Welcome to Inside Impact, Temelio's monthly video interview series where we sit down with leaders across the philanthropic space for honest, unfiltered conversations about what's working, what isn't, and where the sector is headed. No sales pitches, no jargon, just real conversations with people doing the work. Each month, we'll be exploring a mix of topics, from technology and operations to broader themes shaping philanthropy today.

For our second episode, we're joined by Julia Matthews. Julia has spent nearly two decades working at the intersection of strategy, sustainability, and equity. Working across sectors – from Teach for America in the Bronx, to management consulting and education reform, and most recently building Peloton's ESG function from scratch during one of its highest-growth years – she now serves as SVP of Portfolio Operations at Malk Partners, part of SLR Consulting, where she leads ESG value creation across a portfolio of private equity-backed businesses. Julia has a rare gift for making the case for social impact in business terms without losing sight of who the work is actually for.

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Conversation highlights

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Start with why before you write the check.

When it comes to standing up a corporate giving or grantmaking program for the first time, Julia's first piece of advice is to resist the urge to just start writing checks. The most important question isn't how much or to whom, it's why does your company exist, and how does this work further that?

At Peloton, that framework was straightforward: the company existed to help people live healthier, happier lives. Their social impact work asked, what about the people who aren't part of the Peloton community yet? How do we serve them too? That alignment between core mission and community investment made the program coherent and defensible across leadership transitions and market cycles.

"Understand why your business exists. 'If this business wasn't here, this wouldn't happen.' Okay, what is that thing? And then, how does your social impact work further enable that to happen?"

Without that through line, corporate philanthropy becomes fragile. It lives or dies based on whether the current leader happens to believe it's a "nice thing to do," which is a flimsy foundation.

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Your grant dollar is the same as everyone else's. Your assets aren't.

One of the most actionable pieces of Julia's framework: stop thinking about giving as purely financial. “Partnering with nonprofits is such a great way to show how you live your values. The dollar I give is the same dollar that you give. But what differentiates the investment is the wraparound that you can put behind it."

At Peloton, that meant instructors who could amplify partner organizations to millions of members, physical spaces that could host nonprofits in a pinch, and a deeply engaged employee base ready to show up. 

The corollary: if you're not thinking about your non-financial assets, you're leaving significant impact and differentiation on the table.

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The tail shouldn't wag the dog.

One of the most common pitfalls Julia sees: companies using philanthropy to build a values story they don't actually have, rather than to express values they do. It rarely works. People can tell.

The right order of operations is: here's who we are, here's how we need to show up because it strengthens our business, aligns our employees, and deepens our ties with customers and community. The giving program flows from that. It's not the source of it.

"It's really important that the tail not wag the dog. It starts with, here's who we are, here's how we believe we need to show up."

She also pushes back on companies that ask their impact leads to prove a direct line from grant dollars to revenue. The analogy she uses: you don't make a high-quality product because you can prove its exact ROI over a medium-quality product. You make it because quality is who you are. Social impact is the same.

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Trust-based philanthropy isn't just for foundations.

Julia was deliberate about how Peloton engaged with its nonprofit partners — leading with listening, resisting the urge to assume what partners needed, and soliciting feedback at the end of every grant cycle on whether Peloton was showing up the way it intended.

This is a practice more commonly associated with private and family foundations than corporate grantmakers, but Julia argues it matters even more in a corporate context where the power imbalance can be especially pronounced. The feedback Peloton received, that their nonprofit partners felt genuinely heard, was one of the measures of program success they took most seriously.

"If you want to really learn from one another and continuously improve together towards a shared outcome, you need to have trust, and you need to have the ability to truly partner."

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ESG and social impact: where should they live?

Julia has seen ESG organized under nearly every function imaginable — legal, finance, operations, strategy, HR, investor relations. Her view: the right answer is highly context-dependent, and the org chart matters less than who has genuine conviction about the work.

"I recommend that these functions sit with the person who has the greatest belief in the power of that function because that person is going to advocate for the resources and attention it deserves."

Her preference, all else equal, is strategy because the work is most durable when it's tied to where the company is going, not just what it wants to report. But a passionate champion in any function will outperform a reluctant owner in the theoretically ideal one.

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For companies without a big budget: start small, but start.

For early-stage companies without a dedicated ESG function or a large philanthropic budget, Julia advises against waiting for the perfect program. Take inventory of what you have: your product, your people, your events, your networks. Pick one or two partner organizations. Get your team involved in the selection. See what you learn. Improve from there.

"So many people get hung up on getting something perfect before they start. It's a matter of figuring out what we’re after, what do we have to work with, and how much time do we want to invest? Let's pick a pilot that gets us partially down the field, and then step back and build upon it."

You don't need an employee matching program in year one. You need a clear why, a manageable pilot, and the willingness to iterate.

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What the next decade looks like.

Julia's closing take on where the ESG and social impact space is heading is that it will increasingly stop feeling like a separate conversation. The next generation of business leaders will treat this the way companies today treat culture, not something that requires a business case, but something you simply do if you're serious about running a strong organization.

"Nobody says today, 'Show me the business case for having a good culture.' That would be so strange. I think we're going to get to a similar point with these topics in ESG and social impact, where it starts to become part of our shared understanding that this is a sensible way to run a resilient business."

The businesses that treat ESG and social impact as table stakes now, rather than scrambling to prove its value later, will be leaps and bounds ahead of their peers.

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Inside Impact is a monthly video series by Temelio featuring candid conversations with leaders across foundations, corporate giving, and philanthropy tech. New episodes every month at trytemelio.com.