On May 27, Sarah Bain, beloved Bonterra team member and VP of nonprofit account management, passed away in Houston, Texas. The lives she touched extend from her family and friends to her coworkers, who have said she was an exemplary mentor and champion for each teammate and their development.
In her memory, the Sarah Bain Excellence in Mentorship Award was established to celebrate Sarah’s legacy as a talented leader and an empathetic person, whose character and determination had an invaluable impact on Bonterra.
When the award was announced, 49 employees were nominated by their coworkers, each heralded for their positive impact on the organization and its people. The award’s inaugural recipient is Emma Taylor, a solutions engineer who inspires and mentors her team every day.
We sat down with Emma to discuss what it means to be a mentor in the social good space and reflect on the meaning of this recent honor.
How’d you end up working at Bonterra?
I started off in the nonprofit space. I was a longtime summer camper, and then a junior staffer, a high school volunteer at a nature center in my town growing up, and then was an intern in college, and worked at a few different non-profits in development and fundraising. I then moved over into the for-profit marketing space and found my way here in April 2022. My role now is a combination of all my strengths. And I’ve been able to use everything I’ve learned from mentors and leaders in those spaces in the solutions engineer role specifically.
What do you do as a solution engineer?
We allow teams to envision what it will look like to work with Bonterra platforms and answer every question they have. We make sure that they’re excited to implement these tools before they decide to sign on with Bonterra and move to working with the onboarding and migration teams. I get to talk to all sorts of different nonprofit organizations and different teams who want to fundraise, who want to add advocacy efforts or campaigns with their tools.
You interface with many people during your day-to-day. What do you think makes a great mentor?
I think there are so many ways to be a great mentor because everyone has different strengths and everyone needs something different. Whether it’s cheering people on and giving that sort of confidence or validation or asking questions that no one else is asking to help them learn and grow. Being a mentor is being a teammate in so many ways because you’re simultaneously supporting someone and giving them the space to grow.
Being a mentor is being a teammate in so many ways because you’re simultaneously supporting someone and giving them the space to grow.
Who have been your mentors?
My mentors have been anyone who teaches me, brings me in, includes me. That can be a teammate because mentorship goes hand in hand with teamwork. I try to learn from everyone I talk to. Something as small as asking how to word an email or solve a problem is mentorship to me. I enjoy workshopping solutions with groups of peers.
What did it mean to you to win the first Sarah Bain Excellence in Mentorship Award?
I was definitely surprised in the best possible way because I didn’t necessarily go into work thinking of myself as a mentor. I go into work thinking of myself as a teammate. I didn’t know Sarah very well, but what is undeniable is the lasting empathy and leadership that she gave to her team. Everything that I’ve heard about her echoes the teamwork and the enthusiasm that I knew her to have. People on my team nominating me and calling me inspiring really affected me –it’s such a testament to Sarah’s work and legacy. I’m so honored, and hearing all those things that people have said makes me want to do them proud.
What advice would you have for others who want to be great mentors?
When it comes to mentorship and leadership, trust is a huge element. Trust is something to be earned and then granted. Trust is active. So, part of my job as being a team member is gaining that trust and not taking it for granted. I have such a fantastic team, and they ask the best questions and bring things up with fresh eyes. I love to bring that enthusiasm to the table because, to me, that’s a sign of respecting the work that we’re doing and what we’re building and then what we’re able to bring to the greater community.
The other thing that makes a good mentor is listening. As a solutions engineer, we ask a lot of questions. I think that that is a huge part of my job, but also how I live day to day. I try to be an empathetic listener. There are times in my workday where I won’t always know the answer, but we can try to puzzle it out together, figure out the next steps. With this approach, you can mentor even as an individual contributor.
Nonprofits are great sources of mentors Whether as an employee or a volunteer, I recommend connecting with people whose cause or mission resonates with yours, so you can find a team that can help you grow.
If you’re interested in supporting Sarah Bain’s NPO of choice, Dalmatian Rescue of Colorado, donate here.
