CSR Innovators and Change Makers: Tina Lee, Director, Social Impact and Sustainability, Dropbox
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Tina Lee has spent over 16 years working in the intersection of social good and technology by building impactful partnerships with global NGOs, foundations and the private sector. Since 2018, she leads Dropbox’s social impact and sustainability efforts where she is supporting nonprofits that defend human rights around the world through the Dropbox Foundation, and strengthening employee engagement programs through volunteerism and creating an engineering workforce development program geared towards formerly incarcerated individuals. Under Tina’s leadership, Dropbox launched the ESG (environmental, social and governance) program including its first sustainability goals.
In your view, how can social impact efforts impact a company's employer brand?
Social impact efforts can increase brand reputation, talent retention and build trust with the local community if done effectively. I always believe transparency is very important and building trust with our stakeholders starts first with transparency. Social impact efforts that align with the business and its values creates an authentic purpose and I think many stakeholders can see that easily. Efforts need to be supported by action and commitment; and being innovative can be very impactful.
What role does DEI play in elevating your employer brand in the eyes of HBCU and HSI students?
DEI plays an integral part within the company and we all have a part to play in achieving our diversity commitments.
We continue to invest in:
- Building diverse teams
- Developing and advancing Dropbox employees equitably
- Providing opportunities for Dropbox employees to engage in personal growth.
Additionally, we invest in opportunities where we can connect with students from HBCU and HSI institutions, such as AfroTech and RenderATL. Through this outreach, we’re able to share more about DEI at Dropbox and the experience that Dropbox employees have first-hand within the company.
What’s a key best practice for other Fortune 1000 brands to follow when it comes to elevating a commitment to social impact?
Commitment to social impact requires support from the top down and bottom up - executive leadership can certainly help set the tone but it also requires action from the broader employee base.
Company values also play an important role to help instill the social impact mission and culture at a company. Cultivating a culture of corporate citizenship is a team effort and when it is permeated throughout the company, it can be super impactful in building teams, improving the employee experience and fostering deeper partnerships with the community.
Company values also play an important role to help instill the social impact mission and culture at a company. Cultivating a culture of corporate citizenship is a team effort and when it is permeated throughout the company, it can be super impactful in building teams, improving the employee experience and fostering deeper partnerships with the community.
What do you see as the role of technology and automation in the future of social impact, and how is your organization adapting to these changes?
During the last couple of decades, I’ve seen a lot of development and positive change with technology whether it's within disaster response, humanitarian aid or digital transformation.
The role of technology for good continues to demonstrate the value across sectors and I’m more excited than ever what technology can unlock especially for vulnerable communities.
What are some new ways your company is looking to get team members, company-wide, involved in the greater social impact initiative of your brand?
At Dropbox, we empower our employees to give back to their communities by providing paid volunteer time off, matching donations, and making product donations to nonprofits. We rely on our active network of ambassadors which we call Dropbox for Good leads to help drive the participation across the world - we have service days twice a year and we enlist leads to help create local volunteering opportunities including food banks, beach clean ups, virtual mapathon and volunteering in career panels to name a few.
At Dropbox, we’ve identified three UN Sustainable Development Goals including #5 Gender Equality, #10 Reduced Inequality, and #13 Climate Action that we can address through our work and people.
For example, we work with cross-functional partners like recruiting and DEI teams to create workforce development programs that provide opportunities for the marginalized communities. We also collaborate with employee resource groups to foster belonging and community with each other but also to support the Dropbox Foundation’s grantees.
What inspired you to begin working in social impact?
I’ve always been passionate about working across public private partnerships - sitting at the intersection of different sectors and industries and trying to find ways to collaborate for positive impact. Growing up, my dream job was to be an ambassador for the United Nations - working across nations to create peace and unity with different people and cultures. Along the way throughout grad school, the concept of corporate social responsibility really took off and I started to see more collaborations with the private sector to help solve for the world’s more pressing issues. So in some ways, the work for ‘peace and unity’ is like the work I do now, facilitating partnerships across corporates and nonprofits for good.
What is your favorite project that you have or are currently working on?
Over the last few years, we’ve expanded our scope with social impact and now incorporated sustainability into the team. Companies are focusing on their environment, social and governance (ESG) priorities and that is super rewarding especially as I started my career in this space and now I get to help the company develop initiatives that align with our ESG priorities. I really enjoy building things and developing a new program is exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time! Working at a company that is making meaningful commitments in a thoughtful way is one of my favorite things I get to do - I’m learning something new everyday.
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My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
I was born and raised in Colombia. A developing country, with a population of 51.52 M people. In 2019, around 2.5 M people lived on less than $1.90 per day. In 2021, Colombia was the most unequal country in Latin America based on the degree of inequality.
A few years ago, I enrolled in Social Enterprise courses. It was a great opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with others who are passionate about working on projects that had a social purpose.
We continue to invest in:
- Building diverse teams
- Developing and advancing Dropbox employees equitably
- Providing opportunities for Dropbox employees to engage in personal growth.
A few years ago, I enrolled in Social Enterprise courses. It was a great opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with others who are passionate about working on projects that had a social purpose.
I was born and raised in Colombia. A developing country, with a population of 51.52 M people. In 2019, around 2.5 M people lived on less than $1.90 per day. In 2021, Colombia was the most unequal country in Latin America based on the degree of inequality.
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- My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
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- providing jobs and economic growth through well run businesses
In short, corporations that aren’t participating in CSR based initiatives are being left behind.
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
- My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
- My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
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