What is buildimpact?

I’ve asked the same two questions countless times in my head:
(1) how do other women tackle social challenges in their day to day?
(2) is it possible to merge social impact with a professional career?

in an attempt to answer these questions, I started buildimpact as a 2020 project to interview and profile ~20 women by the end of the year.

buildimpact showcases how a variety of women, across different industries and organizations, integrate social responsibility into their work

to me, social responsibility is defined as working to contribute to a greater good — more specifically, addressing social challenges for a positive change (source 1, source 2). some examples of social challenges that women featured in this project tackle include sustainability, environmental impact, inclusiveness, labor standards, policy change, donations/giving, education, humanitarian need, criminal justice, social and mental wellbeing, participatory design, equity, and corporate social responsibility.

I consciously tried to profile women in different stages of their life. this included different ages, races, industries, background, career progression and tenure, and location (in the US). I also reached out to women who were surprised I would even want to feature them, since they weren’t fully established or still felt like they needed to figure out their path. this was intentional. I wanted to have real conversations with women who didn’t already have the accolades and validation, since they were more relatable to me. not to mention it was much easier to reach out to a friend of a friend of a friend compared to someone who has regularly been featured in The New York Times.

at this point, you’re probably wondering why I actually created buildimpact. to be completely honest, buildimpact is a somewhat selfish way for me to learn, connect, and hear from people who are interested in a similar space as I am. profiling women through buildimpact also allows me to see there is hope and progress being made in how businesses form, operate, think, and grow, in regards to social responsibility.

in college I started to deeply believe that it’s up to each individual and organization to hold themselves accountable to leaving the world better than they found it. my college business classes felt at odds with the environment and health classes I took for my international studies major. when I learned about social responsibility or environmental impact in business classes, it was often tucked away into ten minutes of one lecture half way through the semester. and always under the pretext of goodwill and advancing the reputation of a business. it was then when I realized that it can’t just be goodwill and reputation, it needs to be that all businesses and individuals genuinely care for and feel responsible to do social good.

since then, if you count the number of hours I’ve spent reading and learning about social impact and corporate social responsibility, it would be a little kooky. to more tangibly build impact, after college, I started with very small steps such as volunteering, donating nominal amounts to causes, recycling more, attending city policy forums at my local library, and convincing my workplace to have volunteer days with local nonprofits. I was never consistent (still holds true now), but tried when I could.

in 2017, I decided to make stronger commitments through two steps. I first pledged to donate at least 1% of my salary each year to nonprofits and other organizations to encourage others to do more social impact work. second, I decided I needed to work at a company that cared deeply about social impact. in late 2017 I moved on from my role at Dropbox and joined Headspace, a mindfulness and mental health company with a social mission to improve the health and happiness of the world. things at Headspace are not always perfect, but it feels much closer to where I want to be, from the perspective of a company trying to do good in the world and build impact.

to expand upon my 2017 commitments, I’ve started buildimpact in 2020 to better understand and share how other women tackle social challenges into their day to day and professional career. my moonshot goal = through profiling women (and asking questions about career path, social responsibility, challenging situations, and tips) I hope buildimpact helps YOU see it’s possible to consider social impact in work and life decisions.