100 Days of Gratitude - Day 3: Debra Dunn

Debra Dunn

Soon after starting GlobalGiving with Mari more than ten years ago, I showed up in Debra Dunn's office at Hewlett Packard, where she was a senior vice president for corporate and global affairs. I drew three circles on the board to represent what we were trying to achieve.  That was all it took: Debra had been thinking along the same lines and had already started some related work to deliver business services in poor communities around the world.

From that moment, Debra played a pivotal role in the evolution and success of GlobalGiving.  She helped connect us to our first software engineers, introduced us to other progressive companies in Silicon Valley, and helped us meet funders.  In 2002, she decided that HP employees should be able to give to causes not only in the US but around the world.  She took a chance by asking us, a very new organization, to provide an online platform to do this.

Our work with HP led to similar work with many other innovative companies over the subsequent years, during which time we were extremely fortunate to have Debra join our board and help lay the foundation for what GlobalGiving has become.  But most importantly, over that time, Debra - who is now teaching at the Stanford d. School - became a friend.  Thank you, Debra.