Impact for Hire #2: Alissa May
Our Impact for Hire series highlights purpose-driven professionals looking either to break into an impact career or looking for their next opportunity after a layoff. This is meant to pay it forward by helping foster a community of support for purpose-driven professionals. If you lost your job or are looking to break into an impact career and would like to be highlighted in a future article, please complete this form.
Alissa May always knew she wanted her career to center around solving the world’s large and intractable problems. While earlier in her career she thought this could be achieved by working for the United Nations, Alissa learned that she could have more impact by working for a bigger company with resources and potential for scale.
This led her to her most recent role as Director of Citizen Philanthropy Global Scale at Salesforce where she worked for more than five years leading a global team of 10 and managed a $25 million budget of matching and operating funds to scale employee giving and volunteering programs internationally with emphasis on technology, customer service, resource development and enablement, governance, and communications.
Alissa says her ability to build programs to scale while committing attention to the highest levels of customer service for employees helped her succeed in this role. “Also, driving groups of cross functional stakeholders to a place of agreement and productivity and developing a trusting, high performing, and collaborative global team,” she adds.
Recently, Alissa lost her job after Salesforce eliminated 8,000 employees as part of an organizational restructuring.
“I'm looking to step into a social impact and ESG leadership role at a company that understands the business value of this work,” Alissa says about her desired next role. She is industry-agnostic, but wants to work at an organization where leadership is committed to impact and not just profit.
When asked about her ‘sustainability super power’, Alissa says: “Building relationships, understanding how to navigate politics and resource constraints to get things done, and weaving business goals and social and environmental impact together using data to inform goals and decisions. Over the course of my career, I’ve developed strong program and project management, and communications skills alongside a strategic outlook which have supported those superpowers immensely.”
During the times Alissa isn’t working to make the world better, she likes to get outside and walk in Golden Gate Park, hike in the beauty that is the Bay Area, ski, eat good food and spend time with her chosen family that she loves.
Alissa is open to opportunities based in or near San Francisco, or remote. To learn more about Alissa, check out her LinkedIn.
