Our Mission

ImpactPass is on a mission to create millions of everyday heroes all around the world, and to engage with people that are already local heroes in their communities. We aim to unlock a new future of social impact where it is easy for people to do good in their city or anywhere they go. Ultimately, our heroes will be able to donate their time, money, items, skills, voice, and take part in bite-size acts of kindness that make a real difference.

There is a growing population interested in integrating impact into their everyday lifestyle, and we aim to activate these people by providing a platform where it is easy to take part in social impact activities, book cultural experiences that benefit nonprofits, donate impact products that improve lives, discover on-demand volunteering opportunities, and participate in social action campaigns – all while being rewarded for doing good.

Our team is passionate about combining technology, social impact, community engagement, and mobility to create a more rewarding life experience and more sustainable, regenerative, and supportive local communities. We would love you to be a part of our growing impact family.

Join our mission to create more everyday heroes – every day!

Team

Our team is a tenacious group of talented professionals that combine solid industry experience in software, sales, management, operations, design, and mobile development with a passion for improving people’s lives through technology. We are ready to scale a platform that can make a real impact worldwide!

Matt Baer

Founder & Executive Director

Matt has more than 15 years of experience working with technology startups, honing his skills in business, sales, marketing, mobile, and web in an array of fields covering software, mobile apps, and consumer products. Matt was a business mentor for the Female Founder focused start-up incubator program, The S-Factory, and developed an international accelerator program for CORFO, the economic development arm of the Chilean Government. Matt has also won multiple awards and grants at one of the top international accelerator programs in the world - Start-Up Chile. Matt is a graduate of the University of Southern California (USC ‘05) and an alumnus of South America’s prestigious Start-Up Chile SCALE Program (’16). Before becoming an entrepreneur, Matt was an internationally ranked tennis player.

Matías Menafra

Co-Founder & CTO

Matías is a four-time CTO, with more than 15 years experience as a software engineer, project manager, and entrepreneur. As CTO of ImpactPass, Matías is responsible for all aspects of product management, engineering, and R&D. Prior to ImpactPass, Matías was lead engineer in several other startups and co-founded two of his own. Before joining the startup world he was the Development and QA Manager for TimbaSoftware, which was acquired by Altimetrick in 2012, where he worked for several Fortune 500 companies.

Adelle Demko

Head of Strategy
Founding Team Member

Adelle was a Managing Director at investment banking firm DelMorgan & Co., was COO of a software company and facilitated multiple transactions as a consultant. Previously she was a former partner of Wedbush Capital Partners, a finance and strategy executive at Xerox, and a corporate attorney in New York City. Adelle served on the Board of Directors of the Balance Bar Company (NASDAQ) where she facilitated the public offering, was Chairperson of the Audit Committee, and a member of the Corporate Development Committee leading to the company’s sale to Kraft. She also sat on the Board of Directors of Maps.com, and a number of other Boards of Advisors including UC Wireless. As an investment banker she played a major role in the initial public offering of Quiksilver, headed valuations and handled mergers and acquisitions. Adelle attended Directors’ College, Stanford Law School and has moderated panels and conferences on a variety of topics including Corporate Governance, Road Infrastructure, and Early-Stage Companies. Adelle received an M.B.A. degree from Yale University School of Management, a J.D. degree from Duke Law School and a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Jody Giles

Director of Philanthropic Partnerships

Jody has over twenty years of experience working with families helping to design their philanthropic legacy. She has a passion for connecting leaders and is a strong believer in collaboration to affect change. During her career, Jody has been the Director of Legacy Planning at Integrity Financial Corporation in Los Angeles, the Manager of Philanthropy Services at Harris myCFO, and is a Sr. Philanthropic Director within family offices. Jody graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a masters in tax, and is also a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, and Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy. Following her desire to help others, Jody authored a book designed to help readers plan for end of life and speaks frequently on the topic. When not working, Jody enjoys spending time with her twin daughters, 3 foster children and rescue dog, Sugar.

Svetlana Kabanova

COO

Svetlana managed operations, projects and teams in the global technology division at leading investment bank, Goldman Sachs, where she doubled the productivity of her team, coordinated the onboarding of thousands of people, and helped achieve $400K annual savings for a key tech migration project. Svetlana brings to the ImpactPass team her extensive experience managing teams and large scale projects which have been marked by a track record of introducing efficiencies and best practices. Svetlana has been instrumental in building out a solid team at ImpactPass, and implementing the processes behind the ImpactPass social impact app local experience marketplace.

Asbel Parra

Lead iOS Engineer

Asbel has been developing software and iOS applications for over seven years, and is a true master at engineering cutting-edge user experiences for consumer facing brands. Agile, curious and creative, she wields an exhaustive programming vocabulary, and is just as comfortable at planning and design as she is at coding mobile and software products. Asbel’s first priority is to create memorable mobile experiences full of surprise and delight, but she also embraces the more technical challenges of harnessing new technologies for a consumer audience; building that all important bridge between the technology’s capabilities and the user’s experience. Asbel graduated with a degree as an Informatic Engineer from the Universidad Nacional Experimental del Tachira in Venezuela (2012). Asbel graduated with a second degree in Management Innovation, Technological Development, and Applied Research from the Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas (2016).

Moisés Portillo

Lead Android Engineer

Moisés has over seven years of experience developing software and Android apps. Moises has built his career on developing Android apps in the multi-media and streaming space, becoming an expert in handling wallets, on-demand content, device compatibility, and video player architecture. Having previously worked on mainstream mobile apps, with a keen focus on future growth scalability, Moisés is well poised to lead our Android team. Moisés graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Don Bosco University in El Salvador (2014).

Ignacio Sans

Head of Design & UX

Ignacio has been designing brand experiences for over a decade. With a keen eye for both graphic and product design, Ignacio is the unique combination of designer and developer, perfectly positioning him to lead the design of the ImpactPass platform. Focusing on product development, UI design, and mobile apps, Ignacio has worked with leading agencies and start-up companies to define both product and brand. Ignacio holds a bachelor of graphic design from the University of Buenos Aires, one of the most distinguished universities within all of Latin America.

Advisors

Philanthropy Advisors

Melissa Stevens

Executive Director & Co-Founder of the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy

Melissa Stevens is the executive director of the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy, leading its work with individual and family philanthropists and foundations seeking to deploy their capital to make a transformative, sustainable impact. Since co-founding the Center in 2015, she has overseen the creation and execution of strategies which have influenced $1 billion in philanthropic capital, and managed the development of programs and organizations including the Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest private funder of melanoma research. Under her leadership, the Center for Strategic Philanthropy has more than tripled in size, expanding its areas of expertise to include education and environmental conservation philanthropy, as well as health and medical research. Previously, Melissa was the deputy executive director of the Milken Institute’s FasterCures center, leading its growth and expanding its programmatic scope to include the development of a novel financing mechanism for early-stage drug development and building a global resource for large-scale, cross-sector collaboration. She also directed FasterCures’ Philanthropic Advisory Service, which aimed to deploy philanthropic capital effectively to advance medical solutions. This ultimately led to the creation of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy. Prior to joining the Institute, Melissa worked in the health sciences practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, advising commercial and federal clients such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.

Leigh Morgan

Former COO at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Current Chief Strategy & COO at Nia Tero

Leigh Morgan is the lead architect of Nia Tero’s growth and impact inclusive of strategy, innovative finance, infrastructure and enterprise, operations, and governance. Before joining Nia Tero, she served as Chief Operating Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was accountable for a broad portfolio and led the foundation’s transformation efforts. Her global leadership experience spans multiple sectors, including the corporate healthcare sector, where she served as Vice President and Global Head of HR (Product Development) for Genentech/Hoffmann LaRoche. Her public sector roles include Associate Chancellor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and serving in former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt’s administration. Leigh serves on several Boards, including the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Institute (Seattle and Uganda), the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and NYC-based Springboard Enterprises. She is also a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Suzanne McCormick

U.S. President of United Way Worldwide. Former President & CEO of American Red Cross of Southern Maine

Suzanne McCormick was named U.S. President of United Way Worldwide (UWW) in June 2019. She is responsible for helping the 1,100 local United Ways across the U.S. trailblaze in the philanthropic space to build more resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities. That includes leading in equity, tackling community problems with innovative and systemic solutions, and driving the ongoing digital transformation. McCormick came to United Way Worldwide from Tampa, Florida, where she spent five years as President and Chief Executive Officer for United Way Suncoast, one of Florida’s largest United Ways. In that time, she cultivated growth, increased community impact and led a strategic plan to break the cycle of generational poverty. Having previously served as the chair of the United Way Network Partnership Group and National Professional Council, McCormick will continue to enable the teams to develop and leverage powerful philanthropy initiatives, such as Salesforce Philanthropy Cloud. She brings invaluable insights as immediate past chair of the United Ways of Florida that will lend to the ongoing collaboration with United Way State Associations. McCormick began her nonprofit leadership career at the International Center of New York and then as CEO for both the American Red Cross of Southern Maine and People’s Regional Opportunity. She joined the United Way of Greater Portland in Maine, where she provided 13 years of leadership, including four as president and CEO. McCormick holds a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and is an alumna of the Peace Corps, where she taught English in Thailand.

Bruce Boyd

Principal and Senior Managing Director at Arabella Advisors

Bruce Boyd joined Arabella Advisors in 2007 as a principal and senior managing director after spending 20 years building and leading for-profit and nonprofit ventures. Bruce is based in Chicago and has worked with Arabella's individual, family, foundation, and corporate clients, helping them effectively and efficiently deploy philanthropic and investment capital for good. Those engagements have focused on organizational development, strategic planning, due diligence, program implementation, and evaluation of impact. Bruce has worked across a range of issues, including community development, human rights, education, and the environment. In addition to his work at Arabella, Bruce serves on the board of the Windward Fund—a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor and grant-making intermediary—the Morrison Family Foundation, the Lilly School of Philanthropy, Rare, and the Lake County Community Foundation. He is a former member of the board of Forefront, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Opportunity International, and the Merit School of Music. Prior to joining Arabella, Bruce served for 13 years as a senior manager at The Nature Conservancy where he led the Illinois Program, the Upper Mississippi River Project, and the four-continent Great Rivers Partnership. Bruce started his career in law but left legal practice to buy a manufacturing company out of bankruptcy, which he ran and later sold to a Fortune 500 company. Bruce graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College, earned his law degree from the University of Chicago, and studied business at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.

Philanthropy Partnership Advisors

Shaheen Kassim-Lakha

Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

Shaheen Kassim-Lakha leads the development and implementation of external engagements, including collaborations with peer funders and local, national and international partners, to unlock resources and shift policies that enable the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to multiply its impact. In her previous role as director of international programs, Kassim-Lakha oversaw the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of the Foundation’s international program areas, including safe water access, children in communities affected by HIV and AIDS, blindness prevention and education, and disaster relief and recovery. She also led grant programs related to global capacity-building, monitoring, evaluation and learning. Kassim-Lakha has a broad academic and professional background in health services and public health, including experience in hospital administration, developing environmental health policy for urban centers in North America, and program management in several countries in Asia and Africa. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was a senior program officer at the UniHealth Foundation for six years. Kassim-Lakha received a Master of Public Health from UCLA and pursued a career in international development and environmental epidemiology. She completed the doctoral program in health services at UCLA’s School of Public Health, where her research focused on measuring results and developing an evaluation approach for healthcare philanthropy. She has served as a consultant to foundations and donor organizations on community-based initiatives, regional health systems development, program evaluation, and health policy research.

Sarah Sandler

Senior Director of Business and Program Development at the Milken Institute

Sarah Sandler is a senior director of business and program development at the Milken Institute. She fosters strategic partnerships and develops programs to engage the Institute's top supporters from around the world, including financial institutions, multinational corporations, foundations and philanthropists. Since joining the Institute in 2010, Sandler has overseen the growth of such programs as the Milken Institute Associates, a powerful group of global leaders representing a broad range of industries, and the Institute's Family Program. She helped launch the Milken Institute Asia Center and continues to broaden the organization's global reach. Sandler began her career in entertainment marketing and advertising at Focus Features and Landmark Theatres, where she managed national print and online campaigns. She has also led fundraising efforts for nonprofit organizations throughout California.

Rebecca Bowen

Executive Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer at The YMCA

Rebecca is Executive Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer for The YMCA, the leading nonprofit committed to strengthening individuals and communities across the country and one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States. Rebecca is responsible for building partnerships, engagement, relationships and resources for YMCAs to strengthen communities. She has administrative oversight over Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships, Marketing and Communications and Grantmaking and Strategic Events at Y-USA. Rebecca is a 30-year fundraising veteran who has long operated at the intersection of organizational strategy and increasing financial resources. She served in organizational leadership roles with Panthera and The Nature Conservancy and capital campaign leadership roles with Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. Highlights of her professional experience include creating networks to enable increased fundraising in complex organizations, increasing return to The Nature Conservancy by $120M annually over 4 years, and opening new global markets for fundraising and enabling the fundraising success of volunteer leaders - which is a personal passion. She has personally closed more than $250M in philanthropic gifts. Rebecca holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Barnard College and completed The Nature Conservancy’s Sawhill Fellowship at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Sancia Dalley

SVP of Strategic Partnerships and Investor Engagement at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

As the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Program Director of RFK Human Rights’ Compass Investor Program, Sancia Dalley leads business development, engagement with the corporate sector as well as the programming for the network of more than 120 investors and fiduciaries within Compass. With over a decade of experience working with the private sector, Sancia has advised Fortune 500 companies including Pfizer, Nike Inc., Scotiabank, Virgin Group, and BP on Corporate Social Responsibility and health strategies, business case analysis, program design and evaluation. Sancia has helped to broker multi-million dollar partnerships with companies such as Chevron Corporation, with whom she worked on their landmark investment of $30 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in support of health programs in Africa, Asia and the US; advised global and national private sector coalitions on malaria and HIV/AIDS, and supported a number of leading advocacy initiatives with the business community including the Emmy-Award Winning “Get Tested” public service announcement with Kaiser Family Foundation and the National Basketball Association. Sancia holds a B.A. in International Relations and French from Wesleyan College. She is the founder and CEO of Redlake Global, a boutique advisory firm that supports private sector leaders and individuals in their global health and and sits on the boards of the Center for Active Design in New York and the Boardwalk Village Foundation in Jamaica.

Philanthropy Evaluation & Learning Advisors

Amy Arbreton

Senior Evaluation Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Amy Arbreton is the Evaluation Officer in the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Effective Philanthropy Group. The team, guides strategy, evaluation, and organizational learning within the Hewlett Foundation, and also leads grantmaking in support of organizational effectiveness and a strong philanthropic sector. She also supports staff across all program areas to commission, use and learn from evaluations. Previously, Amy worked at Public/Private Ventures, a national social policy research organization, where she was a senior research fellow and director of the organization’s California office. In her almost two decades at that organization, Amy worked closely with foundations and nonprofit organizations in leading a wide variety of evaluations of programs designed to improve the health and well-being of young people across the country. Amy holds a Ph.D. in education and psychology, a master’s degree in developmental psychology, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, all from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author or co-author of dozens of reports, journal articles, and scholarly papers.

Philanthropy Marketing Advisors

Tanya Giovacchini

Founder of MarketSolve and Former CMO at The Bridgespan Group

Tanya Giovacchini is the former CMO and Chief Engagement Officer at The Bridgespan Group, one of the most highly regarded philanthropic advisor groups in the United States, and whose work is centered on making the world more equitable and just. At the Bridgespan group, Tanya advised and collaborated with many of the world’s most renowned social change leaders including philanthropists, nonprofits, NGO leaders, and impact investors to solve marketing problems with effective strategy and clear communications. Tanya recently founded MarketSolve, a social impact marketing company, that offers marketing, strategy and communications services to mission-oriented organizations. Tanya has a deep background in the professional services, nonprofit and technology industries, with prior career experience serving as the Principal at Mavens & Moguls where she consulted with small-to-mid size professional services and technology companies on marketing strategy and organization challenges. Tanya also served as the Executive Director for the Center for Future Banking at the MIT Media Lab, where the Center explored how emerging technologies and insights into human behavior could transform financial customers' experiences.

California Philanthropy Advisors

Dwayne Marsh

President and CEO of Northern California Grantmakers

Dwayne S. Marsh assumed the position of President and CEO of Northern California Grantmakers on September 9, 2020. He brings 27 years of experience in the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors with a career commitment to advancing racial and economic equity. Dwayne recently completed a four-year turn as co-Director of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and Vice President of Institutional and Sectoral Change at Race Forward. During his tenure, the membership network of local, regional, and state entities committed to advancing racial equity through the policies, practices, and public investments grew from just over 20 to nearly 200 participating jurisdictions. Prior to GARE, Marsh spent six years as a senior advisor in the Office of Economic Resilience (OER) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There, he helped advance sustainable planning and development through interagency partnerships, departmental transformation, and funding initiatives managed through OER. He was OER’s principal coordinator for a $250 million grant program and led the development of capacity building resources that reinforced the work of pioneering grantees in 48 states and the District of Columbia. Under his leadership, OER prioritized equity as a foundational principal for its planning and investment initiatives. Marsh brings to the movement his expertise and considerable experience in coalition building for regional equity and leadership development for policy change. He provides technical assistance and capacity building knowledge to equitable development initiatives that address continuing disparities in affordable housing, transportation investment, and environmental justice. Before HUD, Marsh spent a decade at PolicyLink, the national organization committed to economic and social equity. Before PolicyLink, he directed the FAITHS Initiative for eight years at The San Francisco Foundation, building a nationally renowned community development and capacity building program that continues to this day. His career has been defined by supporting communities traditionally marginalized from full participation in our economy and society to build power and leverage lasting systems transformation.

Diane Manuel

Director of Foundation & Client Relationships at Adasina Social Capital

As the Director of Foundation & Client Relationships at Adasina, Diane brings philanthropic and financial expertise to her work with values-aligned organizations. Diane Manuel is also the Founder of Create Success Lab, a Training & Development Platform designed to support the process and the journey to success. She previously served as a Financial Advisor at Urban Wealth Management after a successful career with Merrill Lynch, the California Endowment, and The J. Paul Getty Museum. She has published articles on Investopedia.com, Nasdaq.com and on the Urban Wealth Management website, where she writes a series focused on philanthropy called “Your Life. Your Legacy.” Diane is a founding member of the Giving Circle Angelenos 4 Los Angeles which is active in the entrepreneurship and the promotion of innovative solutions to support uplifting change in the African-American community in Southern California. Diane has over 20 years of experience helping individuals and organizations in their efforts to identify, implement, and accomplish their goals. Additionally, Diane is a Certified Financial Planner™ professional.

Brain Trust

Sheri Kaiserman

Former Head of Advanced Securities at Wedbush Securities

Sheri is a senior-level executive who spent 26 years in public equities, first at Oppenheimer, and then 16 years at Wedbush Securities where she built and ran the equities business. Under Sheri's leadership, Wedbush was the first Wall Street firm to publish an analysis on the value of bitcoin (2013). Sheri left Wall Street early in 2018 to co-found Maco.la, a blockchain focused equity investment fund and advisory/HR services firm.