Hidden Gems: Meet Marta Ferro of Starfish Impact

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marta Ferro.

Hi Marta, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My roots grow from my family and the two schools I went to as a child, The Green Acres School and Sidwell Friends. With this nurturing, role-modeling, and the combination of progressive education and Quaker values, my life felt wide open as a girl and also filled with purpose. My mother was a child development expert and educator, and my father was a social worker who led gang work for ten years in New York City, worked for the Office of Economic Opportunity and led the Children’s Bureau for the federal government for over 20 years.

Green Acres instilled curiosity, an intrinsic motivation to learn, joyful and real-world learning, and a profound sense of security and love by my teachers and others in the community. Sidwell honed my academic, social and sports skills and confidence, and further nurtured the purpose in my life. I am still close friends with peers, administrators and teachers from both schools and serve Sidwell as the Southern California Clerk and a member of the FAN-AB (Friends Alumni Network Alumni Board).

I started a nonprofit in high school and played competitive soccer from age six through college at Vassar. I played again in business school, co-captaining our co-ed team, and in my mid-late 30’s in women’s and co-ed leagues. I also became more aware of racial justice and equity issues in high school and college which sent me on a path of double majoring and adding education to my interest in psychology. I learned how to be a team player in all of these experiences and communities as well as a leader as team captain, and in school clubs, my senior project, etc.

After college, I was a published psychology researcher and planned to get my PhD in Psychology when a sales and marketing job fell in my lap. I took it in order to save money for grad school and worked three jobs at once for about six months. I excelled in this brand new business setting, was promoted twice in the first six months and became a manager which I loved. Hiring, training and managing a sales team was exciting, rewarding and fun. I was more successful than I thought possible at 22 and my confidence continued to grow.

I realized that I didn’t have any formal business education or training (and had a lot to learn!) and after working for four years, went back to school to get my MBA at The Anderson School of Management at UCLA. I always felt a connection to California and the school’s entrepreneurial focus and nurturing, friendly culture was a great fit. I again made lifelong friends and felt like I was drinking from a firehose at the beginning of my first year, but learned a ton. I fell in love with finance and the analytical nature of marketing and applied my progressive education foundation to the challenge. Coming out of business school, I worked for Goldman Sachs and then in-house with a tech client in China for four years leading strategy and business development.

All along, I was deeply involved in the Los Angeles community as a board member including Chairing two organizations and leading development efforts as a volunteer. After spending five years volunteering at predominantly a pro-bono business level 20-30 hours per week, I realized that I was telling myself something. In one case I was running an organization as the unpaid President as well as the Board Chair. I loved it. And once again built lifelong relationships with my fellow volunteers and peers. I determined that I could marry my business skillsets and interests with my passion for philanthropy and the nonprofit community.

At this point, in June 2005, I launched Starfish Impact, a philanthropic consulting firm. Over the years I invited other team members to join me and us, and we have worked with nonprofit organizations, family foundations and companies interested in strengthening their social impact throughout Los Angeles and around the country (and world). We thrive on the diversity of missions and projects we work on with our clients, as well as enjoy working together as a team.

Over five years ago I also joined the Angeles Wealth Management team, leading our Philanthropic Families work and recently added Mission Aligned Investing to my role. I feel like I have come full circle by combining my expertise in and passion for philanthropy and impact investing as I lead Angeles Wealth’s Philanthropic Families and Mission Aligned Investing practices. The intersection of investing alongside one’s values and aligning a family’s purpose with their financial and philanthropic investments is at the cornerstone of my purpose.

I have served on multiple boards and currently am on the Liberty Hill Foundation, Westland School and Sidwell Friends FAN-AB boards. I am also a Social Justice Partner Los Angeles Partner and a Co-Founder of Angeles Art Fund.

Personally, I have a 12-year-old son, life partner and dog, and my mother lives with us as well. We love to hike and many sports, read, theatre, art, food, travel, funny and/or poignant media, and games. My happy place is spending time in intimate settings with close family and friends, sharing stories, food and laughing.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a relatively drama-free and smooth road but naturally there were bumps along the way. From navigating being a female athlete and in finance, to letting go of a couple passion project business ventures as well as continuing to evolve as a human, I have embraced the learning and growth along the journey. In the past few years, I have been focused on optimizing my health, taking care of my parents, and experienced the death of my father while he was living with me. Everything Covid disrupted in our community and lives, and singlehandedly managing my son’s school from home for a year, was a challenge. I went through almost every major life change in the past few years and feel stronger for it. I am more in tune with mental health, grief and our human interconnectivity.

Building my awareness of my privilege and more deeply understanding racism, othering and trauma of others is a journey I have leaned into further in the past decade. Our need for justice, equity and belonging is a highest priority. The systemic and institutional work ahead is significant and recognizing the intersectionality of the issues and work is important to the healing and rebuilding ahead. This is a struggle I think is vital to name as well–not mine alone but our collective one.

I welcome vulnerability and real conversations more than ever. Listening to Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead podcasts has been inspiring during this time. She shines a spotlight on some of the most dynamic and diverse thought leaders, writers, researchers, entrepreneurs and CEOs, and experts in humanity, justice and equity, and leadership.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Founded by a business-minded change agent, Starfish Impact serves hundreds of organizations and philanthropists on their road to growth, collective impact, and addressing systemic challenges. We are a strategic consulting and advisory firm serving the philanthropy sector and supporting companies in building purpose-focused businesses. We work with clients to develop actionable plans, get the right teams in place, and track program impact. Functional areas of expertise include philanthropy, fundraising, operations, finance, and organizational culture. Our dynamic team has decades of experience across nonprofit and for-profit enterprises and is uniquely equipped to provide bespoke solutions for the complex needs faced by today’s forward-thinking organizations. Our value is driven by our holistic perspective and team approach allowing our creativity, expertise and multi-lens process to uncover, leverage and amplify our clients’ key strengths and opportunities.

Starfish Impact works alongside teams and serves as de facto staff at nonprofits, foundations, and companies seeking to improve organizational management and processes. We work with clients to develop informed strategies and actionable plans that can sustainably support their programs. Services include corporate social responsibility plans, organizational assessment, strategic planning, financial restructuring and management, board development, prospect research and evaluation, proposal drafting, progress report writing, due diligence, and funder communications.

You can learn much more about us on our website, starfishimpact.com, including about our solutions offered, case studies, testimonials, blog and team members.

If you are interested about our name….Perhaps you’ve heard of the starfish tale? It’s a short allegory about the power of discrete impact. A woman walking on a starfish-covered beach stops to throw one back in the ocean to save it. When told it was a fool’s errand — “you’ll never be able to save them all, you won’t make a difference” — she asserts, vehemently, that it makes a difference to at least one.

That’s where our story begins. Starfish Impact is discrete impact because that’s how collective impact starts. We believe in the power of little victories to drive momentum toward bigger goals; and we work with individuals, foundations, non-profit organizations, and companies to understand how to make the most impact with step-by-step execution, doing the small things right to build the foundation for greatness.

In short, we supply resources to accelerate impact, broaden capabilities, maximize reach, and identify opportunities for growth; and we work with others to develop prevention strategies so fewer starfish wash ashore.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
This is a great question! Many people are involved in my and Starfish Impact’s journey and success. Team and community are vital to me.

First, my parents, sister, schools and a number of teachers including Hal Lederman at Green Acres deserve credit for launching me and instilling a passion for purpose and entrepreneurialism. My teacher, head of the Education Department at Vassar College and dear friend, Tom Mchugh, was integral in nurturing my social justice journey. Because of his influence, I attended Howard University and have sought to diversify my life and thinking whenever possible. We lost him less than two years ago and I feel grateful for his unique and accepting presence in my life. Dr. Barry Smith was another key mentor, and gave me the opportunity to do graduate-level psychology research and writing my junior and senior years of college as well as post-graduation, and kept a warm seat at his University for me if I had chosen to pursue a PhD. Frank Rimkus, also now a close friend, and a longtime mentor and supporter, is the CEO of Galaxy Theatres and nurtured my early interest in finance and investing working for him during my business school summer internship. I credit him and a business school classmate, for my pursuit of a Wall Street path out of graduate school.

Starfish wouldn’t be the organization it is without the team–Julie Parrino and Jen Barth have been pivotal thought partners and consultants over the years and others like Kelly O’Connor Kay, Farrah Azizi, Adrienne Luce and Georgia Van Cuylenburg have played key roles. Rebekah Iliff and WriteVest helped me codify the latest version of the Starfish brand. Early clients such as Camp Coca-Cola (now C5LA) and KIPP LA were believers in me and our work, and we wouldn’t be here today without our incredible portfolio of 100+ current and former clients. Many happy clients as well as colleagues and friends in estate planning, accounting and at other consulting firms have referred all of our business to us–thank you for your trust in me and us!

Ann Lawrence, our team and I went on a passionate gender equity journey with Pink51, a start-up we launched almost 10 years ago. Her smarts and drive inspire me and she is a lifelong peer mentor and great friend.

I also want to give a special shoutout to Jon Foster and the team at Angeles Wealth Management and Angeles Investments. The group is equally the smartest and most humble in investment management. I truly enjoy collaborating with everyone for the mutual benefit of our clients.

Last but not least–my son, Luca, the love of my life, inspires and motivates me every day to be the best person and mother possible. Participating in and observing his journey has been magical. Ash, my partner and best friend, is my grown love of my life and my biggest cheerleader. He sees, understands, loves and holds me like no other partner, and equally excites, stimulates and makes me laugh on the daily. Our love languages are profound and our life together is deeply meaningful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.starfishimpact.com
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/martaferro1
• Twitter: @StarfishMarta

Image Credits
Photos courtesy of Marta Ferro with the exception of the hiking one (Ciro Coelho)