Behind the Impact

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Leela Stake, Senior Partner and Global Responsible Business Lead at FleishmanHillard, shares why the future of corporate impact belongs to leaders who can align strategy with business value, communicate their work effectively, and adapt to an increasingly complex landscape.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Jonathan Perri, Director of Global Social Impact at Ripple, shares how Ripple is using blockchain and digital payments to accelerate humanitarian aid, expand financial inclusion, and embed social impact into its core business. Learn how innovative partnerships, cross-functional collaboration, and business alignment are helping Ripple create measurable impact while strengthening its financial technology platform.

In this episode, Christy Duncan Anderson, Executive Director of the Albertsons Companies Foundation, shares how a life-changing experience in the Peace Corps shaped her approach to corporate philanthropy and why collective action is the key to solving complex social challenges. She discusses building the Nourishing Neighbors platform, aligning impact with business strategy, and the leadership lessons she's learned from nearly two decades leading one of the nation's largest corporate foundations.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Tiana Austel, Sr. Manager of Employee Engagement at the eBay Foundation, shares how employee engagement can become a powerful driver of leadership development, community building, and business value. From breaking into corporate social impact to building eBay’s global Changemakers program, Tiana offers practical insights on creating durable impact programs, empowering employee leaders, and future-proofing the profession.

In this episode, Christoph Gorder, Executive Director of Airbnb.org, shares how organizations can turn their unique strengths into lasting social impact. From disaster response and nonprofit leadership to storytelling and executive buy-in, Christoph offers practical lessons on building partnerships that endure and creating change that scales.

In this episode, Rawan Odeh, Social Impact Partnerships Team Lead at the monday.com Foundation, shares her journey from grassroots advocacy to building global social impact programs inside a leading tech company. She breaks down how the monday.com Foundation is rethinking philanthropy through direct programming, partnerships, and initiatives like Tech School that prepare students for the future of work.

Abbey Carlton, VP of Social Impact at LinkedIn, shares how corporate social impact can move from a support function to a driver of business value. She breaks down how impact teams can influence product, hiring, and strategy while building durable internal buy-in. This episode offers a clear look at how the role is evolving and where practitioners can have the greatest impact.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Darlene Goins, Head of Philanthropy and Community Impact at Wells Fargo, shares how corporate philanthropy can evolve from a standalone function into a strategic driver of business value. Drawing on her background in engineering and business leadership, she explains how to operate impact work with a business mindset by aligning investments to company priorities, building cross functional partnerships, and using data to guide decisions. The conversation explores practical ways practitioners can strengthen their business acumen, design programs that deliver both community outcomes and business results, and position their work as essential to organizational success.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Meghan St. John, Social Impact Manager at Stanley 1913, unpacks her path from nonprofit partnerships to shaping impact from inside a global brand. She reveals how Stanley 1913 turns its people, products, and capital into a true business driver by embedding impact directly into what the company makes and how it shows up. 

In this episode, Liz Minné, Head of Global Sustainability Strategy at Interface, shares how sustainability is scaled inside a global manufacturer, from leveraging data and influencing supply chains to driving carbon negative innovation without offsets. Hear practical insights on integrating sustainability into core business functions, collaborating with suppliers, and proving that impact and commercial performance can go hand in hand.