In this month’s Talking Purpose with Carolyn Berkowitz, we are excited to talk with Julie Gehrki, Foundation President at Walmart.
How did you get your start in corporate citizenship?
Honestly, corporate citizenship was never my plan. My background is in nonprofits and some limited philanthropy. As I was finishing graduate school, through a series of unexpected events, I interviewed for a job with Walmart. I was taken by the authenticity of the people I met, the purpose of the company, and the work the company was leading on sustainability.
The potential for impact was beyond what I had seen before. I thought I would join for a few years to learn more about the private sector and move back to the nonprofit sector. Almost seventeen years later, I am still at Walmart because of the company’s strong culture and unparalleled impact.
The field is evolving rapidly. What are the most important skills and knowledge corporate social impact professionals need to stay ahead of the curve and be successful in the future?
We talk about being multilingual on my team – speaking the language of both business and philanthropy. Corporate citizenship professionals must be at home across sectors, which often requires translating across different cultures, vocabularies, and ways of thinking.
To achieve the level of transformational change we want to see; we need to integrate the best of nonprofits, the private sector, and the government. The best corporate social impact professionals can bring cross-sector partners together, build deep trust, and harness each actor’s strengths to drive system-level impact.
What is one specific piece of advice you received that has served you well in your professional journey?
Walmart talks a lot about cultivating curiosity. So much flows from this: insight and continual learning, openness to new ideas, humility about how much you don’t know. One of the biggest gifts of working in a large company is there is never a shortage of interesting things to learn and smart people to learn from.
While I don’t always know how I’ll utilize insight about sourcing coffee or selling seasonal merchandise, it is amazing how often I am able to connect unexpected dots from conversations I’ve had with my colleagues across different parts of the business that make me a more effective social impact leader.
Considering the current landscape corporate social impact professionals are working in, what are the essential things you suggest for them to make a priority?
Understand your company beyond only your role. What are the unique ways you serve your customers? What is the strategic vision for the future? Using philanthropy and corporate citizenship to extend and deepen the social and environmental impact the company can make through its core business keeps your work relevant internally and easy to understand externally.
For Walmart, philanthropy, volunteerism, and customer engagement are all essential tools. These tools are so much more powerful when we lead through the business: using the purchase order to buy more sustainable products while philanthropically investing in more sustainable supply chains, enhancing on-the-job skill building as part of Walmart’s employee value proposition while also investing in tools that increase economic mobility for all, or ensuring our stores and pharmacies are fast to open post-disaster, while also leveraging the supply chain and our local presence to provide disaster relief.
The tools are stronger when used in combination than separately. You can only take this shared approach if you are deeply integrated into your business.
Who’s someone you admire and why?
There are thousands of good answers to this question. I learn from the people around me every day. One recent example: we had the opportunity to work with Dolly Parton on hurricane relief. She was passionate about supporting her home community. It was easy to see what makes her universally popular. She was generous, kind, and unabashedly herself. She brought out those qualities in those around her.
