U2 dynamic: Dreamforce concert raises $10 million for UCSF hospitals

U2 used its benefit concert at the Cow Palace on Wednesday night to knock Donald Trump, and to raise $10 million for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, a favored charity of Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.

The $1,000-a-ticket-and-up benefit attracted thousands of Dreamforce attendees, plus business, political, philanthropic and other celebrity luminaries including Bill and Melinda Gates; Laurene Powell Jobs; Apple’s Johnny Ivie; supermodel Christy Turlington; Metallica’s Lars Ulrich; Nancy and Paul Pelosi; and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Also starring at the event were several top UCSF executives, including Mark Laret, longtime CEO of UCSF Health, which includes the two UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals; UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood; and Bert Lubin, M.D., chief executive of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Attendees paid $1,000 or more to gain access to the so-called Dreamfest concert, cocktail reception and afterparty hosted by Will.i.am and MC Hammer.

Don’t ask exactly how many people attended, though. That’s top secret, according to a spokeswoman for the event, at the request of Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).

The Dreamforce customer conference draws tens of thousands of attendees to Moscone Center and other San Francisco or Daly City venues, in the case of the Cow Palace.

U2 is a business force as well as an artistic one, selling an estimated $157 million in records since Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. founded the group in 1976.

The $10 million in philanthropic funds represented ticket sales and sponsorships for the Oct. 5 evening event, which was presented by Salesforce.org, Salesforce’s philanthropic arm.

Proceeds go to UC San Francisco’s two UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, one at its Mission Bay campus in San Francisco, the other in Oakland.

Source: SF Business Times

Featured Image: Drew Altizer