What happens when a technologist trades code for cause-driven impact? In this episode of RKD Group Thinkers, Salvatore Salpietro—Chief Experience Officer at Fundraise Up—shares his personal journey from IT projects in Rome to co-founding a platform that’s reshaping the online giving experience.
Salvatore opens up about his career pivots, the moment nonprofit work became personal, and how frustration often fuels innovation. From building human-first technologies to mentoring others in the space, Salvatore speaks candidly about the values driving his work—and the metrics that truly matter.
If you're a nonprofit leader, fundraiser, or simply curious about how passion and technology can collide to create real impact, this episode is for you.
He shares:
Justin McCord (00:04)
Welcome to the RKD Group Thinkers podcast. I'm your host, Justin McCord, with me. Semi-clean shaven, by the way. I haven't seen your face in a moment.
Ronnie Richard (00:14)
I hadn't seen it in probably three years, I think. I just got bored and shaved it. That's the story. It's exciting.
Justin McCord (00:23)
You got bored and so you changed your face. Ronnie Richard, for those that are not watching this in video, ⁓ good old Ronnie clean shaven Richard. Actually you're not clean shaven anymore. But you know, Ronnie ⁓ didn't know what to expect going into this conversation, highly anticipated it. And ⁓
We deliver goosebumps as a part of it. How about that?
Ronnie Richard (00:57)
You got to like that. Yeah. our, our guests today, Sal, Sal Pietro, he's chief community officer at fundraise up. Uh, he, we, we walked through his, uh, career path and it really was fascinating. I always love hearing, like I said, people's origin stories and, when we talk to people and we bring up these memories, yeah, it's always, it's always fun to see them kind of reliving their career path. But, uh, the, thing that, that I,
Was drawn to was there's almost this certain and we talked about in the episode like a restlessness ⁓ in his career and it's like. It's like the intersection of that and his passion for what he's doing you can see how it leads from the one thing to the next and and that's like really excited to see where he continues to go in his career.
Justin McCord (01:49)
⁓ Every time that I have time with Sal in person, he brings this light and this joy to the room that he's in. And I referred to it in the episode of Zeal. And it's just the way that he shows up. And so to be able to learn somewhat of how that came about, how that is manifested in multiple circumstances ⁓ was a real pleasure. And
You know, just the fact that his restlessness has not prompted him to shave his beard is a good thing. without any further removal of facial hair, ⁓ here is Sal, Sal Pietro from FundraiseUp on the RKD Group Thinkers podcast.
So.
Salvatore Salpietro (02:45)
Dustin. Right. ⁓
Justin McCord (02:49)
⁓
man, okay, I'm really torn on where to start. So I'm gonna give you the choice. In my left hand, I have option number one. And in my right hand, I have option number two. So you get to pick.
Salvatore Salpietro (03:03)
Okay.
I'm gonna go with right.
Justin McCord (03:07)
All right, right hand. You did IT in Rome? Like you had a part of your career working in Rome in IT?
Salvatore Salpietro (03:19)
Wild throwback and I'm heading to see that place of employment in about eight days, which is a wild thing that you mentioned that ⁓ I was an IT. I was an instructional IT technician at the American University of Rome. I was there for about four or five years. ⁓ From there I went to work at the University of California managing the IT for their Rome, their Italy campuses. ⁓
And yeah, that was kind of like my first ⁓ toe dip into the dynamics of nonprofit institutions. Let's go.
Justin McCord (03:57)
You're
in the higher ed space, right? Yeah. What took you to Rome? Like how did you get there? Yeah, like,
Salvatore Salpietro (04:07)
⁓ I Wow, let's go. Let's go in let's do it. ⁓ I was raised a Jehovah's Witness so I in my late teens I left that and all of my friends were in their late teens getting married and they were you know in very much that that mindset of you know, if I got to get married before I do the thing and
And that was what everybody was doing. And I was like, that's not my life path. And my only way to really get away from that and change that trajectory was to take myself out of that completely. And I did that through a study abroad that led to full-time employment at the American University of Rome. So that was the catalyst. It was like, got to get out. And what's a good path that makes sense and doesn't doesn't kind of, you have much blowback. And it was, let me study abroad in Italy.
Justin McCord (04:55)
Yeah.
Salvatore Salpietro (05:03)
And then I went and saw that I had ⁓ a pathway for Italian citizenship, got my passport, did an interview at like three in the morning ⁓ with the American University of Rome. They called me a couple of days later said, can you be here at the end of the month? And I went there, told my parents I was going to go for six months, ended up staying for almost six years. Wow.
Justin McCord (05:23)
Were you a techie as a kid?
Salvatore Salpietro (05:26)
Yeah, I mean, I started on Commodore 64s, like the brown ones. Right, because there's the Commodore 64, then there's like the white ones that kind of look nicer. Yeah. And then you had the floppy drive that had there were like belt driven, like there were more belts and mechanics in those floppy drives than like a car today. ⁓ So yes, I was a techie. I was doing ⁓ BBS is bulletin board systems for those that are there where ⁓ midnight.
Justin McCord (05:36)
Yes.
Salvatore Salpietro (05:57)
pseudo hacking as a 15 year old ⁓ and all that stuff. So yes, techie took them apart, built them all that stuff.
Justin McCord (06:04)
You are legitimately the most charismatic techie I think that I've ever encountered. ⁓ Learning your IT background really stumped me. And then to hear you even like to get so specific on the machines that you worked on and the tinkering, that's, yeah.
Salvatore Salpietro (06:24)
Yeah, it's wild. Yeah, and ⁓ I love all that stuff, ⁓ all the tech side of it. I was a network admin. I did all the IT stuff. had my Microsoft certifications in system administration, all that stuff. Had. They're outdated by now. ⁓ But when I got to Rome, I really realized I loved humans and psychology and anthropology and
Justin McCord (06:25)
It was wilding.
Salvatore Salpietro (06:54)
that led me to stop pursuing my undergrad in computer sciences. So had my associates in computer science and then I said, let me shift this to sociology and start seeing how I can marry those two. So it kind of weirdly led to this place that I'm at now and this point in my career that kind of does marry those two things quite beautifully.
Justin McCord (07:14)
You know, listen, in my view of our studio right now, you're in the middle of the Oreo, right? And so, so what what you don't realize is, yes. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. What you don't realize is Ronnie is firmly in the STEM camp. Like Ronnie is camp stem and Justin is the arts kid. And so you're you're in a good spot in between us, right? So, right.
Salvatore Salpietro (07:41)
I guess, and that's been ⁓ a bit of my calling card throughout my career was like, I can talk to both sides of this. And I can kind of bridge some of that sometimes. ⁓
Ronnie Richard (07:51)
So you're in Italy, you're six years there working in IT. You had this moment of, I want to move more into the human side. How did that take shape and how did that, your career path change from there? Where did you take it?
Salvatore Salpietro (08:07)
Great question. ⁓ I took it to London, where I then lived for a couple years. ⁓ And my progression from just core tech into some human components was project management. So I started looking into how do I get project management certifications? How do I build team communication, motivation, all that stuff? And then I worked at a company in London for a couple of years, where I was essentially a digital project manager. ⁓
That was a fun ride. They were acquired. My boss, was like a boots on the ground kind of guy, super salt of the earth kind of guy. One day I went to work and he was gone and it was sort of a hostile takeover. He was just ousted. And ⁓ he said, let's meet for lunch. And he said, I want to start a business one day. I'll call you. And he called me a year later.
And I had, by this time I had moved back to New York and I was working at a tech startup called ⁓ WebCollage, which has now been acquired. was acquired by Answers.com. It was acquired by Sindigo. Went through a few iterations and that was e-commerce optimization technology. So we were doing building dashboards and software to improve e-commerce. So that's where I started getting this e-commerce thread in my career, where I started thinking like transactions, how do I get people to buy? How do you smooth that experience? What makes them do it? And all of that.
So I did that for a couple years while I was waiting for this phone call for my old boss to say, hey, I want to start a company with you because you were doing something that I didn't encounter much in my career and I want to do something with you. And then we did and we started a company called Icebox, ⁓ which was fun. ⁓ That was running. I think it's still running. ⁓ And I was a co-founder of that. We did big projects.
⁓ for Procter & Gamble, Nike, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ⁓ But ultimately, ⁓ the direction he wanted to take that went somewhere different than where my life needed to go.
Justin McCord (10:16)
You've used the word calling a couple of times. So let's get to the calling that took you ⁓ from Icebox through a couple of other tech-oriented and then nonprofit-oriented things. And so let's fast forward to 2019. the calling that took you to fundraise up first in a consulting format, then ⁓ longer term in that relationship route.
Just unpack that version of a calling and that's part of your journey.
Salvatore Salpietro (10:54)
So I can't talk about fundraise up without talking about what's just prior to fundraise up, which was my role as director of digital at the Child Mind Institute, which was my first full on nonprofit exposure. ⁓ I at that time had a daughter on the way and just prior to Child Mind Institute, I said, I want to do something that gives back, that makes a difference. And Icebox was cool.
But we were selling shampoo and sneakers and I wasn't getting fulfillment from that. And I wanted to do something that would be more meaningful. I think we're all dads here. when you become a father, some of your perspective of life and your objectives change. And I wanted to do something more meaningful. So I got a phone call from Dwayne Flintcham and he said, hey, I started a CMO here at Child Mind Institute. I'd like you to come run digital. I said,
Well, I don't know nothing about nonprofit. He said, figure it out. He goes, that's kind of why I want you here, because you don't know nonprofit and I want you to take a different perspective. So I jumped in, had a great time. ⁓ I ⁓ did have a very stark, I'm gonna say it guys, holy shit moment. ⁓ When I got there and saw the tech and what they were working with and I was kind of like, wait a second, this can't be right. Like, where's the actual one?
because I just came from a company that is in the business of helping other companies take money more easily. What's happening here? And there wasn't something better. Not remarkably. That website was fantastic. We optimized, we're getting a million unique visitors a month, 1.3, 1.5.
Justin McCord (12:29)
Right.
Salvatore Salpietro (12:50)
strong content destination for parents that have children with mental health issues and challenges. ⁓ And that was very fulfilling.
around that time, I get an email from fundraise hyphen up hyphen mail dot net. And it's the ⁓ co founders ⁓ basically spamming every nonprofit in the New York area saying, Please, can we talk to you? And can you try this?
The gist of the email was something like, have an idea that we think will work and we just need someone to try it. We're a couple of guys in Brooklyn. We don't know anything about the nonprofit space, but we know a lot about being donors and it's really hard to be a donor.
And for me, it was a sliding doors moment. It's like, you delete the the spam? Or do you hit reply and say, throw me a login? And I hit reply. I said, throw me a login. And literally, guys, I get goosebumps literally as I just said that, like it's a life changing moment. Right. It may be even not just my life, many lives, or if it didn't
You know, if it wasn't the impetus for many things, it was certainly an accelerant for ⁓ what happened after that. So I got the login. I. Again, remember, I'm from the. profit space at this point, right? And I'm not asking for permission. I'm not going to the board. I'm not running ⁓ a show of hands. Should we change this? My job was improve digital, get donation revenue up. And I said, I'm just deleting this.
other thing we have and putting this in. And we five X star donation revenue. One day to the next. Like literally one day, like because we had a lot of visitors, remember? A of clicks, a lot of articles, know, selective mutism, anxiety in children, how to handle divorce. People are coming there to read and I'm like, this donate button, I can...
click it while I'm reading the article and give while I'm reading the article without going somewhere else. That's huge. It's not disruptive of the donor experience. And that just led to an explosion of revenue for the organization. And that's kind of ⁓ where things kind of took off from there. I just was rapid firing product feedback every day to the guys like you need to do this. Designations are a thing. You don't know about XYZ. And they were
literally just making changes as I was asking for them, which was nice. And it's not that way anymore, but it was nice while it lasted.
Ronnie Richard (15:45)
So then how does that translate to you're at Child Mind Institute, you're working with them. How did the conversation go? Did they ask, why don't you come join us? Or did you think, why don't I jump over there and help even more? How did it go from there?
Salvatore Salpietro (16:00)
Yeah, so I googled fundraise up and the first thing that popped up was a WeFunder campaign. If you're familiar with WeFunder, you go up there to raise a few bucks for a startup from family and friends. And it was at some ridiculous valuation and it was super tiny and they were raising like, you know, 50 grand or something from friends. And I threw a couple pennies in there. I didn't have much. had a new kid and a nonprofit job, but I was like, I think this is going to change the game. ⁓ And
⁓ When they saw that go through, were like, ⁓ crap, a customer and a nonprofit have invested in us. Like, that's weird. Maybe we should talk to this guy a little more. ⁓ And then as the story will have it, like, you know, they invited me to dinner. I rolled up on a Vespa and they were like, that's the guy. ⁓
Justin McCord (16:53)
Such a Roman thing to do.
Ronnie Richard (16:54)
Bring in that Italian side with the vest.
Salvatore Salpietro (16:56)
Bringing it, keeping it with me, man, keeping it with me the whole time. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ But it was was it was actually about a year from that point because they said. One day we'd love to start a company and we'd love to have you join us, kind of what I already had done about seven years prior with my other boss, right? ⁓ And. They said, we'll give you a call one day.
And it didn't happen right away. And then I remember my cousin who lived in London. He wanted me to be a CTO for his company that he had there. And I went over to London. I had a wife and a two, three year old daughter. And I went over to London and we talked and I came back ⁓ from that trip and I said, I'll do it. I'll be the CTO in London for your company. Got on the plane, sent an email to Peter and Yuri over at Fundraise Up, the co-founders. And I said, love you guys.
You're going to do great. I'm here if you needed me as a sounding board, but I took a job offer and I'll be going to London. And the response came back within minutes. And while again, I'm at 30,000 feet and they say, can you meet for dinner when you land?
So I literally land, guys, get my wife and daughter home, check on my Vespa, the tire's flat, because I was gone for a week or two, stop and get the flat fixed, and then I get to the dinner spot, and they basically said, what do we have to do to make you not do, to have you not take that and start this with us? ⁓
And that's it. And then, and that was it. And like, I think it was like a couple months later where they said, well, we have an employee. I think we need an office and we got a third floor walk up in Brooklyn on top of an old firehouse, you know, working next to a kitchen sink and a toilet. And it was just, it was like the classic startup kind of, kind of story that you hear, you know, it's pretty crazy. That gets us to there. That gets us to there.
Justin McCord (19:03)
Yeah, right. ⁓ So we've known each other for a couple of years and ⁓ your zeal, your passion, just it just it's so natural. You know, and that's what that's one of the reasons why, you know, when I refer to thinking about Sal as the IT guy, it doesn't immediately click, but like.
in your role and not just in your role, just the person that you are. ⁓ Your passion ⁓ is feels very central to how you lead and how you champion. And I'm curious if you can kind of like just unpack that for us a little bit like what role
Salvatore Salpietro (19:54)
Warhole!
Justin McCord (19:57)
What role do you think, not compassion, but what role do you think passion plays for today's modern nonprofit leader in this very complex ecosystem of technology and humanity and with all the things that are coming at folks, like where does that fit into the mix?
Salvatore Salpietro (20:24)
The first thing I thought about when you said that about passion, ⁓ I realized that I always think and have present, not even in the background, almost in the foreground.
the mission behind the metrics and the numbers. And when, and if you're able to keep that foremost and at center, the passion is inevitable, right? When I look at stats, like 25 % of nonprofits offer Apple pay for giving and 85 % of e-commerce do. the passion comes, look, the passion is masked frustration and anger sometimes, right? Because I know
that it's way easier to buy pizza or sneakers than it is to give. And that fills me with some sort of rage, frustration that I have to work to channel into passion and championing and trying to build confidence in the space to meet and close that gap. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Ronnie Richard (21:39)
for change.
Salvatore Salpietro (21:41)
Yeah, and I, you know, I was on a call this morning with an environmental organization ⁓ and I'm telling them like, you guys are planting trees and protecting nature like.
I got a kid, we got kids, many of us, like I want her to see the polar bears, the forest, the coral reef, like get it together. Let's get that, let's close that, let's get Apple pay at 85 % and meet the rest of the world. Why are we so, why is it different? Why is there this carved out niche? So that's where the passion comes from, where I think it's important is always to keep that in the front, right? If we increase the metric.
I never see on dashboards when nonprofits are working a column that says,
impact? You know, how many trees, how many kids are we getting mental health treatment for? How many polar bears are we going to say? What? Look, where's that column? And I think if that were there, we'd have a lot easier of a time building passion.
Ronnie Richard (22:52)
Speaking of passion and looking at your career path a little bit, there's, there's a certain almost restlessness. I want to say like your, your, your passion is driving you to the next thing it seems like. So what right now, what's the next thing? What are you working on? What are you thinking about?
Salvatore Salpietro (23:14)
Look, I think right before we started the call, I told you guys I'm taking a bit of a five week break. Yeah. It's been a sprint and a marathon that's hard to maintain. ⁓ I feel like the last six and a half years, ⁓ fundraise up has instigated a lot of change and advancement. ⁓ That's satisfying. It doesn't have to be you're using fundraise up me at a broader scale. I'm like,
the space needs to be aware and let's all step up. ⁓ So that five week break really, Ronnie, is for me to figure out where to take it from here and see where that goes. So I don't know, I don't know, but I do know when I see it, it'll be very evident and kind of just like, you know, that decision to move to Rome.
or that decision to start a company or move into the nonprofit space. Those were very clearly the steps that I wanted to take. ⁓ And I don't have that clarity at the moment, but I know that what I'm doing, I still enjoy it.
Justin McCord (24:28)
reading a book last night and books about resiliency and some of the psychology behind resiliency. And one of the things that it noted was that one of the perils of anxieties is that the realization that you're anxious can be a fuel for being anxious. So like, think about it almost in a meta sense, like the, the idea
recognizing that you're anxious can sometimes be an accelerant to being anxious, right? And I think the same thing is probably true around restlessness. Like the recognition that you're sensing restlessness can sometimes be an accelerant. so ⁓ I love that you're taking this time and that you have this.
chance to exhale. Yeah. And, and I know that the sector is going to be better on the other side of this five weeks ⁓ with whatever
Salvatore Salpietro (25:39)
I hope so. and to reference a book that you gave me, the soundtracks book by John Acuff. You know, I think that one of the key takeaways is the antidote to anxiety is action. So you got to do something, right? And for me, that is this break. That is this like the action. The action is almost inaction, right? So the action is like, I'm going to Italy, I'm going to sit in Sicily and a little
low-key villa in the mountains ⁓ and and chill and just taking the greenery and the beaches. ⁓ So that's gonna help me to pull back a little bit and look at it from a different lens. Awesome man.
Justin McCord (26:21)
⁓
The place that we like to land a lot of times is talking about some of the people that have made an impact on you. And so I'm going to eliminate Peter and Yuri. can't talk about them. ⁓ But like just who are the people that have ⁓
Salvatore Salpietro (26:42)
Hehe.
Justin McCord (26:50)
that have left an indelible impact on how you show up and that have just helped put a dent in ⁓ Sal's journey so far.
Salvatore Salpietro (27:10)
One of the biggest influences in my journey was that guy named Mark DeLue that started Icebox with me. ⁓ And it was really his leadership style. And his approach was always, I'm here alongside you. I'm not here above you. And I'm here to support you and help you be successful.
not tell you what I need for me to be successful. And that has become a core for how I work with others, how I approach anything that I'm talking about or researching or learning, my teams that I have had the privilege of working with over the years here at FundraiseUp or other places. It's what do need from me? Not here's the metric I need you to hit.
And I learned that from him. And I've had a few other folks over the years that have embraced the Adam Johnson, who was our president for a key period in the company ⁓ and some others. ⁓
So that's who I'll reference for that because I feel like it was the biggest ⁓ influence in how I approach a lot of things.
Justin McCord (28:34)
It's awesome. ⁓ Okay, last, very last thing. We were gonna get to the left hand eventually.
Ronnie Richard (28:40)
was going to ask about that. was going to hold you accountable. I want to know what was in the left hand.
Justin McCord (28:44)
about the right hand. So in the left hand is a yellow mandolin. And I need you to explain the heck out of, and I know the story, but I don't understand it. And so first of all, you're going to have to like set up what the heck that means. But then tell the, tell the yellow mandolin story, please.
Salvatore Salpietro (29:06)
It's so wild. Guys, every conference I go to, people ask me if I'm going to play the mandolin, the ukulele, if I'm going to play something. ⁓ I don't play that instrument. I play this guitar. I have about four of them up here that I've collected over my life. ⁓ That was an off the cuff photo at HubSpot Inbound Conference, where they set up a LinkedIn booth. And they had a bunch of props.
I picked up a couple things, took a photo, uploaded it from my phone. And that's like three years ago. And I'm like so afraid to change the photo. like, because I'm like, nobody will know who I am if I change that photo. So it's still there. I mean, you know, if you guys give me permission one day, maybe maybe post sabbatical, it'll be that might be a trigger to change it to reflect fingers in me. Yeah.
Ronnie Richard (30:03)
the news.
Justin McCord (30:05)
It could be. also might be, you know, Jamie and other team members that might be listening to this and thinking about, you know, DXS and other events. Maybe there's a need for a photo booth with props that are, you know, that can help send other people on their own self-branded journey of tiny instruments that are green.
Salvatore Salpietro (30:23)
Sure
it forward. I get funny, ⁓ people grab that photo now and they'll use AI to put me in different costumes. So have like me with that. I have me with that as Indiana Jones. I've got me as like a rebel pilot in Star Wars. It's ridiculous. But people are just like taking it now and they put it through AI. I put this in a costume. Yeah.
Ronnie Richard (30:47)
That's awesome.
Justin McCord (30:50)
So keep doing your thing, man. Keep, you know, we're excited for you to get to have this break in this moment with your fam to recharge. just know that there's a lot of us that are expecting that battery to be full in two months. so no pressure. OK, but you know, but we appreciate it. Thanks for hanging out with us today.
Salvatore Salpietro (31:15)
Thank you for inviting me. This is awesome. appreciate it.
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Group Thinkers is a production of RKD Group. For more information, including how you can partner with RKD to accelerate growth for your fundraising and nonprofit marketing needs, visit RKDgroup.com.