Salesforce

Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff, threatened to withdraw Salesforce events and presence in Indiana, Georgia, and North Carolina due to state-level laws (1)(2). The company also will not do business with anyone who legally sells firearms or accessories (3)(4). Salesforce received a score of 100 on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group. The company recruits employees based on sexual identity issues. The company discriminates against vendors that do not promote divisive sex and gender policies, indicating it prioritizes sexual issues over merit (5)(6). Slack banned Libs of TikTok from the messaging platform without explicit explanation (7). Salesforce temporarily froze the Republican National Committee’s email communications through its platform over its concerns about January 6 (8)(9).

Salesforce‘s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company will not donate to non-religious charities unless they embrace controversial sexual identity policies (1)(2). The company uses Benevity as its charitable giving platform. Benevity has the option to vet charities according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate List, which includes mainstream libertarian, conservative, family, and religious advocacy organizations (3)(4)(5). However, in November 2025, Salesforce “directed Benevity to stop using SPLC to screen nonprofit recipients of employee contributions” (6)(7).

Salesforce’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company forces employees to attend multiple, controversial trainings on gender identity, sexual orientation, transgender issues, and divisive racial ideology. The company provides gender transition guidelines for its employees and a specific benefits guide with a comprehensive explanation of transgender services funded by the company (1)(2). In October 2023 America First Legal filed a letter with the EEOC requesting a civil rights investigation into Salesforce over discriminatory practices in hiring (3)(4). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (5).

Salesforce‘s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company agrees to allow a controversial stakeholder group focused on sexual identity issues to dictate marketing or advertising strategy. By doing so, the company risks dividing employees, alienating customers and harming shareholders (1)(2). The company’s PGLE membership reflects its commitment to “operationalize” company coverage of transgender surgery and treatment, the vetting of business partners based on LGBTQ+ policies, and the financial support of LGBTQ organizations on a global level (3)(4)(5). The company signed an open letter endorsing the Equality Act, a contentious proposal to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act by adding sexual orientation and so-called gender identity as protected categories. The legislation would, among other implications, grant biological men access to women-only spaces such as sports teams and public restrooms, and compel healthcare providers to deliver sex-denying healthcare and was part of the Freedom for All Americans coalition, which advocated for federal legislation that would overrule state laws designed to protect girls’ sports and similar laws (6)(7). The company also denounced state election integrity efforts (8). In 2016, Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff, signed an open letter to then-Missouri House of Representatives Speaker Todd Richardson opposing SJR39, a religious freedom bill (9). The company has vocally opposed other religious freedom legislation (10). Benioff also used corporate leverage to oppose the North Carolina bathroom bill, HB2, which required people to use the bathroom of their biological gender (11)(12). Salesforce also signed onto an amicus brief asking for the Supreme Court to rule against Jack Phillips and force him to make a cake for a gay wedding (13). The company also joined an amicus brief against President Trump’s travel ban in 2017 (14). In 2021, Marc Benioff denounced the Texas abortion law and offered to relocate employees out of the state (15). The company opposed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which would prohibit teaching gender identity and sexual orientation to kids in K-3rd grade (16). CEO Benioff spoke out in opposition to the overturning of Roe v. Wade (17). Salesforce subsidiary Slack’s CEO, Stewart Butterfield, is a signatory to CEOs For Gun Safety (18). Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff, is a member of the Business Roundtable and Former CEO Keith Block signed its 2019 Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, which promotes stakeholder capitalism over traditional obligations to shareholders (19)(20). The company Chair & CEO, Marc Benioff, denounced various states’ legislative efforts to protect election integrity and security (21). Salesforce and Slack signed an amicus brief in opposition to the 2016 North Carolina bathroom bill HB2, which required people to use the bathroom of their biological sex (22). The company opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (23). It opposed legislation in Iowa intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (24). The company’s CEO, Marc Benioff, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace (25)(26). Salesforce scored a out of 100 on the 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group (27)(28). Salesforce had a history of tying executive pay to diversity goals and supporting DEI within its business practices. However, in March 2025, the company “removed references to diversity and inclusion as a “core value” and eliminated language tying executive compensation to diversity goals” from its financial filings (29)(30)(31). Salesforce takes into account gender, race, and ethnicity when considering salaries for its employees (32). 

Salesforce provides a benefits package for employees that covers travel/lodging costs for an abortion and transgender medical procedures for covered employees and dependents, including children (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). The company‘s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company covers transgender related costs for its employees and their children, including paid short-term leave, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, chest surgeries, genital surgeries, medical visits and lab monitoring, travel and lodging. Additionally, the company has pledged philanthropic support of at least one organization or event that promotes sex and gender ideology. By allowing a political stakeholder group to dictate operations, the company increases health care costs and risks dividing employees, alienating customers and harming shareholders (6)(7). Salesforce funds Planned Parenthood and has pledged over $1 million to BLM-related causes, including the ACLU (8)(9)(10)(11). The company is a Bronze Tier corporate sponsor of the Trevor Project, an organization that advocates for controversial sex and gender ideology, including “gender transition” drugs and surgeries for minors, through legislation, litigation, advertising, and PR campaigns. The organization also hosts online chatrooms that allow adults to communicate with minors as young as 13 about sexually explicit topics. Adults in these chatrooms have encouraged minors to adopt transgender identities and withhold this information from their parents (12)(13)(14)(15)(16). The company is a gold sponsor of the HRC and a founding member of the PGLE (17)(18). It previously offered $50,000 relocation packages to employees who wanted to leave Indiana after a religious freedom law was enacted in the state in 2015 (19). The company is also a corporate partner of the NGLCC (20). It is a member of the MCCA, indicating its focus on recruiting, retaining, and promoting employees based on race (21)(22). Salesforce sponsored Indiana Fever’s Pride Game in June 2025 (23). Salesforce is a partner of the HRC’s Foundation (24)(25). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (26).

Salesforce‘s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company publicly advocated for controversial sex and gender ideology through local, state or federal legislation or initiatives. By allowing a political stakeholder group to dictate operations, the company risks dividing employees, alienating customers and harming shareholders (1)(2). In 2020 and 2024, the company donated to the Equality PAC but has not lobbied for ideological purposes (3)(4)(5)(6).