Transcript
Icebreaker:
INTERVIEWER: Right now we're with Baird Straughan, Founder and Director of WaterGrass, so let's get to know him a little bit. If you could choose one song to play every time you walk into a room what would you choose and why?
BAIRD: Right now I would choose "I Call Your Name" by The Mamas and the Papas. 
The Making of WaterGrass
INTERVIEWER: How did you start working with WaterGrass, so I guess where did your idea come from?
BAIRD: So I used to teach. I ran programs teaching executive directors, and fundraisers, and organizers. And when I did my second program for organizers I realized these people have no computerized way to track the volunteers and hours that they put in and tracking those volunteers and hours was actually essential to the development of leaders, of volunteer leaders, who would then keep the programs going and growing.
So, I looked around and I just couldn't find anything and so I gave up. I ran the program the participants all said this is a big success our funders all loved getting this information about volunteer hours and leadership development. I checked in with them 6 months later to find out if they'd continued to do it and none of them had and the reason was because it was too much of a hassle to track the volunteers in hours.
And so I thought to myself well if there were an easy way for people to sign up volunteers and track their hours than they would do it. So, I began WaterGrass which was originally just a little module on Salesforce to track volunteer hours and the users of it said well we get that we understand that it's fine but we don't understand this other stuff in Salesforce it's too complicated.
I was dealing with with groups, now many of our groups are much bigger, but at the time almost all our groups were small in starting and so I said well let me simplify the the fundraising part of this too. It's not that hard, I thought, and so I did that and pretty soon all of a sudden it was we were providing the whole thing.
Best Part of The Job
INTERVIEWER: Okay, so who's your favorite client? Just kidding! You don't have to answer that.
BAIRD: I love them all.
INTERVIEWER: That's a good answer! What makes you good at your job?
BAIRD: Man, I guess what makes me good at this is that I really care about the results that the groups get. The database is really just a tool and if I didn't feel like I was contributing to something worthwhile, even if I were making money, it wouldn't satisfy me. And I really like the people who do river work. They're sort of my people. They're sort of tend to be a little techy, and they've got big hearts. They play hard. So yeah so those are some of the reasons, yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Nice. Maybe you've already answered this, but what's your favorite thing about your work?
BAIRD: It's the clients.
Personal Pursuits
INTERVIEWER: The clients. All right we're going to get a little personal again. How do you spend your time when you're not working with WaterGrass?
BAIRD: Oh man, I try to get exercise regularly. I used to ride a lot but I had ride a bicycle, but I had a bad accident so I do less of that. I go to the gym and I sail. But of course sailing involves keeping a boat in shape, so by "sailing" I really mean I maintain a boat. Occasionally I'll get out and I'm looking forward to doing more of that now. Oh and I dance a lot, yeah.
INTERVIEWER: I'm glad you mentioned that. Can you tell us about your favorite vacation? 
BAIRD: Oh gosh so many great ones. I'm thinking about the honeymoon trip that Sue and I took to where we were hosted by friends and just got to truly just hang and that was really wonderful. Just a sec.
INTERVIEWER: Sure. Hi Sue!
SUE: Hello! How are you?
Lightning Round
INTERVIEWER: We're good, we're good. All right we're moving on to the last round, the 
lightning round. So, I'm looking for quick responses, but feel free to to get creative. Okay, what's your favorite color?
BAIRD: Green. 
INTERVIEWER: Nice. Favorite animal?
BAIRD: I'm gonna say osprey. 
INTERVIEWER: Favorite place you've been?
BAIRD: Mount Baker in the North Cascades. 
INTERVIEWER: Are you a cat or a dog person?
BAIRD: Cat person. 
INTERVIEWER: Favorite ice cream flavor?
BAIRD: Mocha chocolate. 
INTERVIEWER: Really heavy and rich there. I love that. Best thing you've ever done?
INTERVIEWER: I helped start an environmental group in in Honduras and after I left it it continued and eventually passed the first emissions control laws in the country.
INTERVIEWER: That's awesome, I didn't know that.
BAIRD: It was totally cool because you know that was like three years after I left.
INTERVIEWER: That's great. Well that's all I have for you today. Thanks for letting us get to know you a little bit better. So this again is Baird Straughan, Founder and Director of WaterGrass.
BAIRD: Okay thank you very much.
INTERVIEWER: Thanks Baird.