The Executive Who Helps Salesforce Stay True to Its Founders’ Philanthropic Pledge

Yet Ms. Beckwith feared she might get fired soon after joining the San Francisco-based company’s information technology department in 2008. Her supervisor, Kirsten Wolberg, criticized her for failing to finish projects and not requesting help.

“I thought I should know better,” the 44-year-old Ms. Beckwith explains. “Sometimes, that led to analysis paralysis.” The reformed perfectionist now knows she can perform better by seeking assistance—especially from mentors like Ms. Wolberg.

The pandemic altered Ms. Beckwith’s approach to assisting the less fortunate by going beyond Salesforce’s focus on education and workforce development.

Her team and a nonprofit group created a pilot program that provided 32,000 low-income families in Oakland, Calif., with nearly 500,000 pounds of produce from local minority-owned farms. She oversaw the distribution of 60 million units of personal-protective equipment to healthcare facilities world-wide.

And when Covid-19 forced most individuals to toil from home, Ms. Beckwith quickly transformed virtual volunteering by some associates into a companywide campaign. Salesforce’s 60,000-plus staffers receive seven paid days a year to volunteer.

The perk commenced in 1999, the year Mr. Benioff and fellow founders launched Salesforce with a pledge to donate 1% of its equity, 1% of its product and 1% of its employees’ time to philanthropic causes. The founders’ decision “to intentionally incorporate giving back into our DNA [means] I have the support I need to take big risks and try new things,” Ms. Beckwith says.

As a child, the San Francisco native wanted to be a boss someday. “Some kids played house. I played boss,” she adds.

A key reason: She loved swiveling around in the top executive’s leather chair during her daily after-school visits to the small accounting firm where her single mother worked.

As an adolescent, Ms. Beckwith considered pursuing criminal-defense law or journalism. Instead, the high-school graduate developed an interest in programming while a quality-assurance manager for Pacific Bell. She joined Providian Financial Corp., a credit-card issuer, as an operations manager in 1997.

“There were a lot of older people at the company,” she recollects. “I just didn’t feel like I fit in.” The 20-something manager occasionally donned fake glasses to look older in meetings.Ms. Beckwith took more than six years to complete college because she attended part-time. Golden Gate University awarded her a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems in 2005.

Salesforce hired Ms. Beckwith three years later to be chief of staff for Ms. Wolberg, its chief information officer. In 2014, she initially resisted Salesforce Foundation’s offer of a vice presidency.

“I am a young Black girl with a computer-science degree. You want me to switch to philanthropy?” the incredulous Ms. Beckwith asked colleagues. “Why would I want to do that?”

She ultimately accepted a one-year tryout. Yet her inaugural Salesforce executive role “ended up being a pivotal moment in my career,” she remembers.

Ms. Beckwith landed larger philanthropic positions before becoming the company’s first chief philanthropy officer in July of 2019. She enjoys helping others climb the corporate ladder—something she did even before attaining her latest position. “My personal board members have encouraged me to pay it forward,” Ms. Beckwith says. “It reflects their belief that I would succeed.”

Her most trusted advisers include:

David Dinslage

A retired supervisor at San Francisco Recreation and Park Department

Ms. Beckwith has known Mr. Dinslage since age 8. That summer, she attended a camp where the San Francisco municipal employee was a counselor.

They grew closer during her subsequent summers as a camper and counselor at a different city-run camp that Mr. Dinslage supervised. At age 16, she worked for him part-time in his recreation-department office.

Mr. Dinslage vividly remembers a piece of advice he gave his protégée. Just before her high school graduation, he praised her for being a bright young adult who could achieve whatever she put her mind to doing.

But “you must believe in yourself,” Mr. Dinslage insisted. “Don’t listen to people who say you can’t do it.”

To this day, Ms. Beckwith makes a point of surrounding herself with supportive people. They “have opened doors to help me get to where I am today,” she remarks. And “I’ve hired people who have my back.”

Kirsten Wolberg

Public and private company board member

Ms. Wolberg suggested that her struggling lieutenant find the courage to seek assistance with her unfinished work because “asking for help shows strength, self-awareness and confidence,” the former Salesforce executive says. “All things that are critical for success.”

Similarly, she stressed the importance of Ms Beckwith building deep ties with what was then a handful of other female executives at their highly collaborative workplace. “I knew Ebony would be well-served to have a broad [Salesforce] network.”

Ms. Beckwith soon met a dozen women at the VP level or higher—and eventually formed strong bonds with roughly eight more. Among them was Suzanne DiBianca, the foundation leader who recruited her there.

“She helped me see an opportunity to apply my skills in technology and operations to philanthropy and run it like a business,” Ms. Beckwith continues.

Robin Washington

Corporate board member and former chief financial officer of Gilead Sciences Inc.

The veteran financial executive met Ms. Beckwith after becoming Salesforce’s first Black director in 2013.

“I try to model the leadership qualities I know she’s capable of and striving to achieve,” Ms. Washington says. “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

She has acted as a valuable sounding board in weighing the merits of a new job inside and outside Salesforce, according to Ms. Beckwith. In addition, Ms. Washington coaches her on skills she might need for future career moves.

Ms. Beckwith currently is exploring the possibility of joining a public company board, for example. Ms. Washington also holds directorships at Alphabet Inc. and Honeywell International Inc.

Amy Weaver

Chief financial officer of Salesfore.com Inc.

Ms. Weaver not only advises her longtime colleague. She sponsors her, too. Shortly after George Floyd’s murder last year, she proposed that Salesforce create a task force on racial equality and justice led by Ms. Beckwith.

The philanthropy chief spoke up when company leaders explored the idea—as Ms. Weaver and Ms. Washington had urged that she do during top management meetings.

“I stepped in to help guide our action,” such as by pointing out that “systemic racism did not start overnight,” Ms. Beckwith recalls. At the same time, she made sure fellow executives tried hard “to listen to the lived experience of our Black employees and the community, myself included.”

She launched the task force in June of 2020. Its ambitious multiyear goals include donating $200 million to organizations around the world that promote racial equality and justice and committing $100 million to purchases from Black-owned businesses. “There is still a lot of work to do,” Ms. Beckwith concludes.

BIO BITS

Age: 44

Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Golden Gate University

Family: Husband Antoine

Management mantra: Connect the dots and get out of the way

Fun fact: Classic car enthusiast

Secret talent: Can carry a tune

New WFH hobby since the pandemic: Learning the drums

Worst advice you ever got: “Don’t be too outspoken.”

Write to Joann S. Lublin at [email protected]

Corrections & Amplifications
Kirsten Wolberg was Ebony Beckwith’s supervisor at Salesforce.com. An earlier version of this article misspelled Ms. Wolberg’s last name in one instance. (Corrected on June 19)