tate, Marketing Director
One of my more recent favorite moments at Cloud for Good (because I have so, so many) was joining our Diversity & Inclusion team earlier this year. As a marketer, and more importantly as a woman in the technology industry, it’s important to me that Cloud for Good spotlights the incredible diversity inherent to our team. Across varying ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and tenures with the company, Cloud for Good is the most diverse workplace I’ve been a part of, and we take strides to highlight that inclusion every single day. To know that we empower unique voices is a daily motivation for me. And to see that female voices are empowered to the point where 50% of our executive leadership team is made of women truly means the world to me.
Tal Frankfurt, Founder and CEO
Over the last decade, we have been fortunate to work with many higher educational institutions and nonprofit organizations. The moments that stay with me are when our Goodies work impacts the community directly. Two examples immediately come to mind. A few years ago, after another flooding in Louisiana, I received an email from the Muscular Dystrophy Association thanking the Cloud for Good team for helping them dramatically reduce the time it took them to mobilize their clients and save lives. Earlier this year, I received an email from the CDC Foundation thanking us for helping them increase efficiency during the pandemic and streamline their fundraising effort to address COVID-19. Waking up each morning with the knowledge that our work makes a positive impact on so many vital communities has been a key motivator for me over the last decade. And I greatly look forward to increasing that impact for many more years to come.
