The Power of a Blink

Recently, a reporter asked me to name a business book that guides me in my work with Venture Philanthropy Partners. Without hesitation, the first book that came to mind was Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. Its subtitle, “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” says it all. Blink is all about understanding decisions that appear to be made “in a blink of an eye” but which actually are more complicated than they might seem. More »

Two Prominent Leaders Join VPP Board

The Venture Philanthropy Partners Board has elected two new directors: Robert Boisture, formerly a member of Caplin & Drysdale’s Washington, DC office, and Kristin Ehrgood, President & Founder of Sapientis. More »

The Power of a Blink

Recently, a reporter asked me to name a business book that guides me in my work with Venture Philanthropy Partners. Without hesitation, the first book that came to mind was Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. Its subtitle, “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” says it all. Blink is all about understanding decisions that appear to be made “in a blink of an eye” but which actually are more complicated than they might seem.

I often tell people that the work we do at VPP is both an art and a science. American business culture typically rewards and celebrates left-brain, linear thinking. Gladwell’s focus on smart and insightful decision-making that comes from our intuition and instinct really resonated with me. So much of our work at VPP is based on forging strong relationships. To make those relationships work requires that we are thorough and analytical in understanding the organizations and people in those organizations. But we also have to trust and rely on our intuition.

A good example of this is the opening chapter of the book that tells the story of the Getty Museum’s acquisition of an alleged ancient Greek statue. He describes the 14-month deliberative process conducted by the museum staff to determine authenticity prior to purchase. But the focus of the story is the reaction of several noted art historians the instant they see the statue. Their responses, hard to articulate and described as hunches, indicated an instinctive sense that something was amiss…“intuitive repulsion.” Based on these reactions, museum staff continued to research the statue and documents related to it. Further analysis concluded the statue was fake. The experts understood more about that statue within a few seconds of looking at it than the museum’s team after conducting an exhaustive analysis over 14 months.

One of VPP’s early lessons-learned is that Partners in our Investment Practice need to be seasoned full-time executives who have experienced the kinds of challenges that the nonprofit leaders we advise face—raising capital; working with boards; managing growth; obtaining public sector support; working with state, local and federal government agencies and leaders; and managing diverse stakeholder groups.

Like the art historians, our Partners must understand a situation in a glance since often there is little time for analysis. We rely on that judgment in a number of key areas of our practice including identifying leaders, seeing investment opportunities, helping portfolio organizations navigate the region and overcome obstacles to growth. We have to be able to read both the concrete facts that we can see, as well as understand what is often unspoken, residing below the surface.

To back up a Partner’s field work is the extensive analysis VPP does before deciding to invest in an organization. Once we invest in an organization, we work to form a relationship on multiple levels where the VPP Team functions as funder, strategic advisor, broker, and consultant. Our “hunches” that we can’t always explain right away are based on years of experience. These “gut” feelings are invaluable and help lead us to a deeper understanding of and relationship with our investment partners and help the organizations navigate through change to achieve their dreams and aspirations.

Throughout my career, mentors, bosses, and colleagues have advised me to do good analytical work but always follow my instincts. It was enjoyable and reaffirming to read many examples in Blink of drawing conclusions or altering behavior before being able to determine why you act a certain way or make one decision over another. Reading Blink caused me to think about many decisions that I’ve made and then implemented throughout my career and in everyday life.

For example, after years of service to District residents through work in the federal and District governments, I have worked with most stakeholder groups and been involved in their issues and projects in the best and most difficult times. Over the years, I have surprised myself and others that, with few facts and in different communities, I can predict the dynamics and likely outcomes with only a few minutes of briefing or sitting in a meeting. Other VPP Partners can do similar things based on their respective subject expertise and careers. This ability usually reveals VPP’s value-add and can make the difference between a good or great partnership, regardless of the amount of growth capital, analysis in business planning, and other strategic assistance invested.

A particularly important point that Gladwell discusses in the book concerns the most common and most important form of rapid cognition—the judgments we make about the impressions we form of other people. Gladwell recounts the case of a woman who auditioned for a trombone position in the Munich orchestra. The auditions were carried out behind screens so that the conductor and other orchestra officials would only hear the music, not see the musicians who were identified by number. After hearing number 16, the conductor immediately knew that this was the person he wanted. The tone was perfect and the high notes were extraordinary. But when number 16, a five-foot-tall woman, stepped from behind the screen, the conductor was stunned that that this diminutive woman could have the power to play such a beautiful trombone. He would not accept what he heard.

Gladwell’s point is that the conductor could not really hear the power of this woman because it contradicted what he saw with his eyes. What he saw corrupted the truth of his snap judgment, made by listening.

As we work with our investment partners, we, like the conductors, must listen attentively and see clearly. Often that clarity is possible when as Gladwell says, “We take charge of the first two seconds and see people for who they are.”

Work with our investment partners involves setting expectations and ensuring their alignment throughout our multi-year engagement as well as our ability to set and achieve mutually agreed-upon performance milestones. We must be able to see our investment partners for who they are, not who we think they should be. The success of a partnership is not in VPP changing an organization’s mission or telling the nonprofit’s leadership what to do. If we can see the organization as who they are and who they want to be, then the organization can also see the value of VPP.

It is the investment partners’ growth to a higher organizational level from VPP’s multi-year growth capital, strategic assistance and access to new networks that makes an investment partnership successful. Most important to VPP is that we become a long-term “trusted advisor.”

VPP is in transition between its first and second portfolios. We have been analyzing lessons-learned and examining the region in search of the next investment opportunities. The lessons from Blink are most appropriate especially when applie to our process of landscaping and assessing the best opportunities for our investment strategy and approach. VPP will continue to work with strong leaders (executives and board members) to take their organizations to a higher level to better serve children and youth in low-income families in the National Capital Region.

Blink is a powerful book that stimulates thinking about the way to understand the world within—how one thinks and behaves and the impact of such actions in work and personal situations. I believe the lessons from Blink can be very helpful, not only to all of us at VPP but to anyone who serves people in education, politics, philanthropy, and client-oriented businesses and nonprofits.

- Carol Thompson Cole

Two Prominent Leaders Join VPP Board

The Venture Philanthropy Partners Board has elected two new directors: Robert Boisture, formerly a member of Caplin & Drysdale’s Washington, DC office, and Kristin Ehrgood, President & Founder of Sapientis.

Boisture brings extensive knowledge of the legal issues of the nonprofit sector, having led the exempt organizations practice group and served as President of Caplin & Drysdale’s Washington, DC office. He has served as legal counsel and advisor to the Board of Directors since VPP’s inception.

A VPP investor, Ehrgood is an experienced nonprofit executive. She serves as President of Sapientis, a nonprofit organization that develops programs to stimulate change in the public education system of Puerto Rico and as Director of Flamboyan Foundation, a family foundation. Her experience as a VPP investor and within the nonprofit sector will enhance VPP’s ability to meet the needs of all its stakeholders.

“With the addition of these two prominent, well-regarded leaders, we are augmenting our already strong Board with significant talent. Each of these leaders brings invaluable and relevant skills and experience as well as a network of relationships to help VPP move forward into its next phase of growth and development,” said Board Chairman Mario Morino.

Over the next seven to 10 months, VPP plans to recruit three to five additional new members to the Board to further augment its collective capacity.

“Kristin Ehrgood and Bob Boisture bring additional wisdom, energy, and diversity to the VPP Board, but, most important of all, they each bring a long track record of caring passionately about creating better opportunities for children," said Bill Shore, Chairman and Executive Director of Share Our Strength and VPP Governance Committee Chair.

New Team Members Join VPP

Venture Philanthropy Partners welcomes two new team members this month: Allison O’Brien joins as Associate of Investor Development on September 2nd and Tracey Foxworth will begin as the Special Assistant to the President and CEO, Carol Thompson Cole on September 8th. Both positions augment VPP’s strong operating and development capacities.

“The addition of Allison and Tracey to our team will help us kick off a busy fall program. Each brings a unique skill set, passion, dedication, and energy to VPP. Allison’s experience in project management, research, analysis, and production will greatly benefit the Investor Development unit, led by our new Vice President, Tim Wierzbicki. And I am eagerly looking forward to working closely with Tracey, whose almost twenty years of experience in office administration and executive assistance in the private and academic sectors will no doubt help our operations run smoothly,” said Carol Thompson Cole, President and CEO of VPP.

O’Brien comes to VPP from PBS where she was in the government and regulatory affairs office. She was also serving as research assistant to Dr. Thomas Frank, a columnist at the Wall Street Journal. From 2004 through June of 2008 she worked in the public sector in various research and internship positions for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; the office of Senator Richard Durbin; and the office of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. She was also a Teaching Assistant for the University of San Francisco and a Research Assistant at Georgetown University. O’Brien received a Masters degree in American Government from Georgetown University in 2007 and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from the University of San Francisco in 2005.

Foxworth most recently served as Executive Personal Assistant and Estate Manager to the Rubin Family in Washington, D.C. where, for the last four years, she managed all operations for the family including supervising household staff, managing events, and maintaining the family office. She spent over ten years of her career at Harvard in many senior administration positions, including Operations Manager for the Center for Hellenic Studies; Office Administrator for the John F. Kennedy School of Government; and Executive Assistant of Presidential Affairs. Before joining Harvard’s staff, she was the Executive Assistant to the Chairman at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. in Boston, Massachusetts. She also worked for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights and Anti-Trust Divisions as a Legal Secretary.

Please join me in welcoming Allison and Tracey to the VPP team.

Management Changes

See Forever/MAPCS Welcomes New Executive Director
Thanks to Ingrid Padgett, Director of Development, for this update.

After an extensive search, the See Forever Foundation/Maya Angelou Public Charter School (SFF/MAPCS) has appointed Lucretia Murphy, Ph.D. to serve as its Executive Director. The recently announced appointment was timed with the start of the 2008-2009 school year as SFF/MAPCS prepares to welcome nearly 500 students across its multi-campus collaboration.

Murphy has been a member the Maya Angelou Public Charter School Board of Directors since 2005 and served as chair of the MAPCS School Performance Committee as a part of her Board tenure. Most recently, she was a senior program manager for Jobs for the Future (JFF). As part of JFF’s Connected by 25 Team, her work addressed the need for structural systemic change to increase postsecondary access and success for low-income youth. Through this work, she led efforts to redesign high school systems in Boston to improve educational opportunities for the city’s youth. Specifically, she worked to build partnerships between public schools and higher education institutions to increase postsecondary degree attainment or skilled level credentialing for high school students in the Boston area.

SFF/MAPCS co-founders David Domenici and James Forman, Jr. both applauded Murphy’s background, experience and vision. Forman noted, “Dr. Murphy has a particular interest in developing strategies for addressing race and class inequity in education, which make her superbly suited to lead in our alternative school setting.”

Murphy holds a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Michigan. She has conducted research on issues of race and equity in college access, minority student resilience and persistence, and the role of higher education in advancing the public good. Her dissertation, The Evidence of Things Not Seen: The Biography of the College Choice Process for Inner-City Young Women from Metropolis, examines the path of young, black women in an urban community from an alternative high school to college.

Domenici said, “Dr. Murphy’s career focus on engaging disconnected youth speaks volumes to our organizational efforts to advocate for systemic reform to improve educational outcomes and opportunities for young people.”

Heads Up Appoints Director of Programming
Thanks to Jason Maglaughlin, Development Manager, for this update.

Dr. Danette Gerald was recently appointed Director of Programming at Heads Up. Prior to joining Heads Up, Gerald served as the Assistant Director of Higher Education at the Education Trust where she managed the higher education research projects and P-16 initiatives. She also served as an original architect of the Access to Success Initiative, an effort which includes 21 public university systems that committed to increasing the enrollment and graduation rates of low-income students and students of color. Previously, Gerald served as a researcher at the University of Maryland; a student affairs administrator at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and an educational consultant. She has written extensively on the status of equity in education and most recently co-authored Engines of Inequality: Diminishing Equity in the Nation's Premier Public Universities.

Programs & Services

LAYC Wraps Up Successful Summer ‘08 Programs
Thanks to Cheryl Aguilar, Communications Specialist, for this update.

LAYC offered an array of programs this summer to 600 young people.

Through the District’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), LAYC placed nearly 200 young people in hospitality and small business development jobs, all aligned with DC’s workforce needs. At LAYC’s Art + Media House, SYEP participants worked for 10 weeks on Faces of Changes, creating three murals in historic U Street and Columbia Heights and refurbishing call boxes as neighborhood art icons.

Summer camp activities offered 161 elementary and middle school youth the opportunity to have fun while receiving academic support in math, reading, and writing. One hundred twenty-five young people learned tennis and other aspects of healthy fitness at the Pancho Gonzalez Youth Tennis Academy. In Langley Park, MD, 28 participants received instruction in GED exam preparation, counseling, and training in leadership and other life skills through the Youth Empowerment and Success Program (YES).

LAYC also launched the Summer Leadership Institute which provided 25 DC youth with advocacy and public speaking training to develop them as community leaders. This program will continue during the school year with plans to organize a youth-led social change campaign.

As the students said their goodbyes to summer fun to embark into a new year at school or a new job, LAYC staff was busily planning for fall. LAYC will continue to offer some 50 programs to help youth become successful and provide young adults with the skills they need to succeed and become engaged in their community.

AALEAD Summer Programs Align to Critical Success Factors
Thanks to Rick Chen, Manager of Development & Communications, for this update.

As summer ends and a new school year begins, Asian American LEAD reflected on the outcomes of its summer programs and the significance for the Asian American youth from low-income communities it serves. AALEAD defined and refined the goals of the organization through the training and development of evaluation tools from specialists at Mosaica: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism. AALEAD also continued this analysis as a part of its two-day staff retreat and broke its mission and the programs offered into four critical success factors: 1) academic attainment; 2) positive self-identity; 3) civic engagement, and 4) responsible behavior.

Applying these criteria as measurements, AALEAD determined that both the DC and Maryland Summer Programs were successful. Throughout the nine-week course in DC, students participated in a Ropes Course where they learned to trust each other and work as a team to achieve the same goal. They also attended workshops where professional leaders from the community shared their job experiences, how they approached their careers, and what it was like growing up as Asian Americans. To document their achievements and experiences, students created and produced their own newsletter, which also taught responsibility, accountability, and teamwork through meeting deadlines, deciding on layout and content, and interviewing their peers. Students also learned the importance of civic engagement by creating jewelry to sell, with proceeds benefiting poor children in the Philippines.

In the six-week Maryland Summer Program, there was a particular emphasis on culture and the arts. Students learned about the history, culture, and arts of China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam. As a culmination to their learning, students performed group skits based on folktales for their parents and guests at an end-of-summer barbeque. As a result of both programs, students are more confident and better prepared to face the challenges of the upcoming school year.

Awards & Recognition

CFNC Featured in Real Simple Magazine
Thanks to Ryan Smith, Manager of Grants & Major Gifts, for this update.

In its September issue, Real Simple Magazine highlights the story of Barbara Mason's 25-year journey helping thousands of children living in poverty and the one board member, Dagobert Soergel, who has been with her from the start. In fact, Soergel, a University of Maryland professor, also wrote the newspaper ad that Mason answered nearly 25 years ago that offered a chance to make a difference in the life of a child. The piece features a conversation between Mason and Soergel that illuminates the pivotal role Soergel played behind the scenes in helping CFNC develop into a nationally accredited organization that now provides nearly 200 children from low-income families with free preschool every year.

During the interview, Soergel also reveals a secret: “In CFNC’s second year, there was a workshop through High/Scope, an educational research foundation renowned for its preschool approach. I knew Barbara wanted to go, but CFNC didn’t have the money. I found an organization to pay for half. And Barbara doesn’t know this, but I contributed the other half.”

The article appears on p.90 of the September issue which just hit newsstands.

CentroNía Earns NAEYC Re-Accreditation
Thanks to Isabel Barranzuela, Communications Manager, for this update.

CentroNía is one of the first early childhood programs to earn accreditation under the new system implemented by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the nation’s leading organization of early childhood professionals. “We’re proud to have earned the mark of quality from NAEYC and to be recognized for our commitment to reaching the highest professional standards,” said President & CEO Beatriz Otero. “NAEYC Accreditation lets families in our community know that children in our program are getting the best care and early learning experiences possible.”

In the 20 years since NAEYC Accreditation was established, it has become a widely recognized sign of high-quality early childhood education. Approximately 8 percent of all preschools and other early childhood programs are accredited by NAEYC. In September 2006, the Association’s revised program standards and criteria introduced a new level of quality, accountability, and service for parents and children in child care programs.

“The new NAEYC Accreditation system raises the bar for preschools, child care centers and other early childhood programs,” said Mark Ginsberg, Ph.D., Executive Director of NAEYC. “CentroNía’s NAEYC Accreditation is a sign that they are a leader in a national effort to invest in high-quality early childhood education and to help give all children a better start.”

To earn NAEYC Accreditation in the new system, CentroNía went through an extensive self-study process, measuring the program and its services against the 10 new NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and more than 400 related Accreditation Criteria. The program received NAEYC Accreditation after an onsite visit by NAEYC Assessors to ensure that the program meets each of the NAEYC program standards. NAEYC-accredited programs are also subject to unannounced visits during their five-year accreditation period.

“The new NAEYC re-accreditation process gave CentroNía and DC Bilingual a wonderful opportunity to collaborate across our early childhood programs and to more fully align them with new national standards for excellence,” emphasized Eileen Wasow, Chief Academic Officer.

The new system of accreditation is more challenging than the process CentroNía went through several years ago. Renata Claros, Program Manager, explained, “CentroNía not only had more criteria to meet, but had to undergo a self-assessment that included a continual plan for improvement. NAEYC pushes you to implement higher standards instead of just theorizing about them.”

“We are very proud of the work that our teachers, leadership and management team accomplished together. This affirmation of our work will position us well as we continue to grow our program and support the families and children we serve to the best of our abilities,” Wasow said.

Grantmakers for Education Conference Comes to Baltimore

Grantmakers for Education (GFE) will have its 12th annual conference—Pathways to Opportunity: Redesigning Education, Revitalizing Community, Restoring Hope—in Baltimore, MD, October 20-22. The 2008 conference will delve into one of the central challenges facing the U.S.: even as the nation’s prospects for economic well-being become more dependent on a highly skilled, innovative workforce, an alarming proportion of its citizens—those on whom the nation’s future could hinge—face daunting odds in overcoming intergenerational cycles of poverty. Meanwhile, our education system is tasked with reinventing itself to educate more and more students to ever higher global standards.

This year’s conference features keynote speakers including Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts III, Abyssinian Baptist Church; Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School and author of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns; Pedro Noguera, New York University; Richard Rothstein, Economic Policy Institute; and David Whitman, author of Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism, forthcoming from the Fordham Institute.

Visit GFE’s website for additional details.