Impact Interview: Rebecca Holliday

Name: Rebecca Holliday

Role/Function: Head of Customer Success and Impact, Groundswell

What are you working on these days?

I lead the Customer Success and Impact team at Groundswell, where I’ve been for about 3 ½ years. Groundswell is a platform that provides donation matching, volunteering, grantmaking and emergency assistance for companies large and small all around the world.

I am really excited about a lot of what we are building and rolling out through Groundswell’s platform. Three years ago we started out focused primarily on donation matching and over the years have grown to support so many other CSR and impact components, including volunteer event management, corporate grantmaking and employee assistance funds. We have also continued to stay laser focused on impact — which means tackling issues like how to speed up getting the funds to the recipient nonprofits.

I am grateful that my role brings me into contact with our partners each and every day to ensure they have the tools to engage employees and have a greater impact in their communities near and far. Most recently, in response to the Los Angeles wildfires (where most of the Groundswell team is based), we partnered with a number of companies to provide emergency assistance to employees who lost their homes and/or were displaced. It’s rewarding to see how we can leverage our platform to be responsive, have a greater impact and support those in crisis.

What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social and environmental impact? 

There wasn’t a specific “aha” moment, but when I went to college and studied abroad for a semester in South Africa, I had an opportunity to immerse myself in a country that — at the time — was still in the early stages of the post-apartheid era. In addition to taking classes,  I volunteered with a local nonprofit focused on supporting youth living on the streets. This sparked my interest in global development work and I ultimately went to graduate school for public policy.

How did you break into the impact space? What career advice would you give to professionals who are just starting out or looking to transition?

My first role in social impact (defined somewhat broadly) was in the public sector global development space when I worked as a program manager for USAID. It was work that sent me all over the world, with a focus on development programs in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Yemen and elsewhere. When I left government, I then transitioned to a role on the CSR team at Chevron, where I partnered with business units in Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Nigeria around community engagement, human rights and strategic development partnerships.

My advice for those just starting out or looking to transition into the impact space is to leverage your networks and always seek to build new connections. Don’t be afraid to reach out cold — there are so many people out there who are willing to help and provide advice. I also believe that a fresh perspective is really valuable for CSR or social impact teams. In other words, even if you haven’t been in the impact space for your entire career, that could actually be a plus. It’s increasingly important to make the business case for impact and sustainability work and if you come from another part of the business (e.g. procurement, corporate finance, marketing, etc), that experience can complement skillsets that already exist on the impact teams. There are also many informal ways to get involved with a company’s social impact work — via employee resource groups, volunteering, etc. It’s a way to start to build relationships internally and learn more about a company’s approach to CSR.

Working in impact is often about driving change. What is the skill or trait that has been most important for your work as a change agent? How did you learn or hone it?

I’ve thought a lot about this - especially because my impact journey has been one that cuts across the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Until joining Groundswell, I had always worked at really large organizations (U.S. Government, Chevron, CARE - which has 7,000 employees globally), so a critical “soft skill” was learning how to both navigate and cut through the bureaucracy to effect change from within. Some might call that “intrapreneurship” and often that meant being a bit disruptive or forcing the organization to push against the edges of "business as usual.” It didn't come without its challenges, but it made my work really rewarding and helped prepare me for my current role where I am supporting companies ranging in size from 100 employees to 50,000+ employees. Having the experience of navigating and working within complex, global organizations is very helpful in my day to day. A related skill is being able to understand the “language” of different sectors — meaning the way nonprofits vs. government vs. companies talk about impact, metrics, performance, etc. all looks and sounds different (not to mention so many different acronyms!). There is a translation that is sometimes required especially with cross-sector partnerships.

What most excites you about the impact space right now?

I’m not going to sugar-coat it, this is an intense time to be in the impact space given the volatility and debates around funding, DEI, etc. But I believe it’s also an opportunity to more meaningfully collaborate with one another to ensure that we don’t lose sight of the important work of supporting people and this planet — whether in times of crisis or on a recurring basis. I am inspired by the companies Groundswell is partnering with, who remain committed to the impact work and are empowering their employees to continue to give back. I think technology continues to be a really powerful tool to drive innovation in the impact space — to help move money faster to nonprofits, to bring efficiencies to programs, gain powerful reporting insights and to provide engagement tools that drive greater participation and ultimately, greater impact.

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