Next Generation

5 Things I Learned as an American Express NGen Fellow

Posted on by Case Foundation

As a member of Independent Sector’s American Express 2014 NGen Fellows cohort, I am honored to be one of a dozen leaders, under the age of 40, selected from across the country, to develop our capacity to lead, strengthen our professional networks and elevate our accomplishments on a national level. Designed to be a leadership development initiative, the NGen fellowship provides mentoring, leadership training and an opportunity to participate in a collaborative project to benefit the social sector.

As my fellowship drew to an end, I was delighted to join in welcoming the new 2015 class of fellows at Independent Sector’s annual member meeting a few weeks ago, where several of the new inductees asked me to share my reflections from the yearlong experience. It was the perfect time to pause and consider how the program affected me, and it was also a chance to assess what my own contributions to the program were. I came up with five key takeaways that I’m sharing in the hope that it will help to inform not only the future NGen Fellows, but also other young leaders in the nonprofit sector.

    1. It’s a Journey. At the beginning of the experience, I thought that filling out the application and being selected were going to be the hardest parts of the fellowship. I mean really, how hard can it be to accept a recognition, read some excerpts from a book and share some experiences with 11 other people? Turns out, it can be pretty difficult — especially when you end up challenging your own definition of what a leader is and how to lead. My peers in the fellowship and I quickly learned that we’d have to push ourselves and expand our understanding of what it means to lead. By the end of the 12-months, our cohort reflected on the experiences we had shared and we recognized just how far we had come.

      To anyone who is looking to grow as a leader, I strongly suggest taking the time to explore how others around you lead — even those who lead in a style that is different than yours or that you may not agree with. You don’t necessarily have to adopt all the different styles, but you should keep an open mind and learn from them.

 

    1. It’s Worth the Work. One of the components of our fellowship was to complete a collaborative project that benefits the social sector. With everyone on the team operating “remotely” and no one designated to lead at the outset, it was difficult to figure out how best to work together. We were left to our own devices to figure this out, and that process in and of itself was a big part of our leadership experience. It wasn’t always easy, but in the end team members took turns stepping up and taking on different pieces of the project.

      Our cohort chose to explore how the social sector might mitigate barriers and encourage stronger, more sustainable innovation by shining a light on how social innovation is viewed and practiced by those in our field. Through a partnership with the Forbes Fund and a survey of Independent Sector members and social sector practitioners, we identified ways to support more adoption of social innovation —not only in work and deeds, but also in the culture of workplaces that strive to better serve people and communities. The result was the creation of a new report, The Necessary Challenge: Understanding and Fostering Innovation in the Social Sector.

 

    1. It’s a Family. Remembering where we all began a year ago, it is astonishing to think about all of the personal and professional changes that have happened for each and every one of us — and those relationships are by far the best part of the fellowship. The network we have created has yielded new partnerships, new connections and new opportunities that have lifted up us all. Beyond even our own cohort, we are now connected to six other classes of past and present fellows, who like us are driven to create transformative change in the social sector. The personal relationships ended up being just as important as the curriculum in our leadership development.

 

    1. It’s a Priority. It’s inevitable… life happens, work happens — and in my case, having a baby mid-way through the fellowship happened. I realized early on that if this fellowship was going to work for me, I had to make it a priority. In this case, it ultimately meant investing time and energy into my own leadership development, which is much harder to do than it sounds. All too often, we sacrifice our own needs in service of something or someone else, especially when it comes to a need that is more fluid and does not have immediate, tangible results — like leadership development. Making the fellowship a priority in my life wasn’t always easy, but learning how to make time for my own development in the midst of “life” has been invaluable.

 

  1. It’s an Honor. My final reflection… I am proud to be an NGen Fellow and follow in the footsteps of talented young leaders who have paved the NGen path before me. I hope that as you are reading this you’ll consider applying for a future class, or that you will nominate someone who is deserving and could benefit from this incredible experience. Special thanks to American Express and the dedicated staff members and board members at Independent Sector who make this experience possible.

Three Ways To Give Back During The Holidays For and With Our Kids

Posted on by Case Foundation

As November slips by, many of us have been occupied by autumnal activities — hunting down pumpkin spiced treats of all sorts, cozying up with extra layers of clothing, and cheering on a new season of fall sports. It’s also the beginning of the holidays with celebrations that are largely centered on giving, making this a great time to think about becoming a “Philanthro-Parent.” Whether you are a parent, teacher, neighbor, friend or relative, you can encourage the kids in your life to change the world for good and inspire them to give back in their own meaningful way.

And it’s not just about doing good during the holidays either. There are huge benefits for children who engage in acts of kindness that make generosity a valuable year-round pursuit. In addition to being healthier and living longer, researchers have demonstrated that kids who volunteer and “do good” have improved friendships and self-esteem, and perform better in school.

So how can you help the children in your life embrace the gift of giving? Here are three ways to make your season even brighter for you and your up-and-coming philanthropist.

Give better gifts
I’ll confess that if it weren’t for online shopping my niece and nephews would never see a box with an Auntie Louise tag. For many of us, there isn’t much time to run around to take care of gift wish lists, especially during the busy holiday season. But like with many things in life, we should take the time to slow down with our gift hunting. Let’s take an extra minute to make some of our purchases give back by using AmazonSmile (Amazon donates 0.5% of the eligible purchases to a charity of your choice). Let’s scour the wrappers for a fair trade label on that chocolate treat for our little snackers. Let’s do a couple more Google searches to find gifts that give back. It won’t be time wasted and we’ll feel even better once the wrapping paper starts flying. 

Share gifts
A lot of us take advantage of this season to donate gently used coats and cold weather gear as we replace clothes for our ever-growing kids, or to do a clean sweep of the toy box once presents are opened. Perhaps this year we can go one step further and encourage our child to choose one of their new toys or presents to donate. Or perhaps we can help our kids dream up ways to use their presents to benefit others, like using the new art set to create a poster for a fundraiser. We can tap into the power of choice that can actually enhance our kids’ altruistic endeavors with this twist on giving around the holidays.

Be a gift
Many of us learn better by doing, and it appears this is also true for giving back. Studies indicate that volunteering at a young age can create lifelong social and civic engagement in our kids. So, to help get you started, here’s volunteering ideas for kids from PBS, a list of thousands of children volunteer opportunities from Volunteer Match, a link to find your local food bank from Feeding America and a truly thoughtful curation of “40 Ways Kids Can Volunteer from Toddler to Teen” from author Laura Grace Weldon.

This holiday season, together with our kids, let’s make our gifts give more, share more deeply and be a blessing to others. We’d love to hear about your thoughts; please share your ideas on Twitter using #KidsGivingBack. Before I wish you Happy Holidays, I’ll let the infectiously joyful Kid President remind us that “The perfect gift is the something that makes the world better.”

Be Fearless Spotlight: Fixing a Leaky Pipeline

Posted on by Case Foundation

This Spotlight is authored by guest writer Caitlin Kelly as part of a special blog series by the Case Foundation featuring Be Fearless stories from the field. Follow along with us as we meet people and learn about organizations that are taking risks, being bold and failing forward in their efforts to create transformative change in the social sector.

Last year, a number of well-known tech-focused companies released information about their employees that relates specifically to race and gender. The results shone a light on the deeply rooted challenges this sector faces when it comes to diversity. Breaking through those obstacles remains a challenge for women and minorities in particular—one that the Kapor Center for Social Impact (Kapor Center), based in Oakland, California, is boldly tackling every day.

The Kapor Center wears its mission on its sleeve: “We believe that when the community of tech leaders reflects the diversity of the United States, tech will play an integral role in closing gaps and disparities that exist in this country,” the organization’s website states. “Via proven methods from the for-profit and nonprofit fields, we work in partnership with a diverse set of stakeholders to maximize social impact.” Over the years, the Kapor Center has focused its efforts on audacious, “gap-closing” endeavors. The “gap” in these cases refers to a number of challenges facing society today—gaps in academic achievement, access to health care and economic opportunity, as well as gaps in income, information and social mobility.

TheGap_Kapor Center

To achieve these lofty goals, the Kapor Center funds a variety of groundbreaking initiatives and entrepreneurs aimed at stopping what it calls the Leaky Tech Pipeline, which creates roadblocks for African Americans and other underrepresented communities of color in the tech-innovation fields. Currently, African Americans account for less than 3 percent of programmers, developers, engineers and other tech-focused talent. As a result, although African Americans are generally early adopters and users of technology, their intellectual capital is almost nonexistent in the development of new apps and tech systems, leaving in question how germane the products are to their daily lives. To address this gap, the Kapor Center has initiated several interventions, including efforts to provide greater access to educational opportunities for African American and Latino students.

One such intervention has emerged from a program called the College Bound Brotherhood, which supports college and 21st-century career readiness for Bay Area African American males. Created in 2008, the Brotherhood is the first network in the United States to focus on African American male students and connect them to college readiness programs and local resources. Using a Networked Improvement Community model—in which organizations, parents and school districts learn from, support and build with one another to become more solution-oriented toward issues specific to their community—the Brotherhood aims to place 3,000 African American males on a college-bound and college-completion track annually.

Justin Davis, a former professional basketball player who serves as a Program Officer for the Kapor Center, joined the organization in order to “pay it forward” after benefiting from the opportunities that similar funded programs offered him as a young male of color, including college prep services. Davis attended Stanford University on an athletic scholarship, studying communications, then played with the Golden State Warriors.

“In 2008, foundations weren’t investing heavily in black males’ achievement or black-male-centric initiatives,” Davis notes. “We would like to think we were seeing ahead of the curve of what was a pressing issue needing philanthropic support.” Davis says that as a result of the Kapor Center’s early investments in black males, it has been on the front lines of a larger movement, providing not only financial resources, but also “our tech inclusion lens” to such initiatives as President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper, the Executive Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Men of Color, and the California Executives’ Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Men of Color.

Davis embraces a bold approach when advancing the work of the Kapor Center. Fearlessness to him means “being unapologetic about serving underserved communities, especially black and Latino, especially with regard to technology.” Noting that the tech industry is “highly homogeneous and not truly reflective of America in general,” Davis says that “our priority and focus is on creating a more diverse tech sector, so we made several investments in community-based organizations and nonprofits serving these groups. Being fearless means we’re very vocal and outspoken about this being an issue. These doors are not welcoming for people of color! And even for the few people who get in, is there a culture that retains them?”

Davis is an athlete at heart, and his competitive nature drives his work. “How do you get better at philanthropy? How do you get better at serving communities of color?” These are key questions that he challenges himself and his team to consider. “I’m always thinking about ways to improve our work and our organization.”

Davis asks, “How can we make the best investments that snowball and create a tech sector that welcomes these men? Our challenge has been trying to understand where to make those investments, as there are no blueprints for how to do this through grant-making. We’ve been making investments outside our comfort zone.”

Reflecting the skill set he developed while working with the Kapor Center, Davis has gone on to rebrand the College Bound Brotherhood, helping it to focus solely on diversifying the world of tech. That meant cutting off funding to some grantees while gambling on new and untested investments. “As part of our pivot to focus exclusively on tech, we parted with some of our long-term grant partners,” Davis says. “In doing so, an opportunity presented itself to support a number of nonprofits who weren’t receiving much interest or funding for their work aimed at exposing communities of color to coding.”

Without such focused support, Davis adds, the effects of a growing tech sector on black and Latino communities were mainly “displacement, career unreadiness and gentrification.” The Brotherhood’s investment strategy paid off: “Two to three years later, we had people so thankful for [our] taking the risk to help them grow and develop.”

While the Kapor Center is strengthening the tech pipeline for people of color, Davis is quick to point out that “there are many entry points—from a novice coder to successful entrepreneur.” He notes that not all students in the College Bound Brotherhood have been introduced to coding, but like many Americans they’re “connected at the hip to technology via cell phones or gaming consoles. We simply want to expose these young men to exactly where that technology comes from and inform them that there is a lucrative career available to them if they’re interested. We aim to build meaningful relationships with tech companies so they remain cognizant of the importance of having multiple doors through which talent of color can comfortably walk.”

The Brotherhood collaborates with more than 40 agencies and organizations, each of which contributes to the network model. Much of the success of the program is due to the engagement of unlikely partners. “They’re the big tech firms just down the road. We’re knocking on the door and getting into those closed walls,” Davis explains.

The “tech inclusion” full court press is working, he says with satisfaction. “Oh yes! We’re sitting down now with C-suite staff and doing workshops on this issue in front of hundreds and hundreds of their staff,” Davis says. “These conversations have paid dividends in the sense that we are no longer knocking on the doors (as much), but are now often answering the knock on our door.”

Feeling inspired? If you’re ready to begin your own Be Fearless journey start by downloading our free Be Fearless Action Guide and Case Studies.

Be Fearless Spotlight: The Henry David Thoreau Foundation

Posted on by Case Foundation

This Spotlight is crafted in partnership with GOOD and authored by guest writer Caitlin Kelly as part of a special blog series by the Case Foundation featuring Be Fearless stories from the field. Follow along with us as we meet people and learn about organizations that are taking risks, being bold and failing forward in their efforts to create transformative change in the social sector.

The Henry David Thoreau (HDT) Foundation, first established in 1998, has spent the last 17 years handing out funds to some of the most delightful—and unpredictable—people imaginable. HDT’s grant recipients are bursting with ideas and enthusiasm. They’re also passionate about the environment, offering dozens of innovative strategies each year to prevent further damage to the oceans and the air, the rivers and the soil. And they want to get started on all of it, right now.

Who is this elusive group of Thoreau Scholars? High school seniors—who are often thought of as capricious teenagers rather than the changemakers, social entrepreneurs, scientists and world leaders that they will soon be.

Dr. Jennifer Galvin, the HDT’s director, likens the foundation’s investments to a very smart wager. “We are making big bets on individuals and institutions – more of a social venture,” she says. The foundation provides funding to faculty members and to individual students. Their Thoreau Scholars arm has provided up to $30,000 to eight to ten Massachusetts high school seniors every year for college tuition. For this limited number of slots, the foundation receives about 1,000 student applications. Students apply online and supply letters of recommendation to support their proposals. The applicant pool is always so impressive that, Galvin jokes, “They’re either making it up or they’re the next Bill Gates! We definitely have to cross-check their credentials.”

“Each of the Case Foundation’s five principles are markers for us,” she adds. “Our Faculty Grant Program allows us to take risks on programs that might never get off the ground otherwise. We want longevity, not one hit wonders. We want to incentivize people to stick with environmental work… so that our scholars and faculty members can take the risks they want in the environmental arena—and whatever problems they want to solve, I want to support them.”

While all the Thoreau Scholars selected are bright and creative, 65 percent of them are also drawn from public high schools. That includes Christopher Golden, who today is a Harvard graduate, as well as the director of a nonprofit in Madagascar. His team, according to HDT’s website, has “developed a ‘recipe book’ of remedies based on local plants, which has been distributed to numerous villages to preserve and promote indigenous remedies in an area where hospitals are distant and expensive.” Golden believes that kind of optimism is precisely why Thoreau Scholars stand out.

“The program is designed to reward people based on their passions, to foster their belief that they might just be the person with the solution,” he says. “My fellow scholars are all hyper-intelligent, but the point of the scholars program isn’t test scores or academic accolades. It’s about passion and leadership.”

Galvin says the question at the heart of the HDT program is, “’How do you build resilient, energetic, environmental leaders?’… I want them to think of themselves as fearless leaders now, whether interested in policy or education or bench science, whatever drives them the most. They all have incredible stories about why they care so much.”

Galvin also does much more than write a check and await a report, treasuring the close personal relationships she fosters with—and among—her scholars and faculty members. “I email. I’m on the phone. Some are now my closest friends and colleagues, and they are in the four corners of the world. It’s like herding cats, but I love that!”

The first class of Thoreau Scholars graduated in 2003, and some of them have already gone on to start energy companies or become college faculty members in their respective fields. Galvin measures the impact of their work in different ways, she explains, whether it’s about honing scholars’ critical thinking abilities, their individual connections or their leadership skills. “Some are easy to measure in the short-term and some take longer to play out.”

“I saw the connections at a very young age between environmental health and our physical health,” she says. “I was always really good at zooming in and out, and seeing how the dots are connected.” That might be why the foundation casts such a wide net and looks for those who are taking risks, experimenting and forming unique collaborations—offering support to biologists and botanists alongside those pursuing public health, law and chemistry. “I want to cross-fertilize different sectors to reframe the narrative and shift thinking,” says Galvin. “Environmental problems don’t fit neatly into boxes and their solutions don’t either.”

Feeling inspired? If you’re ready to begin your own Be Fearless journey start by downloading our free Be Fearless Action Guide and Case Studies.

Paying it Forward

Posted on by Case Foundation

I’m pretty sure that the first time I saw the inside of a professional office I was a 15 year-old high school student in Florida. The child of a single mom working to raise four children, I was fortunate enough to attend a private school on a scholarship. At the time, I thought I wanted to pursue a career in law, so I was quite excited to be reporting for an internship that my school had arranged in a prominent law office. I had no way of knowing then, but the man I would meet in that office, who would later become my mentor (and my boss), would change the trajectory of my career, and my life. Looking back on those early days, I know that without the generosity of others – those who gave of their time and resources, and who took me under their wings to provide access to opportunities that might otherwise have been out of reach – I would not be where I am today.

This week, as I participate in Fortune’s 2015 Most Powerful Women (MPW) Summit in Washington, DC, —a convening that brings together preeminent women in business, along with leaders in government, philanthropy, education, and the arts—that office in Florida seems a world away. Yet, I know that just outside the walls of this Summit there are thousands of talented young people who have never been in an office, never been asked to share their opinion and never had someone tell them that they have the potential to change the world.

That is why I am taking part in Fortune’s MPW High School Notebook Mentoring session, which brings together the extraordinary talents of MPW delegates, the Fortune and Time Inc. stage and the career hopes of 30 high school juniors and seniors from the Washington, DC, area. The idea of democratizing opportunity and giving young people access to resources has continuously animated me throughout my career, and I am so pleased to be able to participate in an event that embodies this principle. For this special event focused on STEM careers, Fortune is partnering with Girls Inc., a national nonprofit that helps give high school girls the right tools to succeed in their careers and educational pursuits.

In a field where women (in the US) are 45 percent more likely than men to leave the industry within a year, as noted by a recent study from the Center for Talent Innovation, we need solutions—now. The same study found that one way to address the challenges facing women in science, technology and engineering careers is mentorship, which helps mentees “crack the unwritten code of executive presence, improving their chances of being perceived as leadership material. Most important to the companies employing them, [mentors] help women get their ideas heard.”

We can — and need to — do much more when it comes to giving young women access to mentors who will help shape their futures and allow them to dream beyond their circumstances. That’s why over the years, I’ve looked for opportunities to mentor, whether through Fortune and the US State Department’s long-standing Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, where I’ve had the opportunity to mentor Ama Pomaa, an incredibly resilient woman from Ghana, who, since first knowing her, has been elected as a Member of Parliament, or through programs like the Georgetown Global Social Enterprise Initiative, and beyond. And that’s why I’m so excited to continue paying it forward today, and urging other leaders to do the same. When more women are supported and empowered to reach their full potential, everyone wins. 

Be Fearless Spotlight: Baltimore Corps

Posted on by Case Foundation

This Spotlight is authored by guest writer Caitlin Kelly as part of a special blog series by the Case Foundation featuring Be Fearless stories from the field. Follow along with us as we meet people and learn about organizations that are taking risks, being bold and failing forward in their efforts to create transformative change in the social sector.

Too many people still think of his city as a morass of strife and failure, says Fagan Harris, co-founder and CEO of Baltimore Corps, an innovative two-year-old organization working to change that perception.

In April 2015, after police arrested Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American Baltimore resident who later died in police custody, the city erupted, with at least 20 police officers injured, 250 people arrested and hundreds of businesses damaged. Vehicles and buildings were burned and pharmacies looted. It looked like an episode of the unrelentingly grim television show that, for many, still defines the city, The Wire.

Harris, who grew up in and around Baltimore and who returned in his late 20s, is passionate about the city’s potential, despite the “fact that too many people, when they think of Baltimore, imagine a broken, dysfunctional city. The truth is Baltimore is home to creative thinkers and truly visionary leadership working everyday to strengthen community,” he argues. This understanding of the opportunities that lie within Baltimore—and many other cities that share a similar history—is what drove Harris to develop a bold approach to forging a new talent pipeline for the city.

Baltimore Corps is a committed group of 35 skilled professionals working closely with a range of cause leaders at leading nonprofits, social enterprises and government agencies to accelerate and scale the impact of effective models for social change. Each cause leader and placement organization pays their Fellow(s) stipend and a nominal program fee to Baltimore Corps. Fellows work full-time at their placement and commit for one year.

Fellows earn a baseline stipend of $32,000; Baltimore Corps aggressively markets its fellowship to talented Millennials across Baltimore and the country, and the organization saw 500 applicants last year for its 35 fellowship positions. To insure a strong mix of local knowledge and fresh thinking, “the best of both worlds,” adds Harris, half of those accepted are city residents.

“At Baltimore Corps, we’ve made a big bet that Baltimore is a frontier of social change,” says Harris, a graduate of Stanford and a Rhodes Scholar. “What New York City is to finance and San Francisco is to technology, Baltimore is for social change. If we can get it right here, we can get it right anywhere. We have more models for strengthening communities than many other places.”

The Corps’ work combines several simultaneous initiatives: to attract the best and brightest workers committed to effecting social change, to help local nonprofits and government retain them so they can grow and better achieve their goals and, through those combined efforts, to help Baltimore thrive. The riots lent an urgency to Baltimore Corp’s work as his staff “did a ton of volunteerism” and several fellows, due to begin their jobs in September, began in June instead. “We responded urgently to help clean and build up and relocate people. As a place-based organization, it’s critical that you’re a good neighbor.”

The city needs them to stay—and they need good jobs; nine of ten of the first class of fellows were hired full-time at the end of their work with Baltimore Corps, a result that thrills, but doesn’t surprise Harris. “We work hard to recruit for fit,” he says.

But initially attracting bright, ambitious fellows who’ll choose to make a life in Baltimore after their year’s commitment is a challenge, Harris admits. “It’s working so far, but it is a challenge.” Popularly, Baltimore is still seen as a second or third-tier city, Millennials are “very, very mobile” and many are deeply wary of any work involving government. To sweeten the offer, the program opens a deep network to fellows, offering ready access to corporate executives, even the city’s mayor, which would be nearly impossible in a larger city.

Baltimore Corps, unusually for a new, growing nonprofit, relies heavily on technology and data to keep careful track of fellows’ work, of their satisfaction and their work’s impact, checking in with each of them every 90 days. The hands-on approach can be emotionally draining, he admits. “This is risky, hard work. It can be heart-wrenching and lead to some soul-searching conversations.” The diversity of our corps and placement partners is powerful but it also challenges…A leader with an Ivy MBA tends to rely on different approaches than a leader who hasn’t graduated high school, and pairing the two has produced “abundant examples of friction,” Harris admits. “We ask for humility and patience. It’s not something we try to paper over.”

“We need more people in the fight putting their shoulder to the wheel and pushing,” says Harris. Bringing talent into Baltimore to partner with the city’s most promising cause leaders and social impact organizations propels ambitious professionals and graduates eager to accelerate their social justice careers, and the city has seen an out-migration of people in their 20s and 30s, leaving local groups and agencies hamstrung, he says. “When we think about scaling the most important and impactful work, we have to ask ‘What’s the hold-up?’ It’s not money or a lack of ambition. It’s deploying the right human capital to drive scale.”

After a local group, Thread, which helps underachieving high school students, found new blood through Baltimore Corps, the program scaled their organization by a third.

The fellows work with a wide range of partners, some with social entrepreneurs who are building organizations with only two or three people to large, bureaucratic and long-established agencies like the City Health Department. “That’s maybe non-traditional,” says Harris, “but we need to work with all of Baltimore. That’s really been a value of ours since Day One.” Doing so effectively means creating what he calls “a tapestry” of small and large social enterprises, nonprofits and government agencies and departments “working together to meaningfully promote the city.” Key to his vision is getting groups together to share information that typically don’t, who normally choose to “silo” their knowledge instead of cooperating.

The Corps’ five-member board “has been really tremendous,” offering “new energy and a new perspective” by attending staff meetings and giving plenty of feedback. “They’re very hands-on. They’re tremendous partners who are not just a board but five really terrific advisors.”

“Our number one goal is to identify what’s working here and grow it,” says Harris. “The families, the neighborhoods, the city–we really want to see things strengthen and improve.”

Feeling inspired? If you’re ready to begin your own Be Fearless journey start by downloading our free Be Fearless Action Guide and Case Studies.

Photo credit: Flickr user Cayusa, used via Creative Commons.

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