Sterrin Bird is the Senior Director, Nonprofit Industry Advisor at Salesforce. She is an influential voice in the nonprofit sector and uses her personal and professional experiences to drive change and promote inclusion in everything she does.
In this episode of the RKD Group: Thinkers podcast, Sterrin sits down to discuss how her early experiences with philanthropy shaped her career and her current role at Salesforce. Sterrin details:
- How she shows up authentically every day
- Her journey into nonprofit fundraising
- The importance of purpose and wellness in our industry
- How she advocates for nonprofits in her role at Salesforce
Show chapters
- 3:15 How she lives authentically and is a force for disruption
- 10:04 Early experiences with philanthropy
- 22:50 The importance of purpose and wellness in the nonprofit space
- 30:47 Her role at Salesforce and how she advocates for nonprofits
- 40:22 How she’s galvanizing purpose and innovation
Meet our guest
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Transcript
Justin McCord
Welcome to the RKD Group: Thinkers podcast. This is the podcast for nonprofit marketers to show about the people who influence nonprofit marketing and fundraising. And unlike shows that talk about the craft of fundraising, we focus on the people, the pioneers, the thinkers, the voices in the space, diving into the inspirations and motivations and moments behind some of the brightest minds in and around the sector. And on this episode, we do that with someone who is, I think, an exceptional voice in the sector. And Ronnie, I don't expect for you to disagree with me, by the way. But Sterrin Bird, Senior Director, Nonprofit Industry Advisor at Salesforce, joined us on this episode. Ronnie, we just finished recording. Tell me what you ... what are some of your takeaways from the chat?
Ronnie Richard
I thought it was just an unbelievable chat. And I pointed this out in the discussion that I was so impressed by the clarity of her memory in recalling such specific details of events in her life. I mean, we go back into how she got her name, Sterrin, which is something you don't hear every day; a moment in kindergarten; informative moments in her life. And ... all of it just so well thought out and such incredible self-reflection on who she is and how she got to be where she is.
Justin McCord
Yeah, if you wanna talk about influence and understanding the source of someone's influence, this is the episode for you. And I could not be more excited to have Sterrin as a part of the podcast. So without any further ado, here's Sterrin Bird on RKD Group: Thinkers.
Okay, so Sterrin, we were just talking before we hit record about, like, the kind of natural free flow―and I gotta tell you, Ronnie's always really scared about how I'm gonna open because he has no idea if I'm gonna throw him under the bus or, like, but yeah, I'm not, I'm not. Actually, I want to start with Sterrin, your name. Where did the name Sterrin come from? It's such a unique name. I've never met another Sterrin.
Sterrin Bird
So, I will tell you. So my mom, my late mother, was a voracious reader. And when she and my father were first married, they went on a trip to Ireland. And my mom bought a novel called “The Big Wind” that was written by Beatrice Coogan, which is a historical fiction novel that basically talks about the big wind or a giant hurricane that hit Ireland in the late 1800s, and this woman is pregnant during the hurricane. She goes into labor, delivers the baby and dies during childbirth, and the soldiers that deliver the baby name the baby Blana Shterim, and that is BLAWNA SBTERRIM, and Blawna Sbterrim means flower of the storm
Shterem, S -B -T -E -R -R -I -M, is the Gaelic word for storm. And the Western pronunciation of Shterem is sterin. And that is my middle name. So my name means sterin. My name means storm. Excuse me. So, I am actually Nora Sterin Bird. I am the ninth generation of Nora. So my mother, my grandmother and all of the women up that’s my mom’s side of the family, first born women are Nora. And my mom named me Nora Sterrin, but I’ve only ever been called Sterrin. My mom only called me Sterrin. And I only, the people that know me, love me―that’s how, you know, I know it’s a telemarketer, somebody I don’t want to talk to or bad mail, if they ask for Nora or they address it to Nora―but Sterrin means Storm.
Justin McCord
Yeah, yeah. Holy crap. What are, like, first of all, I, that's a … so my dad is a big proponent of the idea that your name, that there is a connection from your name to parts of you. Is that a layup?
Ronnie Richard
That's a great story.
Sterrin Bird
It's true. No question in my case. Oh yeah, that's a, that's a way, I mean, that's been true probably since I arrived on planet earth.
Justin McCord
How does that play out for you? How does that play out?
Sterrin Bird
Um, I guess I would … how would I answer? How does that play out for me in all sorts of ways? Like, I can remember being in kindergarten, for example, growing up in New Jersey and showing up to my first day of kindergarten, and I was wearing, I know what I was wearing, a blue and white Danskin little pants and polyester top. And I had short hair. I had the Dorothy Hamill vibe. It was 1975, so I'm old. And I remember someone saying, Sterrin, because I had a little name tag on, what kind of name is that? You should be in the boys’ line. Because I had a weird name. And I had short hair.
Justin McCord
Yeah, the haircut, yeah.
Sterrin Bird
And I can remember putting my hands on my hip and saying, I'm a girl. And I can stand in whichever line I want to. And that was 1975. And I would say, the rest is history. But it plays out in my life personally as well as professionally. And I would start with personally. I try every day to show up authentically, warts and all, you know, the good, the bad and the ugly. And I also, I try to create the same kind of space for other people to do the same thing. And I just think because we spend so much time marketing and proselytizing and, like, like, operationalizing imposter syndrome, for lack of a better expression, that like, you know what, forget it. We just need to do the best. We all need to just do the best we can every day, and we have to ask each other for help and all of those things.
But that’s also sometimes not how the world works. So I can be provocative or stormy in that regard, personally, whether it's with my children or with my friends. And then as it has presented for me professionally, I have garnered the nickname in a couple of instances where CEOs and boards have referred to me as “general disruption.” I have often been the chief revenue officer that people hire when they want to change and they also need to raise a lot of money fast. I'm a little bit of a unicorn that way. I worked with an educator once who told me that she really didn't understand my learning profile because my peripheral vision was, like, 360 degrees, which is part of what made me, like, a good fundraiser, but I am adept at stepping into something and disrupting in an, I like to believe in an inclusive way where it's like, everybody has a voice. And even if I'm ultimately the decision maker, I think my, the disruption and the storm in me creates, again, goes back to creating space, and people, knock on wood, will run up a hill behind me and have faith, and because I'm also willing to own the consequences of decisions I make, good or bad, and examine them and learn from them, and I think that makes me sort of stormy.
Justin McCord
God, we're off to a good start! We're - no, we're off to a good start!
Sterrin Bird
It also makes me really hard to date. Yeah, it also makes me, I'll tell you this, it also, as a single mom of two kids, it also makes me really hard to date, but that's not this podcast. So I'll just tell you, it is what it is.
Justin McCord
That's not this podcast. That's not this podcast. Yeah, but you know, it's funny, Ronnie, because like, I think I may have used whatever I was talking about starting to you. I think I may have said, I consider staring to be a force, like a force in the nonprofit space. And so, there are some similarities there between the ideas of a storm and the idea of a force, like, in terms of something that is empowering and something that does create space. And so...
Ronnie Richard
Yeah, yeah. I'm curious, Sterrin, so fast forwarding from kindergarten a little bit, we often talk to people in the nonprofit space, and they kind of, we ask, how did you get started in nonprofits? And it's usually, kind of like, an accident or, yeah, you know, I just kind of ended up here. You've been in the nonprofit space since the start of your career. Is this, as you were going through school ... is this something that you knew you wanted to do? Was there a driving force there to get into the nonprofit work?
Sterrin Bird
So, knowing that retrospection is very generous, I'm going to answer that.
Ronnie Richard
Sure.
Sterrin Bird
Sure, that's partially true. But honestly, my nonprofit origin story is sort of how I would say this: I grew up in a family early in my life that was very privileged at first. Like I had, I wore white gloves to church on Sunday, and patent leather shoes and never wanted for anything. And I also was, I mean, this is really personal, I guess that's okay, right? I mean, I was also raised by a clinical narcissist. So the early part of my, and so for all of that, like, how that looked, I'm gonna fast forward and tell you that when my parents passed away, they were homeless. Okay, so there's a lot that happened between 1975, and my dad has been gone for 16 years, and my mom's been gone for 14. And I've been in the sector for more than 30. So, I'm just framing this for you.
So the bottom line is, I grew up in a family that was fairly philanthropic. There are buildings at universities named for my grandmother's family. There are altars and cathedrals in New York and in Ireland that are named for my family. And there was considerable generosity and wealth. And there was also a lot of time that was given. My mom also was very active. Every time I was at school, my mom was there helping or doing something.
So that's sort of the baseline. And I, you know, now that I'm a mom, I am very aware of how I show up, and what I'm doing and how I give back to my community is really formative for Mary and Tommy. And as I went through that time, I was a captain of a soccer team. I was the president of the student council. I was all those things largely in response to narcissism because I was pleasing people. Okay. So, I also had a very real understanding of people really early on, like my people thing, whatever, like, my people superpower is probably grounded in that authenticity and the stuff I was talking about before, but also I went from having everything to needing a lot.
And, you know, my parents, things would happen to me, like my parents didn't pay my high school tuition. And, you know, in the eighties, nowadays, you would be asked not to come back to school, or the board of trustees would yank your student out, or not give their report card or whatever else. I was allowed to continue, by the grace of the nuns that were educating me, and they gave me my diploma despite the fact that my parents had not paid tuition and actually had the audacity to show up to graduation. And the first gift I make every year is to the financial aid program at my high school. Because if they hadn't let me graduate, what would that have looked like? And by all the outward signs, I was just another one of those privileged girls graduating from a private girls’ Catholic high school. So ...
Justin McCord
Wow, yeah.
Sterrin Bird
That sort of launched me into a space where throughout college then―I was also in student government when I was in college. I was also in a sorority, and I ended up being the person that was organizing the habitat builds or the work with the local museum. Like, it's just sort of in my nature. And I also think it's in my nature because it's a very real way to connect with people. It's why volunteerism matters and why it matters to volunteer with your kids, or with your colleagues or with your friends. It incites conversation. You see things differently. And so, that's how it started. And so, all through college I was doing that. And when I graduated from college, I had $230 in my Wells Fargo checking account. And I had―remember those little square ATM receipts that they would spit out?
Ronnie Richard
Yeah.
Sterrin Bird
I was like, well, now what the hell am I going to do? I've got $200 and a diploma. And I ended up going to work at a university in the Bay Area and, kind of without knowing what I was doing, like, without ever hearing the word “campaign,” without ever hearing the word “development,” I was working in a university, and I intuitively worked with the alumni office, the city and the student government to help them raise $3.5 million to build a low-cost or free childcare center on the campus for the commuting students. And I just, sort of, intuitively knew how to do it, either from watching it or from feeling it. And because I'm a Stormy, I'm not afraid to ask. It's not like I'm asking for me. I had already had to ask for me when I needed to move in with my best friend in high school or when I needed to find a dorm room, and show up in college and figure out how to pay for it all. I mean, those were all really real struggles for me that formed me that way. And so, that's how it started.
And then I started reading “The Chronicle Philanthropy.” I was like, oh, that's a thing. And then I had a family friend who has long since passed away from cancer, sadly, but who was one of the original founding fathers of fundraising consulting. And he said to me, you should be doing this. And I applied to get a master's at the new school in Manhattan. He handed me the then paperback-bound version of the NSFRE consultant manual. NSFRE, that really dates me. And I wrote letters to all the biggest fundraising consulting firms. I was 18, no, 23. And I asked for an internship because I had been accepted to graduate school. And I flew to New York by myself. I checked out the new school. I interviewed at a couple of big firms. And a week later, I was working on a $65 million campaign in Detroit.
And I never went and got my master's. I mean, I've done graduate work since at the Kennedy School and elsewhere. But I based … that's how it started. That's what happened is I, so I went into the business as a fundraiser. And by the time I was, you know, well, by the time I was 50, I had raised about five-and-a-half billion, but by the time I was 30, it was already over two. And it was just because I was given extraordinary opportunities to work with incredible customers and clients. And I learned by doing because I think I also had some of it. I think that I was hardwired for it.
So that's how it happened. And you know, I am surrounded … in Silicon Valley, my best friends were early employees, like employee 17 at Salesforce or 12 at Oracle, or Yahoo or all these places. And I didn't go that route. And there are days I'm really bummed out about that as an alum, but I will never regret, never regret the experiences, the people, the relationships and the privilege I have had to … I was thinking about this this morning, thinking about this conversation and fundraising―when you get to the ask, it's over. If you get to that point where you can actually ask for something, people always say, oh, Sterrin, how could you ask people for things? I was like, that's not what fundraising is, actually. And what it is, is making sure that the donor, prospective donor, or the family, or whatever, whoever you're talking to, the corporation, has enough information about the work that your organization or you are doing in a community and the impact it's having to make the best decision for them. And if you have done that over and over again really well, the money's the easy part.
Justin McCord
Yeah, for sure. It's...
Sterrin Bird
It's really about just creating space for people to learn about what a community needs or what the mission is and how you and your teams are filling it. And I mean, I hate―at the risk of waxing philosophical, the same thing is true about innovation and technology. And now my job is, I've taken all of that 30 years, and I get to help organizations who might not think they can, don't know how, or don't have enough information to innovate, get all the information that they need to make the best decision for their organization. And if I do that well and our teams do that well, an order form is beside the point. Like, that's just paperwork.
Justin McCord
It's totally, like it's, so much of it is just about connecting wires. Like, at the end of the day, like to your point, you're connecting one thought to one thought, one thought to one thought, answering those questions and making sure that they have the information to make the right decision for them. What's so interesting ...
Sterrin Bird
and the access to people to ask questions. You know, like, gosh, the best part about the nonprofit sector is that to survive in this industry, we have to have abundance mindsets. Like, let's face it, we get rejected for a living, we're woefully under-resourced, all the things that everybody talks about on LinkedIn and all, it's all true, right? And we have to keep going. And so, yeah, it's like …
Justin McCord
Yeah, yeah, the fortitude that it takes, right? Yeah.
Sterrin Bird
So, the fact that a C-suite leader at a global NGO is willing to talk to an affiliate leader at an American NGO about how they did it. And if I have the privilege of connecting those two people to have that conversation, boy, am I lucky. And they'll share. I mean, that's the whole thing.
Justin McCord
Yeah, right? Yes. It's one of the reasons why Tim Kirsten, who's been one of my mentors, and Ronnie and I had a chance to work with him for the better part of a decade, whenever he talks about fundraising is, you know, a noble profession, if not the noblest, because of the great privilege that you get in making, fostering those connections for people investing their hard-earned resources into something that they truly believe in. Like, that's incredible. We should ... Yeah.
Sterrin Bird
Yeah, and even if they don't do it, the fact that you've informed them is God's work, for lack of a better expression. Like, you have made the world a better place by virtue of giving someone information that they didn't have before. Full stop. That's what engage, the word “engagement,” is all about. It's like we need humans to be more engaged in the communities they're in and living and working in. And we need animals and mammals to be connected to one another, whether we want to stare at our phones or not. That is, I believe, a biological imperative for us as human beings. And it's the foundation of what it is.
It's funny, I was in Italy, I went to Italy right in, it was in October of 2019, right before COVID. And I was there for three weeks by myself. I just, kind of, needed my … it was sort of my Eat Pray Love vibe. And I found myself in Florence. I ate more. I prayed a lot. No love.
Justin McCord
Okay, all right, all right. Two out of three ain't bad, by the way.
Sterrin Bird
But anyway, I found myself in Florence and the Duomo in Florence. I don't know if you guys have ever been there, but like, my dad, my late father, for all the good and the bad, the ugly, used to tell me, Starrin, Florence is my favorite city in the world. You're going to love it. And when I got there, all I could hear was my dad's voice in my head. And I remember rounding the corner and coming up upon the Duomo in the middle of Florence. And you know, when you read about it, they'll tell you that in medieval times, it was the only thing people could see as far away as Tuscany or as far north as, like, Lucca because it was so big. And it was, like, the thing that would pull people towards the city center. And it took them hundreds of years to build. And do you know, when you walk up to those stairs around that Duomo, every single brick on every stair has a family name on it. And these are the people, like me and you, that spent their time laying bricks and they got to put their names on it. And I remember having a moment with myself. I sat down on the stair, and I started to weep a little bit because that's actually one of the first examples of a naming opportunity. And guess what? You didn't have to give 10 million bucks to do it. You had to give some time.
Justin McCord
Sure, you had to give some time. Yeah, yeah.
Sterrin Bird
And it's still there. And so, I remember, I think about that so often, like, wow, that's actually the foundation of what we all do, is we just create space for people to be able to chip in and to be able to build something that now is a legacy for the whole world forever. And I just think, God, you can do that if you give 15 minutes of your time or if you give 15 million bucks.
Justin McCord
The ... yeah, it is an incredible privilege that we have to often remind ourselves of to be able to work in this sector and, specifically, at this time. You have framed in your hallway your version of the Hippocratic Oath to the philanthropic sector, and much of it centers around wellness and acceptance. Could you expand on that, and tell our listeners a little bit about that piece and what it means?
Sterrin Bird
So, I guess, having said moments ago that I was raised by a narcissist―and there's a book for anybody who's listening that, if you want to read, it's called “The Drama of the Gifted Child.” It's 89 pages, and it changed my life―When you grow up in an environment like that, and you are conditioned to please others and not take care of yourself, it is often the pathology that leads many into lives of service. So whether you're a doctor, a nurse, in the armed forces, there's a lot of things that spur us into action. In my case, a lot of it was about people pleasing and about being a good girl, and having the best grades, and being the president and the captain of all these things. When that happens, you know, again, with the benefit of retrospection, and now at the ripe old age of 54, I can say to you that it takes a lot of work to untangle some of that stuff and actually learn to celebrate my own gifts, and which pieces are mine, and which pieces do I get to take with me that were good and what are the pieces I can leave behind?
And I think that work … so a couple of things about that Harvard experience. First of all, I always had a chip on my shoulder about the fact that I didn't go to an Ivy League school. And the reason I didn't wasn't because I couldn't get in. It was because when I was applying to school―and when all of this was going on was my parents worst of the worst―and so despite the fact that I was recruited to play soccer in a couple of, you know, very swishy big schools back East, there was no way that was going to happen. And I was pissed because I felt like, in addition to all the pleasing then, now that was getting taken away from me without choices of my own. So I, kind of, always had something to prove on the Harvard thing. I'm going to admit that. And I've always considered myself to be really smart, but I've always played it down. And it's all the confusing currency that we all trade in about our egos and about our self-esteem and all that stuff.
And I was sitting here, I remember it was shortly after my divorce was finalized, it was early 2017, and I logged onto the Kennedy School website, and I was like, I could do this. And I applied, and I got in. And I was like, well, look at that. And so … and that was when they were, yeah, that's when they were still doing those classes in person. And so, I frame this all for you because, like, I can remember walking onto the campus when I got there, and I was like, I can't believe I'm here. And I'm actually here on my own team, not playing soccer and because I wrote a paper to get in, and I did all these things and, like, I've been invited to this small group of people to figure this out. And I have to say that the … I was like, well, why am I taking a class in fundraising? Like, I've already raised all this money. It was so not about money and fundraising. It was all about who you are, and what your―my―purpose was and why was I choosing to do this work?
And it was the first time I was actually forced to examine why I wanted to do it, not why I might be doing it. So the fact that that was our last exercise, I had been kind of keeping track of things throughout the course. That course happened to have been a year long. So, we were in Cambridge twice and then remote for the year between. So that was the longest of all the courses I took. And I just think the values piece of it, the self-care, it's recognizing, you know, I don't know … everything. I'll never know everything. And the very work that I do is grounded in community. So, guess what? It's okay to ask for help. And it's okay for me to say, I don't know. And as long as I'm honest and open and authentic about it, I'm letting other people do the same thing. And that's just gonna create waves from the storm, like, to pull through that analogy, right?
So I think for me, I wouldn't … and then I've gone on from the Harvard piece to work with Bill George and Scott Crens through the True North Leadership Program to help people really examine purpose. Because I think, whether or not you're in high tech or in the nonprofit sector, you want to wake up every day and feel like you're super clear about what you're doing and why you're doing it. And even if it's just to make money because you want to support your family, that's OK. But if you're clear about it, your days are cleaner, they're more productive, all the rest of it.
So for me, that's really … that was a … it took me less than five minutes to write that. That's how clear I was after that experience. And I go back to it all the time. And the reason it's framed is because that year, which would have been, I think it was May of 2018. So that means I was turning 48. My friends took it. I sent it to them as I left Harvard. I emailed them and said, you guys, thanks for the support. This has been really amazing. And that's what they gave me for my birthday.
So, my girlfriends framed that for me as a reminder to me that I said it to myself and that they believe in me. And a lot. You know, I posted it to LinkedIn the other day because, you know, we all have bad days, like, whatever. But you know, the people that I tagged in that were the people who inspire me to keep going. And to say, you know what, you can't, it's hard for everybody, but if you take care of yourself, and you stay grounded in your purpose and grounded in your ‘Why,’ even the worst days you can get through.
Justin McCord
And there's something powerful, by the way, about having that purpose and that ‘Why’ on your wall and that you walk past it, like, let's not lose sight of the fact that it is something that it's not just something that you reflect on, it's something that is tangible, that's in front of you, that that way it's right there for you to see.
Sterrin Bird
And it's right there, for every guest I have in my home sees it. And my kids see it every day. And I, you know, I will never be able to live in a 10,000 square foot house and give my kids, you know, unlimited resources and all the rest of it, but I can give them the DNA and the example of self-awareness, generosity and resilience. So that's what that is for me. It's like, I see that, and I'm like, mm-hmm, okay, you wrote that, Bird. Get it together. If you're having a bad day, walk away and then come back to it for a second. So it's kind of like a talisman or like a, since I've told you about the Irish thing, maybe it's not my Blarney Stone, but it's like my thing I touch. You go and you're like, yeah, it's still there. That's mine.
Justin McCord
Yeah, yeah. That's great.
Ronnie Richard
Yeah. Sterrin, I know you and Justin know each other, but this is our first time meeting, and I'm struck by your self-awareness and the clarity of your memory on things. I think back to, like, my parents will reference something from when I was a kid, and I'll be like, yeah, I guess I vaguely remember that. And you have these crystal-clear memories of, like, details and what you were wearing in kindergarten, for example. So, thinking about that, and I don't want to, like, over set up this next question too much, but can you talk, walk us through, you know, we just talked about how long you spent in the nonprofit space, specifically at nonprofit organizations. What, drove the, like, the move to Salesforce―obviously still working with nonprofits, but you know, a little bit one step removed from not being at an organization.
Sterrin Bird
Okay, so this is another, like, super clear thing. So I … in June of 2020, so height of lockdown, I had my 50th birthday. I had a big 50th birthday planned. I had all the things that I was gonna do to, like, celebrate this big milestone. And of course, like all of us, it all went to hell in a handcart.
Ronnie Richard
I had a feeling, but I didn't want to put the pressure on.
Sterrin Bird
I was the chief revenue officer for a really, really amazing organization in Palo Alto called Children's Health Council, which was founded about 70 years ago. And it exists in service, basically, of children and their extended family, children who have learning differences, whether it's processing, ADHD, dyslexia, you name it, and the mental health issues that are usually comorbid with those learning differences, particularly if they go undiagnosed and particularly if you're a child or a family that is under-resourced and cannot access what you need, the scaffolding you need to put around you.
So, I was doing a campaign for that organization with one of my best friends, who was the vice chair of the board and the chair of the campaign. And she had asked me, personally, to do the campaign with her two years prior, and I left another job and came to do it. I was sitting here like everyone, watching food lines and watching, like, all of this stuff going on and knowing that I, personally, had nine data sets in nine different point solutions across this organization and was in the process of doing a hundred-million-dollar campaign for them. And I was like, well, I'm smart enough to figure this out.
But boy, and I started to think about, like, a lot of the people that worked for me as development associates or, you know, vice presidents of development when I was in big federated orgs. And I was like, how are they managing this? Like, I was … and it was, I remember what time it was, it was 5:13 in the morning. I even remember, I can't tell you what sheets were on my bed, but I do remember what time it was ‘cause I was like, what are they going to do?
And I had been really lucky enough to have been a Salesforce customer a couple of times prior and had done some innovation work with them inside organizations I'd worked for―of which CHC was one, by the way―because I had come to Salesforce and said, I need help aggregating this data to run this campaign. And I had done that on the back of a napkin 10 years prior with our dear friend Kelly Hecht. And we figured out how to do that before, like, data cloud was a thing. I mean, this is just true. And I sent a couple of very carefully Jerry Maguire-ish text messages and emails into Salesforce that morning. And I just said, I've been a customer of yours. I admire your corporate values. I am watching the TV and the food lines and knowing that, you know, feeding America is not unlike Nestle, for example. How are you guys talking about this as a business? What are you guys thinking about as it relates? So it was kind of actually, it was kind of me doing the job I have right now without actually having the job. Because what I was asking were the provocative questions of Salesforce on behalf of the nonprofit sector and vice versa, which is what I do now.
So, basically, what happened was I sent a couple of emails, I got a response back. And one of the gentlemen called me, and he said, who are you? And I said, well, who are you? Because remember, I'm not looking for a job. I was just actually sitting around intellectualizing about, like, how the hell am I going to do this? And if I need to do it, so does the rest of the nonprofit sector. And by this time, I'd been through Harvard, and I had been through all these things. So I knew enough to be dangerous about the sector as an industry and had studied it and worked it for 30 years. And I was like, OK, we’ve got to get going, people. And after a series of conversations, I joined Salesforce as their nonprofit industry advisor and expert, particularly as it relates to nonprofit fundraising. And that has sort of the job. Nobody had my job before I had it, and now I have it. And I like to think that I show up well every day, and I'm kind of defining the role as I go. I've been in the chair now four years.
It was not an easy switch because it's … so, it was, and it wasn't. So, like, the culture of Salesforce is awesome. Like, the values align with mine and align with what was already hanging on my wall that we just talked about. Like, all of those things are true. It's also different, right? It's high tech. It's in a monstrous company. I'm used to leading from the front, as a C-suite nonprofit executive, I'm an individual contributor now, and I lead from the back and try to influence from the side but continue to try to use my superpowers of connecting people, whether it's people in the sector to talk about how to do it or people within Salesforce who, because I just, that's my superpower. I can be on the phone with someone I've never met in person, like an account executive or a product person, and I'm like, you should be talking to this person because this is going on here. And it's the same thing. And there that's, that's referenced to my peripheral vision and what made me a good fundraiser. It's like that weird, intuitive way of operating about what the next step is, and knowing what the end game is and how to move all those pieces in a way that … you know, I'm not great on spreadsheets. I'm not awesome. And I'm certainly not awesome with slide decks, all of which Salesforce is brilliant at, but what I am good at is knowing what that technology needs to do to serve a revenue department. And I also know how hard it is to get a revenue team to use it.
Justin McCord
It's, I mean, but come on, let's tie this back to even the context around the origin of your name. You are a voice for the sector in a very large organization who has a massive interest in the sector. So you need to be a bit of a force in order to have that voice resonate, right? You're representing so many different dimensions of the sector as a part of that.
And I, an observation that I have had is that they may have existed, the idea of industry advisors may have existed beforehand. I don't remember. That there was a, specifically in the nonprofit space, that you may have set a mold for other tech companies that have followed in terms of investing in a role like that, which is something to be, that you should take account of.
You have talked about, over the course of this conversation, Sterrin, like, you've shared so many different aspects of your life and your life mission to this space. And I have to say that it does inspire us as we think about the ideas of galvanizing purpose and innovation, like, because our vision is to propel philanthropy forward. And so, you can't do that without galvanizing purpose and innovation. And so just as a ...
Sterrin Bird
Yeah, totally. I always, I say it all the time, I must say this 10 times a day: The technology will do what we need it to do. We have to decide, as an industry or an organization or even a team, that we know we need to work a little bit differently. And then we have to work together with those innovators and those disruptors, those thinkers and those tech experts, to identify what the best path forward is for us in our organizations. And then it is incumbent upon us as leaders to create an inclusive environment where our teams can learn and not be scared to death of this. And because that's when they start holding on to lists, and that's when they start holding on to data. And it's because they're afraid and everybody just wants to do well. So, if we can really come together and create that space where people can just get curious―a roadmap is a roadmap is a roadmap. It's how you roll it out. That's what contributes to utilization, change, business value and success. I mean, the tech will keep changing, and the word I said to somebody the other day, digital transformation, is a misnomer. This is constant evolution and constant innovation.
You're not gonna digitally transform, and then you're done. So we also have to help the people that work in the sector get less into that space and more about what are the things I'm gonna do this year to do better? And that's part of one of the things I love―again, back to values-based alignment―is the V2Mom process at Salesforce. Talk about something that scales.
Like it's pretty remarkable that our entire company of 75,000 people have a personal team operating and company plan that literally rolls up and we can measure. And I just, I just think that it's a, you know, it's we call vision values, you know, method, like, I mean, I, I'm going to screw up the acronym, which hopefully means I'm not in trouble today, but like the bottom line is, it is a process anybody can do. And basically, my V2Mom-for-life is hanging on my wall. And so, that's kind of, to bring that back to that, it's like, if I'm confused on a given day about what the hell I'm doing, or somebody aggravates me or like, I can't log on to something because I'm such a tech loser on certain days, like, hang on, like, why am I actually doing it? I wake up every day to try to help people get curious. ‘Cause if I can do it, anybody can do it. It's really how I feel about it.
Justin McCord
I mean, yeah, I agree. And let me just tell you that, like, because we share values and we share vision, let me just say to you, don't stop being a force. Like, don't stop being a storm because we in the midst of this type of change that we are in, in the sector right now, and yes, we've seen change from the last 25 years. Of course, we need to constantly be evolving and changing. We need forces for that change. And so don't, like, don't you stop doing that. Don't stop looking at that thing on your wall. Okay, good. That gives me some, some hope.
Sterrin Bird
I think I physically can. I mean, unless I hit my head really hard, I'm not really sure that, like, I could―which is a terrible thing to say, but like―I don't know how to turn that off. And I also have to keep it in check. That the, you know, if I'm going to be a mature leader and a mature force, I also have to keep my storm and my force in check. And I need to, I have always wanted to use my powers for good and not for evil.
Like, that's, I can remember, like, cartoon characters that I identified with in that regard, and that's just still true for me. And you know, I'm not for everybody, either. Like, I get it. I'm sure people sometimes see me and they're like, oh God, her again, but whatever, you know, like, that's okay. I'm not for everybody. Everybody's not for me. But the bottom line is, we're better together. And so, you know, if we're really gonna, you know, commit to inclusivity and all the rest of it, we’ve got to listen to all the different voices. And then we've got to make it back to making decisions. It's like, get all the information you need, and then make the best decision for you. And please don't put it in GPT. But I mean, like, I want you, like, write your own thing; like, write your own. Like, dig deep for that stuff because it matters.
Justin McCord
Yeah. Yes, it matters, it totally does. That, it's Sterrin, I wish we could keep going for another hour. Thank you for spending some time with us today and sharing a part of your story and sharing a part of these formative moments. One of the things that we always love is when we get to the end of the conversation, we can look back and think, holy, just how did that happen? Like, in terms of the way that everything flowed together. And so, we love getting to share in your story today and love the work that you're doing. And so, thank you for all of it.
Sterrin Bird
Well, I am deeply flattered that you invited me. I will never say no to someone with a Dead & Company picture behind them. Because, as you know, my dog's name is Jerry Garcia. He is not making a guest appearance today. He's asleep at my feet. But yeah, we all just need to … this is hard stuff. The world is a really scary place right now. And it's a scary place to be a mom. It's a scary place to just, for all the reasons you just flip on the tube, and you know it. But you know, the world, we need each other. And then, by extension, the world needs the nonprofit sector. Because I think sometimes people underestimate how much of the fabric of communities―local, regional and beyond that―this industry is holding up. And we need it. So I will not … so, like, back to my thing, which I think I have committed to memory, I will not give up.
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