At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Becky Ferguson — Senior Vice President of Philanthropy at Salesforce and CEO of Salesforce Foundation.

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: Tell us a little bit about your journey into leadership in this field. Were there any defining moments, experiences, or mentors that helped you to get here? 

Becky Ferguson, Salesforce: For me, a really foundational experience was my first job out of college back at a small, community-based nonprofit in the community where I grew up. 

When I look back, I appreciate it for a number of reasons. First, the support services we provided across the entire county made me appreciate just how interconnected so many social issues are — I learned to look at things holistically and try to get beneath the surface and understand the root causes. 

It also gave me an appreciation for every single dollar. When I look back, I realize how much we made happen as a small organization with a limited budget. And through my career, as I’ve worked with larger organizations, partnerships, and budgets, I still try to think about the power of every dollar. 

And then the other thing I really took from that experience was that when you work at a startup or a small nonprofit, you wear a lot of hats. One of the hats I wore in that period of time was running the hotline — making sure that any day of the week, any hour, if someone called, there was someone on the other end to pick up that phone. I learned that oftentimes what people really needed in that moment was someone on the other end to listen. There is so much power and importance that comes with presence and listening. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What makes your approach to your work differentiated or sets it apart in the field?

Ferguson, Salesforce: At Salesforce, we’re celebrating our 25th year anniversary as a company this year, and one thing that has grown with us over the years is what we like to call the 1-1-1 model. Early on, we made a pledge to look at how we could give back our financial contributions, our time, and our product, and the ways in which we have been able to watch and see those contributions grow over time is really remarkable. As we look back over the years and see things like over nine million volunteer hours from our employees, thousands of nonprofits that now use Salesforce technology to help power their missions out in the world, and much more. The layering of that impact over time is really powerful. We’ve also always really believed in the power of partnerships and it has been so inspiring to see other companies adopt the 1-1-1 model and make it their own with now over 18,000 companies joining the Pledge 1% global movement. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Salesforce has really built a reputation for being out in front and on the vanguard. Is there anything you can point to that has helped you to stay in alignment with those expectations over time?

Ferguson, Salesforce: To start, it is very much a part of the origin story of the company — it’s the fabric of who we are and our values. 

I think another element of it is that at Salesforce, we’ve really embraced a more distributed or integrated model of impact in the company — meaning it lives in different parts of the business; it’s not just one person or one team’s responsibility alone. At times that can be a little bit messy, but we’ve always felt that that is actually the most powerful way to make lasting change happen.

Behrman, NationSwell: There’s a lot of energy around employee engagement, volunteering, folks wanting to see how to push to the next level of impact, engagement, design. Is there anything you are particularly proud of that you might speak to?

Ferguson, Salesforce: A couple of years ago, we decided to shift away from just celebrating the number of hours people have volunteered — which is really impressive, and which we still have ambitious goals around — in favor of thinking about how we can also inspire and celebrate a deeper kind of giving back journey for employees. 

We dug in with our in-house design team and got a lot of feedback from employees to create a new impact journey. We now have a set of impact milestones people can earn that encourage them to not only volunteer, but to volunteer more than once with an organization, to volunteer and donate, to perhaps join a board — the ultimate goal is to build deeper and deeper engagement. And then as we reward, recognize, and celebrate those milestones over time, we’re able to connect employees with different opportunities that they can then use to continue to further their impact journeys. 

We’re hoping to reach over a million employee volunteer hours this year. The way in which Salesforce employees engage and give back, whether it’s individually or collectively with their teams, is really inspiring.

Behrman, NationSwell: I have this impression that you guys have a differentiated way of communicating, and using narrative, to further ingrain this work and inspire employees. Can you bring us into that a little bit more?

Ferguson, Salesforce: We are a company and a culture of storytellers, and we bring our work across the company to life through stories — be it stories about customers that we work with, stories about our employees, stories about our community partners. We often refer to the individuals in those stories as trailblazers — people who are forging a new path forward — and the idea is that any of us can be a trailblazer in all sorts of ways, from how you’re using new technology to how you’re inspiring teams. 

We’re also definitely intentional about the ways we create moments and avenues to share those stories. We were just at the company kickoff, and we ended the time together by recognizing three employee trailblazers who were rewarded with golden hoodies and recognition from the entire company. They were three really different employees, working in very different roles and parts of the company — making a unique impact not only in their day jobs, but also in their communities. 

At the end of the day, we are community builders: We think a lot about our ecosystem of partners and trailblazers and the ways we all come together in community. And people really feel that sense of community.

Behrman, NationSwell: What has helped you to be an effective leader in the space? Are there attributes or proclivities or parts of your philosophy of leadership that are central to your leadership

Ferguson, Salesforce: I’ve worked in a lot of different organizations, sectors, and settings. I’ve done work in the UN, research, corporate venture capital, private philanthropy, corporate philanthropy, and I think across all of those roles, I have gained an appreciation that there are many different ways and styles of leadership. I think there are two things that really resonate with me: first, trying to reorient my mindset around failure — this idea that to do hard things, you’ve got to take chances, you’ve got to make bets, and it’s not always going to work or go exactly as planned, and that’s okay. 

Behrman, NationSwell: I’d love to hear about a few things you might recommend that have been influential to you in your leadership journey or current state of mind.

Ferguson, Salesforce: There are a couple things that are on my book stand right now, and one of them is Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teaching of plants. What I love about it is it’s a blend of stories and science. Another is a book by Bob Sutton called Scaling Up Excellence that was recommended to me by another leader here at Salesforce. One thing about Bob Sutton’s work that has been sticking with me lately is he talks about this idea that in organizations and companies, things layer up over time and you need to step back and look at what is no longer adding value and strip those things away.

He refers to them as barnacles, and that is something I’ve been thinking about lately — what are the barnacles in the work, in the field I’m in, that have layered up over time and are no longer serving us? What do we need to chip away at or strip so that our ships can sail much faster to where we’re trying to go? 

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some of the peer leaders you really admire — folks more or less in your role at other companies or organizations who you think are really great leaders doing great work?

Ferguson, Salesforce: I’ve met a lot of incredible people through the NationSwell community actually. Being around a table, sharing meals with folks. For instance, Alicia Vermaele, executive director of the Starbucks Foundation, is someone I love to run across town and have a cup of coffee with and hear what’s on her mind, what she’s working on and thinking about. And then Shamina Singh and the team at MasterCard, that’s another group I have come to know through the NationSwell community that I think are doing great things in the world.