Category: Impact

Impact Next: An interview with LinkedIn’s Meg Garlinghouse

Posted on by NationSwell Team

At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Meg Garlinghouse, Vice President of Social Impact at LinkedIn.

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: What brought you to this field? Was there a moment in your life that galvanized your commitment to driving bold action on social and economic progress?

Meg Garlinghouse, Vice President of Social Impact, LinkedIn: I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, in a very middle class community. I went to an average public high school, where it was very uncommon for kids to go to college out of state, but my parents were adamant that we did. They had the resources and the determination to make that happen — they drove me to Kansas City to take the SAT and they took me out of state for college visits. Their guidance and support every step of the way helped me to excel in high school and get into college.

I’ve always been hyper aware of this privilege and believe I’m ultimately a product of my circumstance because of the family I was born into. This belief and experience has fueled my motivation to help enable social and economic mobility for others.

Behrman, NationSwell: Looking back at the scope of your career, how have your thinking, your strategies, your leadership style, or your philosophies evolved over time?

Garlinghouse, LinkedIn: One of the ways my impact philosophy has evolved over the years is focusing our vision and strategy much more “up river”. This means broadening our focus to address the root causes of social issues in addition to the symptoms, and we have several initiatives underway at LinkedIn to move this work forward.  

First, we work closely with our data scientists and engineers to ensure that the technology powering our platform and products is inclusive of all members of the global workforce. Second, thanks to one of my team members, Kavell Brown, we kicked off the LinkedIn Social Impact Global Root Causes Fund, which we started in Brazil and are expanding to other countries. The Fund focuses on root causes of inequality and includes a participatory process for grant-making that supports the organizations doing the direct service work.

Today my greatest conviction is making sure that LinkedIn is truly a place for everyone to find opportunity, connect with new people with diverse perspectives and learn the skills they need to be successful in the evolving workplaces. We have a responsibility to ensure that this new world of work, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), is truly building a better world of work for everyone.  

Behrman, NationSwell: Which trends define the current societal and economic moment? Which fill you with optimism, which ones give you pause, and which aren’t getting enough attention?

Garlinghouse, LinkedIn: I think networks are overlooked as critical pillars of economic mobility. Networks are much more than how you get a job — they often determine whether or not you even know that there is a job available in the first place.

We can build a more equitable labor market based on skills. It’s equally important, though, to consider the critical role networks play and apply them in a way that unlocks their value — ensuring that they serve as avenues to connect people to other perspectives, individuals, and experiences.

One way we do this at LinkedIn is through our signature social impact program, LinkedIn Coaches, where LinkedIn employees connect with professionals overcoming barriers to review best practices for LinkedIn profiles, learn how to network and practice interviews, either in 1:1 sessions or group settings. This program helps to build networks through career conversations with mentors and LinkedIn platform training, and it ends up being really impactful — not just for the jobseekers, but also for employees to learn and get a sense of what job seekers are actually facing. We also encourage members to reach outside of their networks with LinkedIn’s Plus One Pledge to help level the playing field and close the network gap.

Finally, when we’re looking at access to economic opportunity, a conversation that’s now more urgent than ever is the one happening around generative AI. Innovation is happening so quickly, and I’m spending a lot of time thinking about how we are meeting this pace of change. It’s important to have strong data foundations so we can measure as we go and maintain a consistent focus on ensuring that our products and platform support all members of the global workforce, in partnership with our engineering teams. It’s also important to ensure we are making critical decisions based on an established set of principles. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Can you elaborate on your specific role in spearheading social or economic progress within your organizational framework? How does your role stand out from other social or economic impact leadership functions, and what is the North Star of your leadership? 

Garlinghouse, LinkedIn: By far the most important attribute in a leader is being able to identify and develop extraordinary talent. If you get the right people on the proverbial bus who have clarity on the “why?” and conviction on the “how,” then work becomes both meaningful and effective.

The other important piece of my leadership style is helping to connect people to their purpose. Linkedin’s vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce — not just the people who were born into economic opportunity, but every member. To make this vision a reality, we really need every employee to join us on this journey to ensure that the products and features we are building are benefitting professionals of all backgrounds and experiences.   

Behrman, NationSwell: Of the social or economic leaders who perform a similar function to yours at a peer organization, whose work inspires you, and whom you hold in high esteem?

Garlinghouse, LinkedIn: I deeply admire Erin (Baudo Felter, the Vice President of Social Impact and Sustainability) at Okta. She’s one of those people who got smart on issues quickly; she is impressive and has been taking bold steps to meet the moment we are in. For example, I love the work she’s doing around investing in tech executive talent for nonprofit boards.

Behrman, NationSwell: Could you recommend any insightful resources – maybe a book, report, podcast, or article that has significantly influenced your thinking?

Garlinghouse, LinkedIn: One book that has really helped to shape my thinking is From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth, by Darren Walker, which really challenges the reader to think about philanthropy as a tool for achieving economic, social, and political justice – and not a bandaid to cover or address the symptoms.

One of the best podcasts I’ve listened to recently is Kelly Corrigan Wonders’ conversation with David Brooks. It really has everything — leadership, how to make sense of the craziness in the world, how to think about individual responsibility. 

I also think everyone needs to spend time learning about advancements in Generative AI. Henry Timms has an article in the Harvard Business Review that has really evolved how I’m thinking about it, and Fei Fei Li is another leading voice — she’s brilliant, clear, pragmatic, and humble. We’re in this moment where AI can become a force for good, but it won’t happen by chance — it will only happen by design. 

Impact Next: An interview with Workday’s Carrie Varoquiers

Posted on by NationSwell Team

At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Carrie Varoquiers — Chief Philanthropy Officer at Workday.

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: What brought you to this field? Was there a moment in your life that galvanized your commitment to driving bold action on social and economic progress?

Carrie Varoquiers, Workday: My parents came from very humble beginnings, especially my Mom. After eventually reaching the middle class, she was always stressing the importance of reaching back to lift others up with her. She was (and still is) a life-long volunteer, and she brought us to lots of volunteer events as children.  As a result of those volunteer experiences from a young age, and hearing stories from my mother about her childhood, her resilience, and seeing all that she was able to achieve because of her grit and determination and — most importantly — her access to opportunity. I became focused on building a career that helped to kick open the doors of opportunity for all. 

I didn’t bounce around much after college trying to figure it out — I had a purpose. I knew early on that I worked really well in a corporate environment and firmly believed then, and still do now, that businesses can be a huge change agent for good. Business has the power, capital and influence to move quickly, innovate and advance big changes at scale to benefit society.  

Behrman, NationSwell: Looking back at the scope of your career, how have your thinking, your strategies, leadership style, or philosophies evolved?

Varoquiers, Workday: There are a few really positive changes that I have witnessed over my philanthropy career: The shift to a blend of data-driven and trust-based philanthropy; blowing up the overhead ratio myth to end the starvation cycle for nonprofits; the fact that grant applications have gotten shorter, data collection has become more automated and advanced, reporting requirements have become less cumbersome, the fact that more capital is going towards unrestricted funding….all of which frees up these talented leaders and organizations to spend more time innovating and experimenting and scaling proven solutions. This is progress!

Behrman, NationSwell: What defines this present societal and economic moment? Which trends fill you with optimism, and which ones give you pause?

Varoquiers, Workday:  We are at a true tipping point for the skills-first hiring and mobility movement globally, which is really exciting. Emerging AI technologies have the power to rapidly accelerate skills-based hiring, unlocking access to opportunity for a diverse talent pool and opening up new talent funnels for companies. Creating a skills-first movement will not only create a more equitable future for talent that has been traditionally left out due to a lack of college degree or a non-linear career path, but it will create a more robust economy that ensures people have the opportunity to use all of their skills and capabilities to the fullest. 

Of course what excites me most is also what gives me pause — the future of AI, ensuring that it is developed ethically and responsibly, and that government regulations are put in place that protect people without stifling innovation. Thankfully, Workday is leading in these areas. When AI is trustworthy and supported by smart public policy, it can improve the way we work, support informed decisions about upskilling and career mapping the workforce, and foster greater access to opportunities. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What are the current social impact trends that are not getting enough attention, in your mind?

Varoquiers, Workday: Now I am taking off my Workday hat and putting on my Cool Planet Food hat: We need to get really serious about reducing our consumption of animal products if we want to get to net zero. I didn’t say eliminate….reduce. We need to create purchasing incentives through a change in current subsidies to include fruits and veggies; we need to invest in alternative proteins and dairy; we need to help ranchers transition to plant-based crops without losing any income; we need to make plant-based options widely available in hospitals, schools, and other government institutions; we need to teach cooking in schools again! There are SO many ways for philanthropists to help influence change at scale with this issue, and it is just woefully under-funded. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What makes the impact strategies or initiatives Workday is championing unique? Can you walk us through the steps you’ve taken?

Varoquiers, Workday:  I would say that having the Workday Foundation’s mission tied so closely to the core product and expertise of the company since day one has really accelerated our impacts. In the very early days, Workday began as a human capital management software company, with deep expertise in all things HR and workforce. The Foundation’s focus on closing the opportunity gap by investing in workforce training organizations, workforce field building organizations, internal hiring programs such as Opportunity Onramps, creating and participating in all kinds of skills-first talent collaborations…this focus has allowed us to partner with the business in so many ways over the years and to tap into that institutional expertise, like with AI+work, to advance outcomes for the job seekers we are serving.  

Not only have we been able to do things like convene customers seeking to diversify their teams to discuss their talent strategies, introduce them to new talent funnels through our non-profit partners, and listen to their ideas for product features that would make skills-based hiring more effective for their orgs, we have been able to filter that information back to our training partners to help strengthen their programs. 

One current example I would call out that just launched earlier this year is our Workday training program, called Learn with Workday, which is open to anyone, anywhere. Today, there are some 60,000 openings for Workday related jobs in the U.S., but up until now, only people who work for a Workday customer or partner could access Workday product training — creating a talent gap. This is sure to lead to great new careers for job seekers, and bring new Workday-skilled talent to our customer companies. It is a perfect example of how the business and Foundation are totally aligned.

Behrman, NationSwell: Is there a signature social or economic project or initiative you’re currently overseeing that you’d like to spotlight during our discussion?

Varoquiers, Workday:  I am currently most proud of Workday’s new feature length documentary film, UNTAPPED, which will premiere on Netflix on October 16. 

Developed and executive produced by Workday, in partnership with LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Entertainment, and directed by Josh Kahn, UNTAPPED is a film that shines a light on all of the untapped talent that surrounds us, and asks the audience to think differently about what a “qualified” job candidate looks like. With this film, we aim to accelerate the skills-first talent movement and show viewers why a shift towards a skills-based hiring and mobility strategy benefits individual families, businesses, and our nation’s economy.

I hope everyone reading today will add UNTAPPED to their Netflix watch list — we want this film to be viewed by hiring managers everywhere!

Behrman, NationSwell: What’s the North Star of your leadership?

Varoquiers, Workday: My North Star of leadership is the same as my life philosophy: Leave the world a better place. It’s very simple. At the end of every day, I want to be able to lay my head down and believe that I did something to leave the world a bit better for people, animals, and the planet. It can be as small as listening with empathy when an employee is having a tough day, or as big as creating a new 3-year strategy to help close the opportunity gap for job seekers without a 4-year degree. I just try to have a positive impact in every interaction… like anything else in life, it takes thoughtful intention and practice. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Of the social or economic leaders who perform a similar function to yours at peer organizations, whose work inspires you, and whom you hold in high esteem?

Varoquiers, Workday: There are SO many amazing social impact leaders in tech! I am a member of a professional group of peers that has been meeting monthly for 10 years now, and we have gone through births and job changes and marriages and moves… at this point, we have moved well past peer professional relationships and into deep and authentic friendships. Many of them are also NationSwell members. 🙂 I learn so much from them — they make me better at my job, for sure. But I am mainly in awe of the nonprofit professionals I have the honor to work with every day who are actually making change happen on the ground. They are my heroes.

Behrman, NationSwell: Could you recommend any insightful resources – maybe a book, report, podcast, or article that has significantly influenced your thinking?

Varoquiers, Workday: Specifically speaking about philanthropy, I would say that Dan Palotta’s book Uncharitable was terrific. I also loved Winners Take All by Anand Giriharadas. Drawdown by Paul Hawken was so practical and digestible — it was a very optimistic climate book. 

I also love The Purpose Economy by my friend Aaron Hurst, and Change for Good by my friend Paul Klein. Both of these social impact practitioners have been leading the field and are really inspiring. But when I was in my late 20s, I read a New York Times article by philosopher Peter Singer that struck a deep chord with me titled “The Singer Solution to World Poverty.” The idea that it is our basic moral obligation to help all of our fellow humans — and the idea that we all need to be as invested in reducing the suffering of our neighbors on the other side of the world as we are with those that live right next door — touched me very deeply. 

Lastly, I would say a must-read for this moment in history is The Coming Wave, by Mustafa Suleyman, about how we have a moment — if we act right now — to truly harness the power of AI for good.

Impact Next: An interview with PNC’s Sally McCrady

Posted on by NationSwell Team

At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Sally McCrady — Chair and President of the PNC Foundation.

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: What brought you to this field? Was there anything formative or foundational that galvanized your commitment to driving social and economic progress?

Sally McCrady, Chair and President of the PNC Foundation: Like anything, probably a little bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time. 

I’ve been at PNC for 26 years now, and I started right out of graduate school. I really wanted to work for a nonprofit, and never thought I would be saying someday I’ve been at a bank for 26 years. But I got a terrific opportunity at PNC to start doing research in support of our Community Development Banking group, which felt like a good first step, and I became really interested in the role that banks can play in terms of community development. 

From there, I went into our Compliance group where I did work for the Community Reinvestment Act, which I’m happy to say PNC has had an outstanding rating under for the last 40 years. In September of 2003, PNC announced a program called PNC Grow Up Great, and I was immediately drawn to its mission and the importance of early childhood education. Twenty years later and here I am — working not only on our Grow Up Great program, but also overseeing PNC’s charitable giving.

Behrman, NationSwell: What do you think is different about how PNC approaches its philanthropic work and community investment? 

McCrady, PNC: To me, the piece that’s always made our philanthropy impactful and interesting is that we are very committed to making decisions locally. To give some context, when PNC Grow Up Great launched in 2004, PNC operated in 12 markets — we had never really done anything where everybody had a similar focus. Fast forward 20 years, and we’re now in 54 markets. 

What’s been interesting, and what’s allowed Grow Up Great and our philanthropy in general to be successful, is that we have never stepped away from the local approach to philanthropy. So while Grow Up Great has a common mission, and we are all focused on supporting high-quality early childhood education, that looks a little bit different in each one of our markets because we know that our local markets and our employees there, know the needs; they know the nonprofits that can have the greatest impact, they really take the lead and make the decisions locally, and that’s been very successful for us.

Behrman, NationSwell: Is there a signature social or economic project or initiative you’re currently overseeing that you’d like to spotlight during our discussion?

McCrady, PNC:  One of the things I treasure most about Grow up Great is our strategic focus on one common social issue — early childhood education —. What that’s allowed us to do, not only at the corporate level, where we have a couple of partnerships that are national in scope, but also at the local level, is build relationships that, in many cases, have spanned the full 20 years. 

One of my favorite initiatives that we bring into all of our markets now is called Be My Neighbor Days. Across the country, we’re partnering with Fred Rogers Productions, a local PBS station, and a number of community partners for a community day with all sorts of different activities for families and their younger children to really think about how they can be great neighbors. They might be writing, they might be putting packages together for local senior communities, but everything is done with the importance of kindness in mind.

Another partnership that’s been amazing to work with is DonorsChoose, which is a platform where citizen donors can go online and help fulfill a teacher’s request, since we know they are still spending out of their own pockets for things they want to utilize in their classrooms. 

Several years ago, when we first worked with DonorsChoose, the platform was not open to Head Start programs, which are one of our biggest partners since the inception of Grow Up Great. We’ve been able to work with DonorsChoose to re-envision the platform. And, with our committed funding, DonorsChoose now serves Head Start programs across the country. We’re so proud of this investment, because I can’t think of any educators that need it more than our Head Start teachers.

Behrman, NationSwell: Is there anything else that you might want to lift up in terms of the ambition of your work, or things that you feel like are particularly innovative that you’re pushing on right now?

McCrady, PNC: I’ll highlight our employee volunteerism program also, which is a little bit different than other corporate programs out there. First, our employees receive 40 hours of paid time off each year to volunteer. So one of the programs we can volunteer for is Grow Up Great, and we’ve had 1.1 million hours in support of early childhood education through the program. Second, I think volunteers are the heart and soul of our program, and it’s awesome to see how engaged our employees get. It’s so rewarding to support our philanthropic giving with employee volunteerism, and to support our employee volunteerism with philanthropic giving.

Behrman, NationSwell: People often talk about integrating employee giving, and philanthropy more broadly, into their business strategies. Are there connection points there with the work that you’re doing?

McCrady, PNC: We have a dedicated skills-based volunteerism program where we work with a small group of nonprofits in several of our markets to help address a particular issue they’re hoping to solve. For about 16 weeks, our employees and nonprofit partners work together to focus on that one problem. We’ve helped organizations with IT, job descriptions and overall HR strategies, we’ve supported landscaping and marketing needs, and we’ve helped Head Start programs streamline enrollment and translate documents into multiple languages.

We also encourage our nonprofit partners to think broadly about how they can use the experience and different skill sets of thousands of PNC employees to make a difference. So every day, we have opportunities to make those connections and help create long-term success. 

The more we’ve learned about early childhood education and the positive impact it has on a child’s lifetime trajectory, the more we’re convinced it’s the place where we could really make a difference. And it wasn’t already crowded with a lot of voices — we felt like it was an area where we could really make a difference and, probably most importantly to who we are as a bank, there was a ton of economic research coming out that explained the value of long-term investment.

Behrman, NationSwell: Is there an approach to your leadership that you would say has allowed you to drive impact and be successful in the way you have?

McCrady, PNC: First and foremost, none of this would be possible without our executive leadership support and active engagement in driving the importance of our community work. 

Another approach that has served me well over time is just having the utmost respect for my colleagues across the markets, and being such a huge fan of what they’re doing and the organizations that they choose to support. The different work they’re doing might not seem like a fit with the project we’re trying to do at first, but then when you understand the local nuances, it makes sense. So I think it’s just being open to new ideas, how things might look a little different in every city where we operate. And that’s OK, because again, our colleagues understand the community and what they’re trying to accomplish.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some of the defining trends you’re seeing right now in community impact or corporate philanthropy? 

McCrady, PNC: From a corporate philanthropy standpoint, one thing that’s really important in this moment is around employee engagement and just thinking about how all of our workplaces have changed dramatically over the last four or so years. One area we focus on a lot is making sure our employees understand what we’re doing in the community and have an opportunity to learn and engage in the impactful work we do. 

For the last several years, one of my favorite things that we do to engage our employees is provide a DonorsChoose gift code around the holidays and let them go online and choose a project to support that speaks to them. So I think a lot of it is the importance of creating and enforcing PNC’s culture — really just tying everything back to the employee experience.

Behrman, NationSwell: Of the social or economic leaders who perform a similar function to yours at peer organizations, whose work inspires you, and who do you hold in high esteem?

McCrady, PNC: I’m following Mackenzie Scott and all of the decisions that she and her brilliant team have made in the last several years. It’s so interesting to see the nonprofits they select, and in so many cases they’re familiar organizations that we have worked with in a small way. I’m beyond excited to see the recognition and elevation into the national limelight, because in many cases they’re small local nonprofits that would never have these enormous resources to really take their mission to scale. 

I’ll also mention Cathe Dykstra, who runs an organization called Family Scholar House in Louisville, Kentucky. The program is basically a housing education program; the majority of the clients are single moms, but there are also some great dads that have been part of the program as well. The scholars are graduates of high school who want to go on and get higher education – two-year, four-year degrees – and the program provides the stable housing and everything their families need to allow them to achieve their educational goals. It truly breaks the cycle of poverty in one generation, and what’s been awesome to see is that while they have five campuses in Louisville, it’s now spreading across the country. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Could you recommend any insightful resources – maybe a book, report, podcast or article that has significantly influenced your thinking?

McCrady, PNC: A podcast I love and just discovered in its second season is Wiser Than Me by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Just this weekend, I listened to an episode featuring Diane von Furstenberg, and she also had Rhea Perlman and Bonnie Raitt as guests — it’s just amazing. The guests are women that are mostly in their 70s, talking about these remarkable careers and what they’ve done philanthropically. It’s just a ton of fun. She ends every podcast by calling her mom and telling her about who she’s just spoken to, and her mom has these wonderful anecdotes or insights that take you by surprise. It’s a wonderful array of women leaders that have accomplished so many things — I find it crazy inspirational every time I listen.

Impact Next: An interview with Chobani’s Nishant Roy

Posted on by NationSwell Team

At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Nishant Roy — Chief Impact Officer at Chobani.

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: Tell us a little bit about your leadership journey — was there a formative experience that helped you to arrive at this space and this position of leadership?

Roy, Chobani: I started my professional life in the United States Air Force, and had the privilege to deploy to both Afghanistan and Iraq. That experience got me thinking far more about overall civil society, economic empowerment, and the things that could have potentially prevented those conflicts from happening. I started to really think about the role the government and the private sector can play in addressing some of the systemic issues that are happening in countries and places all over the world. 

After leaving the military, I took a job working for former President Clinton at his foundation in New York, and he actually recommended that I go to law school or get an engineering degree. He said that I had more lived experience than most of my peers because of my time in the military, and he saw that what I needed was a framework with which to identify the root causes of problems and come up with creative and thoughtful solutions to solve them. 

In 2006, he ended up connecting me to a friend of his, Bob Harrison, who happened to be a former partner at Goldman Sachs, and he said that it was an easy decision — that I should go work at Goldman Sachs. He suggested that I go somewhere to deepen my understanding of what the private sector is all about, to understand how business operates and apply that into the public sector, and so that’s what eventually sparked the interest of marrying business and social impact together back in 2006.

Behrman, NationSwell: What makes your approach to your work at Chobani differentiated — are there any programs, initiatives, or partnerships that feel particularly exciting?

Roy, Chobani: To start macro, Chobani is trying to prove that businesses can be both purposeful and profitable at the same time. As Hamdi says, a cup of yogurt won’t change the world, but how we make it can — especially in terms of how we’re using the dollars we get in profits and investing them back into the community. If you look at the yogurt category in this country, it’s gone from 43 grams of sugar in a single serving on average to around 15 grams of sugar in a single serving. That’s truly disruptive in a category that’s been run by some of the biggest food companies in the entire country, and we’re doing that next with creamers, and with coffee. 

So impact and the work that we’re doing starts with the product, and then our people are the next pillar of how we’re making this food. At one point in time, 30% of our workforce was immigrants and refugees, and we’re focused on paying folks in the 75th percentile and getting folks equity in the business. We’re getting childcare, we’re getting elder care, we’re focused on upskilling — there are a lot of unique things that we’re doing to support our people. 

The third pillar of how we’re making our food is the sustainability side of things, and we’re always looking upstream to see how we can impact and empower our suppliers and find new ways in which we can use our purchasing power to influence better standards on farms.

The final pillar is how we’re spending our profits, and here we have this big ambition to get to zero hunger in the communities in which we operate, which is in central New York and in Twin Falls, Idaho. We’ve seen food insecurity rise in this country by more than 30 plus percent, and unfortunately 13 million children are food insecure. Our thesis is that we as Chobani can partner with a number of different retailers to help improve overall food accessibility, which also allows other NGOs to come and join us in our journey to start to look at the other social determinants of health, such as access to housing, access to transportation, access to healthcare. These are all things that are critical in order to truly address hunger, but it’s got to start with one of the social determinants that’s being solved for least, which is food accessibility.

Behrman, NationSwell: As you look at this moment for CSR and corporate philanthropy, how do you make sense of where we are, and where do you think we’re headed?

Roy, Chobani: The acronyms have changed so much, but the bottom line that I’m seeing behaviorally is that from a purchasing perspective, people want to see that the brands that they’re buying are actually doing something to really move the needle on issues.

There’s been this big focus from the citizens of this country to want to see that their government is delivering for them at the federal and state level, and in the absence of that, they’re deferring to businesses. 

I think the fascinating thing we’re learning is that you can be profitable and purposeful at the same time: If you are operating your plants with a high level of efficiency, you’re going to be using less electricity, less water, and you’re going to be spending less money on overtime because you have a pretty efficient operation, which leads to better profitability in the long run. That profitability, in turn, enables us to then invest in our employees and our community.

And at the end of the day, we also make a great product that people love — it’s not just operational efficiency alone that makes us profitable.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some of the resources that you might showcase or lift up that have helped to inform your leadership? 

Roy, Chobani: Hamdi, of course, has been my biggest shepherd in all of this. As the founder and CEO of the business, he took a chance on me, and a hallmark of his leadership is the way he believes in everyone that works at Chobani; he sees something in everyone that we may not see in ourselves. He asked me to step in on projects and responsibilities not because I had experience in them, but because I did not have that experience and my perspectives would challenge conventional wisdom and the “regular/traditional” way of doing business. 

As of late I would also say Rajiv Shah — his book, Big Bets was pretty inspirational because as we’re in this work thinking about food insecurity, we want to make a big ambitious bet by getting to zero hunger, and it can seem a pretty lofty goal at times. To address the naysayers and the skeptics and bring people along with you is probably one of the biggest challenges, and I think the book does a great job of addressing how coalition-building is a superpower. 

The third person I would mention has been our COO, Kevin Burns. Kevin is a world class operator — he takes businesses when they’re at this level of efficiency and brings them up to another level that they probably never thought that they could ever achieve. As I talk to him about the work that we’re doing to address hunger, he’s constantly pushing me harder and harder about thinking even bigger. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some of the peer leaders you really admire — folks more or less in your role at other companies or organizations who you think are really great leaders doing great work?

Roy, Chobani: Jake Wood comes to mind right away — not only did he found Team Rubicon, but he’s also involved with a new venture called Groundswell. He’s always thinking about disruptive ways to be innovative and deliver on what’s needed at the moment in time, and it’s always done in such a way where it democratizes people’s ability to go and contribute towards solving a problem. 

The other person that comes to mind is C.D. Glin over at PepsiCo. When I think about what he’s done with the PepsiCo Foundation, in terms of bringing in a level of focus, energy, and innovative programming, I just admire his work so much and his commitment to doing it in a way that feels long-term and sustainable. 

Celebrating NSC Impact: NSC Members Mobilize to Close Education Opportunity Gap

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When Madeline Kerner, CEO of Matriculate, looked to the NationSwell Council community, she found practical advice, meaningful connections, new board members and financial support for her organization. All of this meant more well-deserving teens could apply to the college that best matched their talent.
We spoke to Kerner over the phone to talk about how we’ve been able to support her in her mission. Here’s what she had to say.
NationSwell: We’re so excited to chat with you, Madeline! Tell us about your work at Matriculate. 
Matriculate’s Madeline Kerner: Our mission is to empower high-achieving, low income high school students to make the leap to our nation’s best colleges. There are many students — up to 35,000 every year across the nation — who have done everything that anyone could ever ask a high school student in spite of incredibly challenging circumstances, all while maintaining high GPAs and standardized test scores.
We know that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.
NS: There are so many students who might benefit from this work. How has your NationSwell Council membership supported you in pursuing this mission? 
MK: There are many ways!

We held a Strategic Advisory Group that brought together smart and knowledgeable Council member who shared their expertise and helped us think through some core challenges. Their advise was so valuable, and the generous investment of their time has really paid off. One member in attendance had expertise on how we can share our message, and he’s really gone to work for us: He made some meaningful introductions to other advisors and funders, persuaded me to attend a conference and offered to pitch a story on us.

Separately, I met a fellow Council member at the NationSwell Summit who has since joined our Board of Directors and been able to support our work. She’s been an incredible advocate. Another Council member joined our Advisory Board after my community manager made an introduction, and has been a real shaper and influencer of the organization as we think about our strategic plan and our future direction. There’s absolutely no way I would have met them without NationSwell.

My membership has also helped build our network, and get to know other folks who have solutions that are driving change so that I can learn from them, network in their communities and get access to different perspectives. Because of my membership, I’ve learned how other organizations have built their brand and spread the word in their own communities.

As a small organization focused on impact, we have kept our heads down to just do the work well — but I’ve valued from watching other Council members tell their stories and having the opportunity to tell mine and get feedback.

“We know that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.” – Madeline Kerner

I also wanted to note that I’m excited about the NationSwell Next initiative. I’m sending one of Matriculate’s head advising fellows to NationSwell’s Summit West. She’s at Berkeley and is a real youth leader and a powerful voice for equity and access in higher education. And she’ll be having the opportunity to meet the community. I appreciate the ways NationSwell is helping young people to plug in and build their communities and networks as they envision the change they want to have.
NS: What’s next for you and Matriculate, and how do you anticipate NationSwell working in service of your future goals?
We are five years into our work and currently have a community of more than one thousand undergraduates supporting nearly 5,000 high school students across the nation. We are launching a three year-plan with three areas of focus:

  1. Refining our model to maximize impact
  2. Deepening our continuous learning practices, including with a focus on social capital transfer and our students’ sense of belonging
  3. Strengthening the organization to sustain long-term impact.

As we embark on this next phase, we plan to draw wisdom from the NationSwell community, and hope to expand our network in service of these goals.
This emphasis on continuous learning with a focus on social capital comes in part from a qualitative study by Dr. Katie Lynk Wartman to better understand our near-peer relationship model. Wartman found that undergraduate Advising Fellows build authentic and trusting relationships with their high school students, making them uniquely positioned to influence high school students’ college application and enrollment decisions. Dr. Wartman found that through this relationship, college students transfer social capital to their high school students.
NationSwell is always trying to learn more about how we’ve supported our Council members in their efforts to make the world a better place. If we helped you, we’d love to hear more about it. Let us know.

Celebrating NSC Impact: A $500,000 Investment to Close the Child Literacy Gap

Posted on by robbie

It all started with an email.
When the NationSwell Council weekly newsletter spotlighted Alejandro Gac-Artigas‘s work leading Springboard Collaborative, an organization dedicated to closing the child literacy gap, fellow Council member Sue Schwartzman knew she had to meet him. She suspected he might be in attendance at an upcoming NationSwell Council (NSC) event for solutions in education, and sure enough, there he was.
Sue was so impressed and intrigued by Alejandro’s work that she shared it with her philanthropy clients for Schwartzman Advising, the consulting firm she leads. The pitch worked; her clients invested $500,000 in Springboard to help close the child literacy gap in under-resourced communities.
NationSwell spoke to Alejandro and Sue to learn more about this amazing moment of impact, and to discover what’s possible thanks to the investment.
NationSwell: Thank you for chatting with us, Sue and Alejandro! And congrats on this amazing news. Alejandro, Springboard Collaborative is doing important work to close the child literacy gap in under-resourced communities. Can you share what inspired you to start it, and what’s innovative about the model? 
Alejandro Gac-Artigas: I’m half Chilean and half Puerto Rican. My parents emigrated to the US to escape political prosecution, and so that my sister and I could have better educational opportunities. Growing up in a home with little money but lots of love taught me that parents’ love for their children is the single greatest and most underutilized natural resource in education. I took that perspective with me to Harvard, and when I graduated, I joined Teach for America and became a first grade teacher in North [Philadelphia].
Teaching in a Puerto Rican neighborhood, I saw myself in my students. I saw my parents in their parents. I realized that students were only in my classroom for 25% of their waking hours. If I didn’t find a way to bring parents into the instructional process, I was never going to close the achievement gap, let alone the opportunity gap. So I founded Springboard Collective eight years ago with the vision of closing the literacy gap by bridging the gap between home and school. We do that by coaching teachers and low income parents to help their kids read on grade level.
NS: And how did you get involved in this organization, Sue? 
Sue Schwartzman: I help people who are new to the world of philanthropy understand who they are, what they care about and what they want to do about it. One of my clients last year focused in on literacy, and I was doing a deep-dive into the field to help him best invest his philanthropic dollars. I’m also a former teacher, and I’ve done a landscape survey of what’s out there in literacy. The fact that this is new is amazing to me, but Alejandro has hit on something that no one else has. Parents are an untapped resource — and he knows how to get to them.
AGA: I appreciate that. When people look at Springboard, they say parent engagement is innovative — but parents’ love for their children is biological, not innovative. That parents care for their children is just a product of millions of years of evolution, and the fact that we’re not drawing from that bottomless well is a real missed opportunity.
SS: It’s also important to note that I couldn’t have introduced Alejandro and his work to my client if he didn’t have the traction and data that clients are now hoping for. This model is working, he can show it and it’s amazing!
NationSwell: How did NationSwell help support this partnership and impact? 
SS: I would not have learned about Alejandro’s work if it were not for NationSwell. You keep me on the cutting edge of what’s new and innovative in the social impact field.  I am always seeking cutting edge information and ideas to challenge and share with my clients in a wide array of philanthropic interest areas and the NationSwell Council has been a connector to big thinkers and creators in many of the spaces my clients have interest in. I am grateful for this curated network!
AGA: Were it not for NationSwell, I would not have been able to connect directly with Sue and certainly not with her clients. As a young entrepreneur of color, access can be a real barrier — access to resources, social networks, professional networks — and having a group that can serve as an intermediary and open doors that otherwise don’t necessarily open on their own is tremendously valuable. There’s something different about being a member of a shared community. It’s beyond transactional and creates a different kind of a dialogue. You get further faster if you have this community there for you.
NationSwell: Wonderful! What’s next for Springboard? How might this $500,000 support the future of the organization?
AGA: Last year we decided to set a goal that is deliberately unachievable with our current program model in order to force ourselves to innovate and find more scalable ways of doing our work. That goal is to help 100,000 kids reach reading goals and 30,000 students read on grade level by December 31, 2022. These new resources will help us bring that to life in five ways.

  1. To help support our existing summer and after-school programs, which have already doubled students’ annual reading progress.
  2. To launch a franchising model where we train others to use our playbook, and run programs independently and affordably.
  3. To build a roadmap that helps districts best engage parents in literacy all year round — in the school day, the school year, the school culture — and not just in the summer and after school.
  4. To create an a la carte menu of our products and services which have the greatest potential to drive impact, like licensing our workshop curriculum or launching an app to help families develop healthy reading habits at home.
  5. To popularize our methodology in an unbranded way, to catalyze a culture shift and make parent engagement the new normal.

NationSwell is always trying to learn more about how we’ve supported our Council members in their efforts to make the world a better place. If we helped you, we’d love to hear more about it. Let us know.

Celebrating NSC Impact: Inspiring Change at a Titan of the Tech Industry

Posted on by robbie

NationSwell is kicking off 2020 with a series that looks back on our biggest moments of impact from 2019. In our fifth installment, we’re delighted to celebrate how NationSwell supported Microsoft in their journey to develop better tools and services for social impact organizations and beyond.
NationSwell: We were delighted to parter with the Microsoft Envisioning team last year. Can you tell our audience about the work your team does within Microsoft? 
Microsoft’s Harald Becker and Ming-Li Chai: We work on this unique team that looks three to five years out, that uses research to try and reimagine how people will get things done in the future. We like to go out in the field, find interesting organizations and people and try to learn from them. Our research last year was focused on the future of work and how organizations are evolving in the future. Our thesis was that organizations are going to be more networked, working in ecosystems and platforms, and we had the idea to talk to social impact organizations because they have a unique environment and they’ve worked with a lot of different partners in complex environments. They’re trying to solve big, complex challenges and they’re very mission-driven.
NS: So interesting. And how did working with NationSwell support that mission? 
M: It started with a co-hosted conversation on the power of networks. That was a fantastic experience and our first exposure to the kind of the magic NationSwell can create. There were amazing NationSwell Council (NSC) members at that dinner. We then shaped a plan to work together on a research project alongside the Studio team. It was a joint learning journey to better understand how social impact organizations thrive, with a thesis that we can learn from their tactics and strategies and apply those to other domains. Ultimately, as a technology company, Microsoft could then think about developing better tools and services to support those organizations in the future.
NS: Share a bit about the journey of the research project. 
M: The project had three main components. For the first component, the Studio team organized interviews with 30 NSC members. It was a diverse representation of executive directors across different domains and industries as well as different sizes and social impact organizations. We conducted those interviews over the course of two or three months and there were a lot of amazing conversations. We also had a chance to come out to New York and bring a camera crew and we did some of those conversations on video, so we ended up with rich visual data that was awesome. Our team also spent a day and a half working with the Studio team at the NationSwell offices, both to understand some of the patterns we could detect from the interviews and to distill them into a clear set of key criteria that ultimately were the inputs for our final report. We were actually able to visit some of these amazing organizations.
There were two more things we did together that were very important to us. First, you created two video cases studies for us. [The videos] were very touching and you should see them — they’re really great. And the final piece was the salon you created and produced. We brought a whole bunch of Microsoft executives and stakeholders to the event and mixed them with NSC members. We had a half-day experience together where we unpacked some of our findings and we did some interactive table discussions. Our colleagues actually got a taste for what it means to operate in a social impact organization. It was a lot of fun and we got great feedback.
NS: What did this partnership and project mean for Microsoft? How did NationSwell ultimately impact your work? 
M: It enriched our understanding and made us smarter about the dynamics that are important to make social impact organizations successful. We also got a sense for what some of the key challenges are. The project with NationSwell really helped us get a better, more nuanced understanding of those dynamics. There’s a lot of very superficial, high-level talk about what the future of work will look like and I think now we can actually bring a much more nuanced conversation to the forefront.
NS: Were there any internal perception shifts that took place as a result of our partnership and if so, can you describe them?
M: One of the key learnings was really the importance of purpose and mission in social impact organization’s work. We had an inkling about that before, but now we have a much clearer understanding. Yesterday’s announcement at Microsoft was all about purpose, mission and sustainability. So many employees were so excited about our articulation of purpose and mission and accountability and responsibility, and the work we did together really clarified that for us and made it a lot more tangible.
The exercises we did at the salon and visiting the social impact organizations… it touched people. We walked in with our heads and we walked away feeling in our hearts that people are devoting their energy towards something really bigger than themselves. We now talk a lot more about impact at Microsoft. Like “what’s your impact? What are you going to do?” It’s very closely aligned to the industry and the technology jobs and roles that we have. You can touch people’s lives in very profound ways. And there’s so many organizations focused on that and in tremendous ways. For some people, it was a bit of an awakening and that was very powerful and emotional for them as well.
We were super impressed with your team. Everybody at every level of the effort really brought the energy, brought the expertise and always had smile on their faces. We could feel that you care about your work and that was very stimulating for us. It was really a true partnership. It wasn’t like there’s a big firm hiring a vendor. I never really felt that dynamic at all and that was really great. You were challenging us and we learned a ton in the project.
NationSwell is always trying to learn more about how we’ve supported our Council members (and partners!) in their efforts to make the world a better place. If we helped you, we’d love to hear more about it. Let us know.

Celebrating NSC Impact: Tuesday’s Children Secures Influential Financing for Gold Star Families

Posted on by robbie

NationSwell is kicking off 2020 with a series that looks back on our biggest moments of impact from 2019. In our fourth installment, we’re delighted to celebrate a Bob Woodruff Foundation grant that supports Tuesday’s Children.
NationSwell: Thanks for taking the time to speak, Terry. Tell us about the mission of Tuesday’s Children.
Tuesday’s Children’s Terry Sears: Tuesday’s Children began after the events of Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, where there were 3,051 children who lost a parent on that day. It was started as an organization to provide long term support for those children through mentoring programs, college and career guidance, and leadership programs, as well as programs for the surviving spouses. And in 2011, after the 10-year anniversary of September 11th, we broadened our mission to include the military families, the fallen, the gold star families, and have really been reaching out across the country. Our long-term healing model provides mentors (whether they’re career mentors or youth mentors) and leadership programs which adds value to the grief and the scholarship services that are currently available to the gold-star community. We are really pioneers for broad-based resilience focus tools for that community.
NS: Such an important cause. How has NationSwell been able to support you and your mission?
TS: I joined NationSwell to take part in the veterans roundtable series a few years back, where we heard anecdotally that less than 1% of all veterans’ organization served gold star families. The fact that there weren’t others doing this work reaffirmed our mission. We ended up receiving a sizable grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation after meeting them through the NationSwell series. So much of organizational collaborations is between people and not so much organizations, as you hear a lot. From getting to know Marshall and Anne Marie (from the BWF) we’ve had opportunities to get the word out about the work we’ve done. Having some personal relationships that we made through NationSwell was great.
And the other thing is that, a couple of years ago, we started traveling to places like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, North Carolina any beyond where NationSwell had members, and I was able to set up meetings in each city. I met Mary Beth Bruggeman, president of the Mission Continues, who was able to connect us with veterans interested in continuing to serve in a different way — by being paired with a gold star child for four to six hours a month over the longterm. These were really important relationships for our organization. When I went to [the West Coast] we were able to get introductions with some of the big tech companies. And, as luck would have it, there was a NationSwell event when I was out there.
It was just really great to be able to walk into a new city and have 40 people right there, where you can say, “Hey, I’m an NSC member too,” and exchange cards and follow up in that way. That was great.
NationSwell is always trying to learn more about how we’ve supported our Council members in their efforts to make the world a better place. If we helped you, we’d love to hear more about it. Let us know.

Celebrating NSC Impact: NSC Members Bring Critical Expertise to Supporting New Parents in San Francisco

Posted on by robbie

NationSwell is kicking off 2020 with a series that looks back on our biggest moments of impact from 2019. In our third installment, we’re delighted to celebrate four NSC members joining the board of the Children’s Council of San Francisco. 
In July 2019, Anna Nordberg Thompson became board chair of the Children’s Council of San Francisco, where she was tasked with growing the board during a pivotal time for the organization. Below, she shares how being a part of the NationSwell Council helped her support her 2019 goals.
NationSwell: Tell us about why you joined the Children’s Council of San Francisco. Why is its mission so critical?
Anna Nordberg Thompson: Both of our kids were born premature and we were lucky enough to have resources and live in an area where we could access excellent medical care, excellent childcare and a wonderful preschool for both of our kids, who are now five and seven and these robust little nuggets. Going through that experience, I saw both the power of early intervention and I felt the agony of what would it be like to be in a position where you didn’t have access to that kind of care. That really brought home for the importance of early education — those early years are essential for neurologic and social development. But for most parents in this country, finding support during those years is private problem, and its creating a real readiness gap that persists through K-12.  I’m passionate about kids, about childcare — and I really don’t think we can fix our K-12 education system without investing heavily in early childhood.What the Children’s Council does is help families find and afford quality childcare in San Francisco. We connect families with the childcare that fits their needs through intensive counseling and resource and referral.
NS: How has being a part of the NSC helped you in this mission? 
ANT: I met with my community manager and shared that one of my big priorities as new board chair to build the board. He let me know that the NSC was launching a new project, to try and connect members who were interested in board service with members who were serving on boards and looking to recruit new members. He ended up connecting me with probably 15 people that resulted in 11 conversations and we now have four new board members. If you’re familiar with onboarding new board members to nonprofits, and it’s a big process and it’s a big time commitment and a lot of people go through it and decide, “I love what this organization does but I can’t commit to this right now.” So, to find four new board members from one network or organization is pretty extraordinary. And the four we have really come from a range of industry backgrounds. Chris Thomas is head of nonprofit engagement at SalesForce. Victoria Fram is a female cofounder of a VC (VilCap Investments), Omar Butler is the CEO of a nonprofit, New Door Ventures, one George Israel is in private wealth management at UBS and his wife is a developmental pediatrician (so he’s very connected to the issue through that).
NS: We’re so thrilled for you! What a great group. What does the future hold for the board and for the CCSF, and what are you hoping to celebrate as a result of this board growth?
ANT: We have a new CEO, we’re starting a strategic planning process and a it’s pivotal time for early childhood in the Bay area and nationwide. California governor Gavin Newsom has signaled how important childcare is to him. And it’s an exciting time: paid parental leave is finally gaining steam — it’s about the only bipartisan issue there is on Capitol Hill right now. So these issues at least are getting more awareness even though there’s so much more that needs to be done.
And we’ve already seen real strategic planning in our board meetings. I’m already seeing those new points of view help shape the discussion in powerful ways. Victoria, as a female co-founder, has a lot of understanding of how hard it is for women in the business world who are trying to manage childcare and their careers and those challenges. Chris at Salesforce has a really strong sense of how different platforms might support our work. So my hope is that with these new board members, we can really continue to raise our profile and connect with people in San Francisco who understand that childcare is a equity issue and a social justice issue, in addition to an incredibly spicy issue for every family dealing with it, regardless of income. Childcare is a challenge for every family, every parent I know — it’s something they’re always working on or trying to solve a problem in or they’re so happy in a situation they’re in and just hoping that it lasts. I think that our NationSwell members can bring is new networks and new people who are ready to care about this issue and need to just be informed about it. With their perspective on what our core focus areas of our strategic plan should be and how we’re going to achieve them,
NationSwell is always trying to learn more about how we’ve supported our Council members in their efforts to make the world a better place. If we helped you, we’d love to hear more about it. Let us know.

Celebrating NSC Impact: NYU Business Program Created for Survivors of Sex Trafficking

Posted on by robbie

NationSwell is kicking off 2020 with a series that looks back on our biggest moments of impact from 2019. In our second installment, we’re delighted to celebrate a first-of-its-kind project that empowered an at-risk population right here in our city. 
After attending a NationSwell Council (NSC) Strategic Advisory Group in 2017, NSC member Joe Esposito (managing director at Jennison Associates) became deeply involved with Restore NYC, an organization seeking to end sex trafficking in New York and restore the well-being and independence of foreign-national survivors. Below, Joe shares how the NSC community supported Restore in creating what might be the nation’s first entrepreneurship program tailored for survivors of sex trafficking.
NationSwell: Thanks for taking the time to speak, Joe. We know a little bit about how Restore helps women who have survived human trafficking find financial independence. Could you share the origins of the innovative solutions you all have piloted?
Joe Esposito: Restore is an extremely mission-driven with a very healthy culture and an extraordinary impact relative to the resources that go into that organization. At the end of 2016, and I went to their executive director with an idea for an online jobs platform to reduce the friction involved with their clients finding jobs. At that time, I also learned about an organization in London that was running a successful entrepreneurship program for survivors that we wanted to replicate here. We knew it would have massive transformational potential. We saw a lot of synergy between these two programs and we wanted to bring it to New York City – a place with financial resources and immense human capital.
NS: How did the NationSwell Council help support this innovative program?
JE: The NationSwell Council had a critical role here.  I first turned to my community manager who helped me connect with fellow NSC members in educational institutions, [including Gabe Brodbar, the then executive director of the social entrepreneurship program at NYU.]  We connected and quickly realized we could host this program out of NYU. Had it not been for my community manager’s efforts and connections, this program quite literally would have never happened.
Furthermore, part of the program includes connecting the women with mentors, and we have a very specific set of criteria for these mentors, given the sensitive nature of the program. I again reached out to my community manager, and she connected me with more folks in the community. Several NSC members ended up being mentors.
NS: Incredibly powerful. What’s next?!
JE: We completed the first two-week program and supported 28 women who came from 20 countries. It was a massive success. We’re planning to measure success of the program by tracking outcomes at the 6-month mark, 12-month mark, etc. We’re also planning the second cohort for 2020. I don’t say this lightly, but I believe we are in the early innings of revolutionizing economic empowerment for this population. And then I expect we can move on to at least one other population of at-risk people in the U.S. I see a long, steady upward trajectory for NationSwell to be at ground zero of this change that has the potential to impact hundreds if not thousands of women over the next decade. And I think it’s a very unique opportunity for people to invest time and energy into. I hope NationSwell continues to be a partner because your organization has so much in terms of capabilities, so much in terms of its diverse, rich community. I think NationSwell can play a unique role here.
NationSwell is always trying to learn more about how we’ve supported our Council members in their efforts to make the world a better place. If we helped you, we’d love to hear more about it. Let us know.