Monica Stefan Empowers Welsh Women’s Aid Through Twilio’s Skills-Based Volunteering Initiative
A Common Impact Spotlight Series
Meet Monica Stefan, a dynamic leader at Twilio who enjoys solving challenges and making a difference. As the Director of Strategic Alliances, Monica is passionate about how technology empowers businesses and transforms lives. But her impact goes beyond her professional achievements—Monica truly embodies Twilio‘s social impact mission: leveraging their technology, people, and capital to help nonprofits expand their reach and scale their missions.
Monica lives this mission through her active participation in Twilio’s volunteering opportunities, such as skills-based volunteering (SBV). Twilio has thoughtfully cultivated a culture of volunteerism and service through strong nonprofit partnerships and collaborations with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
Recently, Monica had the exciting opportunity to lend her expertise to Welsh Women’s Aid, an organization dedicated to supporting survivors of domestic violence. Faced with an outdated Customer relationship management system (CRM) that fell short in user experience and integration capabilities, Welsh Women’s Aid needed a new solution. The current system’s lack of intuitive functionality and integration with tools like Mailchimp was hampering their effectiveness.
Monica and her team stepped in to help. They developed a comprehensive requirements document to guide Welsh Women’s Aid in selecting a new CRM system that would better meet their needs. Monica’s journey through her professional and volunteer experiences showcases the inspiring power of uniting expertise with a deep commitment to social good.
“When we achieve a certain place in our career, we can carve out time to give gratitude and help others. It doesn’t feel like additional work when engaging in a volunteer project aligned with your passion.”
Why is volunteering and giving back important to you?
Volunteering gives me the opportunity to positively impact the lives of others and, in a way, give back the help I have been blessed to receive. Growing up, my parents taught me generosity, from raising church donations and volunteering to helping people in need. After I immigrated from Romania to the U.S., social organizations and kind individuals offered me much-needed support to start a new life. Because of their invaluable mentorship, guidance, and resources, I’m now living the life I could only have dreamed of 15 years ago.
Whenever I have a chance, I look for ways to support others. For example, as a lead coordinator with the Husky Club at the University of Washington Fosters School, I identified top-tier companies with open positions for graduates (such as Microsoft or Amazon), organized networking events, provided interview coaching to prepare students for employment, and connect them with potential employers before they graduated. This experience filled me with joy, knowing that my efforts led students to enter a great career and pursue their passion.
At Twilio, I have enjoyed collaborating with my peers, being involved in the Women @ Twilio ERG, volunteering as a mentor to fellow women around the world, as well as volunteering externally with organizations such as Generation Success, which focuses on helping students from less fortunate backgrounds prepare for their next career.
Your volunteer team developed a vendor selection framework for Welsh Women’s Aid. What was the project challenge, and can you walk us through the solutions your team provided?
Welsh Women’s Aid is initiating a project to select a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that better suits their evolving organizational needs. The CRM they were using fell short in several critical areas, including user support and responsiveness. Team members frequently faced challenges with resolving issues crucial to their data management practices, impeding operational efficiency.
My volunteer team created a comprehensive guide outlining requirements for selecting a CRM that would help address the needs of the fundraising team and potentially other departments. Our vendor selection framework focuses on robust data management, user-friendly interfaces, and reliable vendor support.
What inspired you to engage in skills-based volunteering?
I didn’t know what skills-based volunteering was initially. I decided to step outside my comfort zone and try it. Upon reading the Welsh Women’s Aid project description, it became apparent that my team and I could use our work skills to help the nonprofit. I was pleasantly surprised at how positively the nonprofit received our ideas, advice, and deliverables. We often take for granted the work we do every day and don’t realize how valuable it is to nonprofits that don’t have these resources or skills readily available.
What was your favorite part of collaborating with your Twilio colleagues?
The best part was connecting with my Twilio peers. Their complementary skills and unique perspectives were truly inspiring, giving me the chance to learn and push beyond my comfort zone. Our diverse roles and backgrounds came together wonderfully, enabling us to deliver a comprehensive and impactful solution for Welsh Women’s Aid.
How did this experience broaden your awareness or perspective about nonprofits that support and empower women?
Empowering women and uplifting their voices is a personal passion, especially growing up in a culture where domestic violence is common. This volunteering experience broadened my awareness of nonprofits supporting women and their critical role in offering safety, resources, and hope. I specifically chose to work with Welsh Women’s Aid because I’m passionate about helping women feel empowered in many areas of their lives, whether physical, health, or career. I realized how essential these organizations are in breaking the cycle of abuse, providing legal and emotional support, and advocating for systemic change. It opened my eyes to the power of community and the importance of accessible support networks for those in need. It was impressive to learn about the activities they do with the members they support, and I am excited to see the project come to fruition, as it will help accelerate their already fantastic work.
Why is volunteerism important for cultivating a positive workplace culture?
I admire companies that encourage their teams to give back and include elements outside of the employees’ work-related activities in their performance review process. Volunteering fuels people’s personal growth, sharpens skills, and provides new learning opportunities.
A quote that comes to mind is “the value of knowledge multiplies when shared with others” by Simon Sinek. In my teams, I seek to foster a culture of proactive sharing and helping each other, getting involved in mentorships and volunteer projects individually or as a team, as this fosters teamwork.
My guiding principle for success is to strike a work-life and a take-give balance. In other words, when we achieve a certain place in our career, we can carve out time to give gratitude and help others. It doesn’t feel like additional work when engaging in a volunteer project aligned with your passion. Personally, it fills me with energy because my support touches an entire ecosystem of stakeholders: the organization itself, the members it supports, their donors, etc.
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