In my last post I mentioned how I developed an appreciation for ‘giving back’ when I was a child, thanks to my parents, particularly Dad, who founded the Radnor, Pa chapter of A Better Chance (ABC).
I eventually grew up (so to speak) and looked for ways to get more personally involved than writing checks each year to our favorite charities. For my biggest step, I have to thank my former boss, Phil Lynch, at Reuters. Phil was on the Board of Junior Achievement of NYC and got his staff involved in teaching at a middle school in Harlem. I bought in, and haven’t looked back since 14 years ago.
Junior Achievement (JA) is an organization made up of chapters (like the one in NYC) that organizes volunteers from the business world to do volunteer teaching at school around the country. JA provides the curriculum and so when you teach you have ready made materials to use. Of course the best teachers read the material and the ‘make it our own’ by modifying it and looking for ways to leverage our own experiences. There are courses in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, career readiness, and they teach at all levels K-12. I started out teaching some financial literacy (which kids learn at school what a budget is, how to manage credit card debt, and the like? very few). I then found a class that I loved, called the Global Marketplace. I could tell stories about all my international travels and what people from different cultures were like. Kids loved it.
I was commuting to NYC from Connecticut back in those days, so I would get off the Metro-North train at 125th street rather than Grand Central Station. I’d then walk west to Harlem and find the middle school where I would teach middle-schoolers. Most of them came from incomplete homes and 96% were below the poverty line. I loved it.
Eventually I joined the Board after Phil moved on. When I left Reuters and moved my place of employment to Connecticut I called the President of the local chapter, Jan Ursone, and asked if I could volunteer teach out there. She asked me to join their board and I said okay “as long as I can keep teaching.” I have taught in Norwalk, Bridgeport, Stamford and several other places with need. Most recently I have taught a class at high school in Bridgeport about career success.
Aside from teaching, the board work is also important. Many non-profits rely on expertise from their board to help with business issues around governance, development strategy, marketing, strategy. There are two basic types of board members, I have found. The first are those who were chosen to represent their corporation after donations were made, but don’t really have much time to give. They dial in for quarterly board meetings, and ensure the $ flows from their company, and that is appreciated. Then there are those who have time and expertise to give. These are the people who support the President and the staff by getting involved and helping with the heavy lifting. As Board Chair, my job is to cultivate as many of the later as possible and put them to work productively. To accomplish this I have set up a series of standing committees that board members can choose from in order to take best advantage of their interests and skillsets. They include Finance, Strategy, Development (fundraising), Marketing, Programming and Board Development.
This work sounds a little like bureaucracy….but if done properly we provide extra hands and a lot of expertise to the staff. Our JA team has a marketing person, for example, but the board members are great advisors esp as the chair of that committee is a Chief Marketing Officer.
JA provides outstanding value to kids around our state. This is important work and I am pleased to be associated with it. (we can always use more people who want to get involved with non-profit board work!).
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