Manager of Client Success at Benevity shares his story towards supporting purpose-driven brands

Entrepreneurial spirited, mixed with innate business acumen and talent for forging enduring relationships is the best way to describe Matt Woodward, the Manager of Client Success at Benevity. These qualities have contributed to the B Corp organization in leading online workplace giving, matching, volunteering, and integrated grant management solutions in order to help purpose-driven brands bring their social mission to life and to better support charitable organizations. Matt Woodward takes the time to dive deeper into his role at Benevity and what brought him to where he is today.

How did your previous experiences help get you to where you are today?

While I lived in London (UK) I had the good fortune of working with a museum and attraction technology company called Antenna, which gave me the opportunity to work directly with clients (both Commercial and Not for Profit) in supporting greater visitor engagement through online applications and associated content. It seems like a very different ballgame, but at Benevity we help our clients tell stories to their people too, and if you get the content and functionality right, it can help employees connect to the social mission of their employer, in a way that makes each person’s good deeds more impactful in their communities.

Also, I do credit a long tenure in fine dining for helping me develop both the client centric focus and ethic at the heart of what we do at Benevity.

What does your current role entail?

I have the pleasure of supporting some of our client facing teams, and doing everything I can to ensure they have the tools, the skills and the knowledge to help Benevity rise above ‘vendorship’ and achieve true ‘partnership’ with our clients. My team of Relationship Managers coordinate all the little things that keep our client programs health day-to-day, as well as guide and strategize with clients to make sure we’re growing and moving toward a mutual definition of success. It’s all about impact. No matter what you do in a day at Benevity, you can be sure you are growing the impact that our client Goodness Programs make in their communities.

What other roles have you held at Benevity and how easy was it to move up within the company?

Benevity is a high-growth environment, and that means people that excel will have opportunities for career growth too. I hesitate to use the word ‘easy’ though, as the people who earn growth opportunities are helping Benevity cut a path through the jungle, so to speak; no other company is doing what we are doing in quite the same way, and so we experiment and co-create our future together. That said, for the hungry and dedicated, potential is everywhere. I began as a Relationship Manager 3 years ago before taking my first chance to move into a leadership role. From there I am proud to have been given the chance to move to Toronto and take on the role I am in now.

Most people don’t know that I…

had an early career as a stilt-walking puppeteer.

The best piece of advice I ever received is…

‘Stop interrupting people’. I received this valuable feedback from a leader of mine in another company. Once I realized this and made a conscious effort to listen more, I learned so many valuable things from the people who were trying to tell me and teach me, I became a better collaborator, and my understanding of every issue became fuller and more nuanced. Let people speak!!

My greatest productivity tip is…

someone once told me that at work we all carry around metaphorical back-packs, and that these back-packs are full of big heavy metaphorical rocks. These rocks are the things we don’t do or avoid doing, and stress us out and weigh us down; they make it more difficult to do everything else yet we avoid taking them out and addressing them. My advice is to always start with the biggest and heaviest rocks in your back-pack, whatever they are. That way you are lighter, faster, and less encumbered, which of course are critical elements of high productivity!

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