We’re profiling Social Impact leaders to engage their insights into how CSR is transforming and growing, what inspired them to enter the field, and advice for others who either operate in or are looking to enter the space.

Chris Gale leads eBay’s Social Impact work in the U.K, focusing on the role of e-commerce in driving positive social change and empowering economic opportunity across under-served communities.  Prior to joining eBay in 2020, Chris spent several years on issues surrounding education and skills development in Ghana, India and South Africa. He then transitioned into working more closely on how business can drive social impact, spending time at Marks & Spencer and Ben & Jerry’s where he led their social mission strategy in Europe, focusing on refugee and asylum rights. Chris has a BA in Geography from The University of Manchester and a Masters in International Business and Development from Birkbeck College, University of London. He recently relocated from South London to the Yorkshire Dales with his family and outside of chasing after his two young children enjoys hiking and is an avid rugby and football fan.

What inspired you to begin working in social impact?

My very simple answer here is that I have always felt that if you’re going to be doing a job for most of your waking life, you might as well do something that does some good for the world, so that when I look back in a few more decades I can look back and feel like I gave more to the world than I took away. It feels a bit trite I know, but that has always been my motivation to work in this space.  I started working in the NGO space when I came out of uni and loved the work I did internationally, particularly working with smallholder farmers in India to understand how you can deliver effective agricultural training.  After a while, I realized I was writing a lot about how business could support impact, but realised I hadn’t worked in a business. Hence the shift about 10 years ago, to work on how business can drive authentic and credible social impact. 

Why does increasing the number of people working in social impact matter?

For a long time this space has been a niche within the business world, but that has changed so much over the last 10 years or so.  So much innovation is being driven by the environmental and social challenges that the world faces. The development of approaches such as circular business models is making entire businesses rethink how they operate, and quickly.  The social impact sector is having to keep pace with these changes, and that requires teams being increasingly embedded within business functions, and attracting a greater range of experiences and expertise into the space. From my experience within businesses, there is so much desire and energy from within employees to support impact, but they just aren’t sure where to start alongside the day to day. Finding opportunities to grow the number of people working in the sector is important, but so is providing opportunities for other experts from within businesses to utilise their skills. Business function to drive impact is also just as important. 

How have you seen diversity and inclusion influence employee engagement?

A lot of our purpose at eBay is to support opportunities for communities that have been historically marginalised, or face additional barriers to accessing economic opportunities.  As part of this, we consistently find opportunities to connect the programmes with our employee base, whether that is about learning, or about skilled volunteering.  We have seen that employees find this work incredibly motivating, and the focus on integrating our work on social impact, alongside our DE&I goals, is important for us to ensure that the work we are doing is embedded effectively within the business. 

What is your favorite project that you have or are currently working on?

At eBay, the impact that we have on the environment and the communities we support is of paramount importance to us. We are really lucky to have a business model that inherently supports impact, simply by the very fact that we enable people to buy and sell instantly and we extend the life of products.  From a social impact perspective, we focus our work in three areas. Each is incredibly rewarding and has a different impact.  

The first is called eBay for Change, which is all about supporting social enterprises to grow and thrive.  It is a partnership between eBay, Social Enterprise UK and the World Fairtrade Organisation to bring their members onto the platform and support them with a one-to-one coach for 12 weeks, zero fees for 12 months, followed by marketing and comms support to connect social enterprises with the more than 20 million buyers that come through eBay UK every month.  We’ve worked with around 250 social enterprises so far in the first two years of the programme.  

The 2nd programme is our inclusive entrepreneurship work, through which we have two partnerships, the first is with an organisation called Black Girl Fest, to work with Black women entrepreneurs that are looking to develop their side hustles into full time businesses, and we’ve worked with over 150 Black women through that programme so far.  The second is a partnership we started last year with the Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN) to support refugee entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, and we’ll be growing this programme of work again this year.  The final programme is eBay for Charity, through which we raised over £38m in 2021, and that number will have grown in 2022.  eBay for Charity enables charities themselves to sell directly to consumers, as well as consumer sellers to sell for charities.  I’m really proud of how we’re using the platform to drive impact across each of these 3 areas and so I can’t pick a favourite!

What would you tell others interested in pursuing a career in CSR or social impact? 

I love the work that I do.  As with anything you do, when you’re working to try and change something it takes time and patience.  Things are the way they are in the world because they have been made that way over a long period of time. If you want to be part of changing it, you need to be willing to commit for the long haul and not get too frustrated when people see the world in a different way.  Two of the most important skills for anyone working in social impact are resilience and pragmatism but there is nothing better than working with other people that are motivated and coming together under a shared ambition. 

Discover the Next Era of Social Impact

To discuss your own social impact and DEI initiatives in the Paragon One Impact Report, contact Managing Editor Vanessa Poulson, vanessa@paragonone.com

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