00:00:09.090 - 00:00:39.540

That water is here is water from my picture to the glass. Not something else. You're gonna be moderating the uh question and answers. Uh shall I just do that? It doesn't matter. You know the audience maybe, uh, yeah, it might help if I moderate. Yeah, yeah,

00:00:39.740 - 00:01:10.540

it may help if you moderate that so then you'll know. Good morning, everybody. It's out it sounds as if I have the pleasure of interrupting some very lively conversations and of course part of the reason why you all come to these things is to have these

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wonderful one on ones and one on threes and one on fours, and we certainly want to encourage that not only this morning but this afternoon and beyond. My name is David Vidal. I'm with the conference board. I'm in charge of a unit there called Global Corporate

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Citizenship which involves this and more. Uh, it's my duty this morning to and privilege to welcome you to the 7th annual meeting on corporate community involvement. And the 5th time that we do it as a threesome of the council on pardon me, I used to work

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at the Council on Foreign Relations. That's why it still comes out of my mouth, uh, the council on Foundations, uh, the conference board, and the Public Affairs council. First and most important thing, market calendars for 1999. In San Francisco, 19 to 20 July, the 8th annual

00:02:01.199 - 00:02:23.039

meeting. Good town, good place, please go. We also want to give uh a hearty thank you to the local advisory committee here in Baltimore that has uh assisted in putting together this marvelous program and visits and sites and so on and I'll uh cite the names

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of the individuals who made all that possible. Anita Maddox Johnson and if you're here, raise your hand or give a holler uh from Baltimore Gas and Electric, George Kirkley Senior from IBM. Suzanne Wolf from Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Cheryl D Hudgins. Procter and Gamble

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Cosmetics and Fragrance products, Margaret Morrow from the Rouse Company of Harbor Place and fame, and Brenda Kate Ashworth of T Roll Price Associates. In addition to the advisory staff of the conference, we have the various staffs of the 3 participating organizations that I'd like to recognize

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at this time as well. From the conference board, Salem Maclar Selma's in the back there. Uh, Michelle Wagner and Pam Dye, who's probably probably standing out there shepherding lots of people. From the Council on Foundation Fran Eaton. If you hear friends say hello Cindy Rab. Steve

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McCarney, Richard Salacillo. And from the Public Affairs Council, Doug Pinker, who's right here, and Karen Polliter. Thank you all very, very much. We are indebted to you for this event. Just to remind that you have these, uh, I haven't weighed them yet, but it looks like

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about a 2 pound book. That has a lot of information in it, including the agenda. Um, please also do not neglect the resource tables that a number of organizations have set out in the lobby beyond the coffee and the other, the other sweet stuff out there.

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We need the evaluations that each of you will be getting at the sessions you are attending individually. There are two sets of evaluations, one for each session, which you do as you finish them and please hand them to the individuals asking for them. And then at

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the very end of the, uh, entire conference we have a, a highly visible blue form that is an overall, uh, evaluation which we need to be able to serve you better, and we encourage you to do that for us. Highlights today again in your uh agenda

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in your books at 3 p.m. there will be a living classroom uh session. There are buses for that. Uh, do not be afraid of the heat that's been forecast. We'll take you there and we'll bring you back if you have us sign up for that. And

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the same thing for the reception this evening at 6 p.m. at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. There will be buses taking you and bringing you back at 8 p.m. The luncheon tomorrow afternoon at which uh Kurt Weedon, uh, a well-known provocative speaker, will be the, uh,

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keynoter, um. Most of you who are attending have signed up, but it's still always helpful to find out if any uh plans have changed. Can I have a show of hands of how many people would not be here for lunch and tomorrow to get a general

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sense. I can't count that fast, but it gives me a good idea. Thank you very much. Finally, just to point out that uh in your agenda again, uh there are some mysterious acronyms, SR and SB uh which essentially are Self-selecting devices for those of you who

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are looking for uh more beginning kinds of knowledge and those who are seeking more uh advanced types of knowledge SR indicates senior SB needs skill builder uh that's all that is, so you are aware of what you're getting into when you, you do that. It is

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now my pleasure to introduce you to the morning's uh opening speaker. Uh, those of us who are consumers of everyday news on, uh, what used to be McNeil there, which now Lyra, or anything else on the tremendous glut of news that we get in America these

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days, uh, would be very familiar with the face and perhaps even the views of Robert L. Woodson Senior. Uh, over the years, Mr. Woodson has developed a reputation and I suppose the practice in in social commentary that, uh, is probably by his own admission off the

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beaten track. And so for that very purpose he is this morning uh giving what we are describing as an alternative view on philanthropy uh and challenging all of us here to think about uh whether we do what we think we are doing. Mr. Woodson is the

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founder and president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, uh, which is very active and empowering, uh, uh, low income individuals, people who do not have the means to get other means of self help and self improvement. He's an author, uh, most recent book The Triangs

00:07:27.670 - 00:07:42.529

of Joseph How Today's Community Healers are reviving our streets and Neighborhoods. He's a recipient of MacArthur. Uh, fellowship, uh, but most important, I would say that he is a recipient of an awful lot of recognition that he has views that need to be heard, and it's

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for that purpose that he is here with us this morning, Mr. Woodson. Thank you. It is uh indeed a pleasure to, to be here this morning, uh. I spent about 3 days with some of you are in the audience when I was a faculty member of

00:08:06.000 - 00:08:27.790

the Public Affairs Institute. We had an aggressive 3 days and I was surprised and amazed that as a consequence of that, I was invited here. But uh thank you. Um, there was a, a young fellow who just wanted a position as development director for a nonprofit

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and uh his first task was to go and meet with a wealthy old man who had a foundation. And so he tried for weeks to get an appointment and finally when he did, The old man brought him into the room, crushed the old guy. And he

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said, young man, I have A brother Who is handicapped with 3 children. I also have a sister who's very ill with 3 children. If I don't give anything to them, what makes you think I'm going to contribute to you? But I know that you don't fall

00:09:09.150 - 00:09:27.330

into that category of someone that has their mind fixed. I am a, a, a refugee from the civil rights movement, having led demonstrations in the 60s. When I left that movement when I realized that many of the people who suffered and sacrificed most in the struggle

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for civil rights did not benefit from the change, that when the doors of opportunity were open their problems were not just race but theirs was uh uh uh a crisis that went beyond race and so I began to change direction and again to work on behalf

00:09:44.919 - 00:10:01.650

of low income people and I'd like to share with you the results of this journey. Hopefully my my purpose is threefold this morning. One is to inform you. Second is to perhaps inspire, but if I accomplish neither one of those, I hope I can at least

00:10:01.650 - 00:10:18.700

challenge you. There's a prayer that I utter every morning when I get up and I commend to you, Lord, give me the strength to tell and pursue the truth, especially when it's inconvenient to me. Doctor King said that the highest form of maturity of an individual

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is the ability to be self-critical. Because if you want to go someplace you haven't been, then perhaps you've got to do something you haven't done. Or put another way, if you keep doing what you do, you keep getting what you got. And so therefore, as a

00:10:36.320 - 00:10:55.510

nation, we have to understand that conventional remedies just have not worked. As I argue in my paper and, and, and that which I have written a report on philanthropy that I commend to your reading, that we're America is like a bus careening down the highway. At

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60 miles an hour and all of the red lights on the dashboard are on. And there are some who say, well, at least the bus is moving, so why do we have to concern ourselves with it? But the driver and others are saying these are caution

00:11:09.369 - 00:11:29.219

lights and we must take actions now before this vehicle stops or crashes. And the warning lights are all over us and conventional remedies just aren't working. For years and years, we believed that social injustice, racism, and economic disparity explained the social explosion and the spiral of

00:11:29.219 - 00:11:50.599

decline in our nation's inner cities. On that assumption we've launched a war on poverty where over the past 35 years we have spent federal, state, and local expenditures $5.3 trillion. That's more money than it takes to buy the capital assets of the corporate 500 companies. To

00:11:50.599 - 00:12:11.599

buy all of the uh uh uh land. To buy to more money than it is taken to execute our three wars. And yet we are told in in Washington DC. Where we have the highest black median income of any place in this nation. Where blacks have

00:12:11.599 - 00:12:30.830

been in charge of government for 25 years and running all of the infrastructure of the social and political machinery. For 25 years. We have the highest per capita expenditure in Washington DC in 17 separate categories than anyone else in the nation. And yet we are told,

00:12:31.150 - 00:12:53.460

according to a Harvard study, that a black child born in that city has a lower life expectancy than a child than anywhere in the Western Hemisphere except in Haiti. Coexisting with the highest black median income. About 3 years ago, Bill Griffin. A young man was gunned

00:12:53.460 - 00:13:09.950

down in the streets of Washington and the only reason that it was front page news is because he was the last of his mother's 4 children to die to meet violent death on the streets of Washington. A week later in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, two young girls, Yolanda

00:13:10.260 - 00:13:27.869

and her little girlfriend, were jumping double dutch. When 2 cars came down the street, young men firing back and forth. One was struck and killed, the other one was in a coma for months. And before the police could arrive, someone was collecting the, the bullet casings

00:13:28.159 - 00:13:49.190

so that the police wouldn't find evidence. In Richmond, Virginia, Leonidas Young, who just got elected mayor of Richmond, he was a pastor, and to stay in touch with his congregation, he would drive the uh the bus, the church bus on Sunday mornings. And in the back

00:13:49.190 - 00:14:04.929

of the bus, 15 year old boys were teasing another one because he had not passed his rite of passage. He had to visit violence upon someone as a means of uh of crossing over. And then later as he got off the bus, a 15 year old

00:14:04.929 - 00:14:27.349

girl came up to him. I remember his congregation, she said, Pastor, pastor, I've got good news. Thinking that she was just won a scholarship or achieve academically, she said, I'm pregnant. Lead Nightis Young, liberal Democratic mayor of Richmond, Virginia, said, and I quote, that the crisis

00:14:27.349 - 00:14:50.929

facing the black community is worse than the combined impact of slavery, discrimination, and drugs, because now the enemy is within. And therefore it requires a different approach to addressing these problems. Some of the problems that we normally associate with the inner city are now being visited

00:14:50.929 - 00:15:15.799

upon Paducah, Kentucky, Jonesboro, Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the wealthiest suburban communities anywhere in this country. Drug addiction is high, suicide rates are skyrocketing. We know that the, the, the scourge of of of of of self-doubt. Is consuming people like River Phoenix, Gloria Vanderbilts, 24-year-old Princeton

00:15:15.799 - 00:15:34.239

graduate son, editor of Public Interest magazine, has breakfast with his mother and within 10 minutes jumps out of a 14 story building to his death. The problems that this young man has faced and others like them, Gloria Vanderbilt, Carol O'Connors, and the rest of them cannot

00:15:34.239 - 00:15:52.530

be explained away by social injustice or racial discrimination or economic disparity or lack of education. And so therefore the bus, the the lights on this bus that I'm talking about can no longer be addressed through conventional strategies being offered by both the left and right of

00:15:52.530 - 00:16:15.099

center. People on the political left tend to believe compassion can be defined by how much we dispense in government largesse that is designed by professional outsiders and then parachuted into low income communities with the expectation that the poor will participate. Without realizing that 80% of all

00:16:15.099 - 00:16:32.179

funds that are designed to assist poor people go not to the poor but goes to those who serve the poor who ask not which problems are solvable but which problems are fundable this year we have created a commodity out of the poor so that we have

00:16:32.179 - 00:16:50.299

large numbers of people that have a vested interest in supporting strategies that fail. Because the, the more they fail, the larger their case loads get and the larger their bureaucracies, the higher their salaries. So we have perverse incentives and then you got those on the political

00:16:50.299 - 00:17:07.530

right who say, well, since what we have funded hasn't worked, what we should do is just cut them. Open the doors of the free enterprise system and then let meritocracy determine winners and losers. They don't understand that in order to participate in our market economy requires

00:17:07.530 - 00:17:36.589

capital and also knowledge. There's an old African proverb that when bull elephants fight, the grass always loses. And the poor are the losers in this bipolar debate between left and right. We have, I, I believe a poverty complex consisting of civil rights advocates, consisting of poverty

00:17:36.589 - 00:17:57.310

merchants, and consisting of those that have a vested interest in maintaining business as usual. And the race issue prevents any thoughtful dialogue on this whole issue of poverty because the civil rights movement and the poverty industry were incubated in the same womb so that the moral

00:17:57.310 - 00:18:17.829

authority of one is associated with the other so to raise questions or challenge any of these assumptions is to be accused of racial insensitivity. And so as a consequence, we don't have thoughtful debate on some of these issues. We do not have. We have a race

00:18:17.829 - 00:18:39.000

grievance industry as well as a poverty industry and they thrive on racial conflict. And racial discord, but we can't talk about that because it's not politically correct to do so. Well, I'm going to discuss that this morning and other uh uh uh uh approaches. And so

00:18:39.000 - 00:18:56.439

what we need, need to understand that we have got to look beyond the conventional prisms of left and right if we are to uh move into a new direction. Part of the difficulty that we have particularly with corporate funders. Is that you tend to do what

00:18:56.439 - 00:19:17.339

the government does, and that is you fund the poverty industry as well. You also end up paying ransom as a means of getting into business. It's amazing that business leaders have one set of principles that explain the success of their companies and once they enter into

00:19:17.339 - 00:19:38.959

the social economy, they abandon those principles and accept uh uh strategies and principles that are in fact. Hostile to the corporate interest. Let me give you an example from my experience of what I'm talking about. I went to the Public Affairs Institute dinner not too long

00:19:38.959 - 00:20:06.849

ago and some of you were there because I remember seeing you. And a man was introducing Robert Reich, the secretary of um of, of educate of uh of of of um. Treasury. Labor Here we go. And he talked about, let me quote what what the the

00:20:06.849 - 00:20:23.479

person introduced. It was called the Trumpeter Awards dinner at the National Consumer League. And he said, where is the true rot at the top in America? As Robert Rice teaches and reminds us, it is the arrogant, greedy, overblown corporate royalists who exploit their workers and shed

00:20:23.479 - 00:20:52.199

them from mercilessly at the first promise of cheap, unorganized labor in third world countries, the downsizing country jumping, loyalty jettison community scorning CEOs of America's Fortune 500 companies. This meeting was sponsored by 50 corporations. 50 corporations sponsored this. Let me read to you from a book

00:20:52.199 - 00:21:09.969

that I, I think should be required reading for all corporations. It's called The Fire of Invention by Michael Novak. And Mike said in the arena of public opinion and public policy, corporations or tigers in competition have appeared before the public as lambs leaking in appeasement. The

00:21:09.969 - 00:21:28.949

appeasement has taken two forms, first, intellectual and second in programs of charitable giving. For some reason, many executives seem defensive about crucial values of capitalism, business and corporations to democracy. To add insult to injuries, the same executives often do, in fact, permit their corporate giving officers

00:21:28.949 - 00:21:49.250

to reward with substantial grants the. activists who have advanced legislative agendas aimed at bringing corporate decisions under government control inch by inch. Such executives no longer sell their enemies the road by which they are, they are hanged, they give them as grants. This is from the

00:21:49.250 - 00:22:11.180

Fire of Invention by Michael Novak, and I commend that to your reading and review. And so therefore it seems to me that we have got to begin to move beyond these the these existing paradigms and began to understand that in every area of our of our

00:22:11.180 - 00:22:30.599

life we're able to learn from untutored sources. 60% of all the inventions that drive our commercial economy come from people that are not trained in their particular profession. And then, and yet even in uh in uh I was in the space program for about 3 years

00:22:30.599 - 00:22:47.160

flying missile test control and I remember for 6 months we tried to develop a telemetry simulator, a little box that sits inside the missile that would transmit back to Earth, the heat at the exhaust, the amith, the range, all of the intelligence on the missile. So

00:22:47.369 - 00:23:08.150

RCA I believe at the time I was uh. Employed 9 systems engineers to try to work out a a a design one. Every time we tested it, it didn't work, but a technician not assigned to the project named Frank Risner. An untutored technician designed a transistorized

00:23:08.150 - 00:23:25.800

version. The company we tested it, it worked the first time. They've made him senior engineer at night and put those systems engineers to work for him. This would never happen in our social economy. Because we're in your market economy and in your businesses you're driven by

00:23:25.800 - 00:23:48.800

outcomes and results in the social economy we're driven by process and good feelings. It is a matter of fun friends funding friends. It's the same in our medical life. Pharmacologists went to Tibet or the rainforests of Brazil to to study what the native, uh, aborigines were

00:23:48.800 - 00:24:04.880

able to do in terms of helping people with mental distress. I believe it was in Tibet in the late 40s where physicians from Vinyl, New Jersey went and found that these Tibetan monks were administering some kind of herbs that enabled people who had worked themselves up

00:24:04.880 - 00:24:22.839

into a frenzy and cooled them out. They brought it back, they refined it, they called the compound reserpine, and it is the fundamental basis of our tranquilizers which enabled us. A civilized, well educated population to free 80% of the mental patients and care for them outside

00:24:22.839 - 00:24:48.319

of hospitals. No one said that these monks didn't have PhDs because in our, in our every other sphere of life we learn from untutored sources except when it comes to our social economy where we are strictly driven by by credentials. And special specialized professionals. And so

00:24:48.319 - 00:25:06.280

in order for us to find a different paradigm I had to look outside of conventional wisdom and I looked to the Bible in the book of Genesis to find a different paradigm, a different prism to understand where where there's a source of new information because it

00:25:06.280 - 00:25:23.500

always blows my mind that we approach many of the, the, the problems that we confront today as if their problems are rational. That's why like drug addiction and alcoholism. We, we are now getting ready to launch a multi-billion dollar ad campaign that's gonna send commercials on

00:25:23.500 - 00:25:42.680

television where Mickey Mouse will be telling kids not to take coke. And so this is bound to fail because we assume that the problem is rational, therefore, it, it lends itself to a therapeutic rational solution. If drug and alcoholism were rational, then explain to me why

00:25:42.680 - 00:26:05.199

do you have PhDs, MDs and pharmacologists and chemists, drug addicts? Their problem isn't a lack of knowledge. And therefore if the problem is irrational, then perhaps the solution has to exist at that level, irrational. How can you have a multi-million dollar football player like Leon Lettt

00:26:05.199 - 00:26:25.260

on the eve of the Super Bowl. He's been tested 10 times a month for cocaine. And yet just before the game he goes up his nose again, loses the respect of his family, his teammates, plays the this is irrational. And therefore we must look to a

00:26:25.260 - 00:26:44.800

source outside of therapy, education, and all these other spheres. And so what I did in looking at the book of Genesis, I found it in the Bible with the story of Joseph. Joseph, as you may know, was one of 7 children born to Jacob. And he

00:26:44.800 - 00:27:02.260

was favored by his father, but despised by his brothers because he had the ability to interpret dreams, and he told his brothers that he saw them bowing down to him. Now not a fun thing to tell your brothers. And so they plotted his death, but instead

00:27:02.469 - 00:27:19.439

they faked his death and sold him into slavery, where he went to work as a slave in a house of Pothi, the chief, a guard to Pharaoh, but Joseph prospered because God was with him and as a consequence, he became the best slave and when he

00:27:19.439 - 00:27:40.979

was a very handsome man and therefore Pothi's wife lusted for him. Sent all of the servants out and he refused because Joseph had lateral integrity and horizontal integrity. He refused to violate the confidence his slave master had placed in him. But he also knew it was

00:27:40.979 - 00:27:58.420

a sin against his God. And so as a consequence, she, he refused and she she complained that he attempted to rape her and he was in prison. Where he became the best inmate. And placed in charge of the other prisoners. Well, he interpreted the dream of

00:27:58.420 - 00:28:13.219

two of Pharaoh's servants, and when they got out, they promised to help him, but they abandoned him too for 3 more years. And finally, Pharaoh had a dream that none of his experts could help him. He, he, and so that then his slave reminded them, the

00:28:13.219 - 00:28:28.060

servants reminded him that there was this Hebrew boy in the jail, so he was cleaned up, brought before Pharaoh. They said, bow down before the god Pharaoh, he said, I can't bow down to any god but my own. So Pharaoh knew that he had integrity. And

00:28:28.060 - 00:28:47.920

so he interpreted his dreams. He said there were 7 years of, of, of plenty followed by 7 years of uh of famine, and you should save up 20% and appoint an overseer. So Pharaoh appointed Joseph as an overseer. Now this is an important uh analogy because

00:28:47.920 - 00:29:07.520

in one sense Pharaoh was like a corporate CEO. A responsible company I remember speaking uh following the the uh senior vice president for quality control for Procter and Gamble one time at the University of North Carolina and he talked aggressively about how that company was dominating

00:29:07.520 - 00:29:27.150

its market. And how aggressively it was seeking to find out what its customers wanted so it could maintain that marketplace uh and as aggressively and Pharaoh was like that responsible leaders whether it's of a corporation or a nation or people who are able to dream bad

00:29:27.150 - 00:29:45.839

dreams in good times. They were not to be content with their market position, but to say what does the future hold and what must I do now to prepare for that future. And he knew that his existing experts were not providing him with adequate answers and

00:29:45.839 - 00:30:10.040

so Pharaoh broke a paradigm. He reached out to a man who was not of his religion. In fact, he was polytheistic and Joseph was monotheistic. He was Egyptian. Joseph was was Jewish, a Hebrew. He was well educated. Joseph was untutored, he was older, Joseph was younger.

00:30:10.329 - 00:30:36.300

They had nothing in common. And you can imagine the consequence within his own court when he reached outside of the company to bring in this untutored boy to advise him and as a consequence it says that Egypt prospered and fed the world. And for 400 years

00:30:36.300 - 00:30:56.319

until there arose a pharaoh that knew not Joseph. You see, the, the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprises ministers to and helps thousands of Josephs in their world. They're in poverty but not of poverty. The very qualities that make them effective makes them invisible to corporate funders

00:30:56.319 - 00:31:15.780

and others because they're not out campaigning, they're not out demanding ransom from you, they're not shaking their cups, they're not protesting anything. They also, what we have found as a consequence of us going out into the neighborhoods and casting a huge net. We find that 90%

00:31:15.780 - 00:31:37.314

of their effectiveness is the ability to reach people at this irrational spiritual level and call them to responsibility not by having conferences or discussion groups by the power of their own. example of having transformed themselves from being drug addicts and alcoholics and thieves and cutthroats, their

00:31:37.314 - 00:31:54.675

lives are a living example of the power to change and as a consequence they summon others to responsibility and in the book I identify who these Josephs are one for instance group in Washington DC you might have read about it in the papers or saw it

00:31:54.675 - 00:32:11.739

on television. Where Washington, as I said, had the highest homicide rate of any place in this country. In one neighborhood venting terrors, there were 41 homicides in a 5 square block area as a consequence of these warring gangs called the Avenue in the Circle. They lived

00:32:11.739 - 00:32:29.099

in a place called Simple City. But it was when uh uh two Januaries ago a 12 year old boy named Darryl Hall was snatched off the street in a gang dispute, pistol whipped in front of his brothers and sisters, kidnapped 3 days later he was found

00:32:29.099 - 00:32:46.510

brutally murdered in in a ravine. Well, normally this would have triggered a retaliatory strike from the other side, but 5 men call the Alliance of Concerned men Josephs, if you will. Work with us. They went up into those those neighborhoods, brought the gang leaders together, and

00:32:46.510 - 00:33:05.589

they met in my office because it was downtown and safe. They came in with these big sweaters on, with bulletproof vests. And as a consequence of this Joseph intervention, the power of, of the moral authority that these men held, these young men signed a, a treat,

00:33:05.829 - 00:33:24.300

a treaty, a treaty. And as a consequence, the housing receiver stepped up and said, Bob, what can I do? I said, a transformed heart needs a full stomach and busy hands. They need jobs. And these young men were given an opportunity to work, defying all of

00:33:24.300 - 00:33:41.010

the myth that the that they won't put down drugs to take a 6 15 hour job that you can't reach these young people. We now have 78 of them working. This community that had 41 deaths in a 5 square block area has not had a single

00:33:41.010 - 00:34:07.589

death in 18 months. Not a single day. And now it's been exported to another uh community called Park Morton. Plans are underway to export it to another community and then to 5 other cities. It is fascinating. It was on all the major networks, the front page

00:34:07.589 - 00:34:27.479

of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times. And yet, everyone showed up except funders. Not a single one with the I think Fannie Mae came in with a little bit. And now some others step, but, but there was no rush to embrace

00:34:27.810 - 00:34:46.699

this Joseph, and there are others around the country. Pastor Garcia in San Antonio, Texas. A man that has reached out, he and his wife were drug addicts for for a number of years and for 30 years they have transformed 13,500 hardcore drug addicts. They have 65

00:34:46.699 - 00:35:09.000

para churches all over the Southwest. 80% cure rate at a cost of $50 a day when government sponsored drug and alcohol treatment programs cost $600 a day. With a 6 to 10% success rate. And yet they are not the recipients. Of any of the monies that

00:35:09.000 - 00:35:28.530

are supposed to go to assist the problem. They are the Josephs, if you will. So corporations it seems to me. Have to be like like pharaohs and reach outside of your paradigm, stop paying ransom and begin to embrace the Joseph, if you will, because after all

00:35:28.739 - 00:35:51.909

they have and you have some interests in common. Because they don't profit from an uncivil environment, nor do you. They need jobs. You need employees, but you should look at yourselves as venture capitalists looking for a social entrepreneur. Pharaoh is really a venture capitalist venture capitalists,

00:35:51.989 - 00:36:18.010

as you know, look for an entrepreneur with integrity and a good idea. And then what the venture capitalist does is bring to that that entrepreneur capital, training, management. And as a consequence of this relationship, new companies are formed. And it seems to me that if we

00:36:18.010 - 00:36:37.139

are to change and transform this society, we have got to bring about a confluence of interest and bring to the table the Josephs and the Pharaohs. And bring them to the table in a new relationship so they define the political and social environment and they dictate

00:36:37.139 - 00:37:04.030

which policy should serve people. The wonderful thing about the American economy is that there is an inverse relationship between education. And success as an entrepreneur. Because well educated people tend not to be risk takers. They want to know what the 501K plan is. Entrepreneurs just want

00:37:04.030 - 00:37:24.750

to know what the deal is. I know venture capitalists that will not provide capital to an entrepreneur unless they have failed at least once, because true character is defined by a person's ability to rise above difficult circumstances. And so, as I said, education. Gotta be a

00:37:24.750 - 00:37:46.010

risk taker. In fact, uh, I think it was somebody said that A students will come back to your universities and teach there. C students will come back and endow the place. Bell and down the place. AD Gaston, one of my favorite people. Alabama's first black millionaire,

00:37:46.169 - 00:38:18.030

he just died last year, 103 years old in a wheelchair, still making money. AD Gaston had a 3rd grade education. He said it's better to say I is rich than I am poor. Mhm I Let me just conclude this section because I want to hear from

00:38:18.030 - 00:38:44.280

you some questions. Raspberry, William Raspberry, the Washington Post columnist, talked about this in, in a very succinct way. When he says that we and I agree we must look beyond the existing paradigm of black and white. Rich and poor And began to understand the important role

00:38:44.280 - 00:39:01.669

of character. He said, find me a black child with ambition, confidence, determination, and I'll show you that child's future. Find me a white child without ambition, competence and determination, and I'll show you that child's future. Opportunities given to him will not spell success and opportunities deny

00:39:01.669 - 00:39:25.600

that black child will not cause him to fail. That some people will succeed in hell and others will fail in heaven. That fine words will never take the place of fine deeds. That the validity of whatever you support. Should be determined by whether or not. Results

00:39:25.600 - 00:39:44.419

occur, find deeds. are more important than fine rhetoric. And that we've got to begin to, to reach. Let me just conclude by giving you some of the principles that I identify in the book, the determining the Josephs because that's the question, how do you determine Josephs

00:39:44.419 - 00:40:08.100

distinguish them from hustlers. It's not not everybody that says they are neighborhood. Are, are, uh, are, are, are legitimate. First of all, Joseph's tend to predate funding. Their programs predate funding. In other words, they have invested themselves. And then secondly, they live in the same zip

00:40:08.100 - 00:40:27.090

code as those experiencing the problem. So therefore, there's a different level of accountability. Third, their goals are self-sufficiency and independence of those that they serve. They're not seeking to create clients out of the people that they serve. And the 4th is that it is a lifetime

00:40:27.090 - 00:40:49.389

commitment that these entrepreneurs have. It is not an episode. This is a whole life's calling. And the 6th is the 5th rather, they recognize the centrality of faith in engendering true change. And they do not approach the problem through the prism of race and ethnicity. And

00:40:49.389 - 00:41:09.399

also the Josephs require something from those that they serve in return. That's why a lot of us wonder why people are not grateful for that which we have done for them. Sociologists will tell you that when someone is constantly in a position of receiving and never

00:41:09.399 - 00:41:25.580

giving after a time, they will, they will despise not only the gift, but the gift giver. Therefore it seems to me that if you want to really go someplace that you haven't been and you've gotta do something you haven't done and that is to reach out

00:41:26.229 - 00:41:48.169

to the Josephs of this world and resist the temptation to pay ransom, resist the temptation to continue to support. Uh programs because they are popular, but support those that are effective in truly transforming people. We have been blessed with meeting some people like that. Cliff Ehrlich

00:41:48.169 - 00:42:06.360

is a former CEO, uh, uh, um, uh, vice president for corporate affairs with the Marriott Corporation has joined me here. Cliff and uh George Kettle, a man who was one of the co-founders of Century 21, Jim Kimsey, the former CEO of America Online. Some of these

00:42:06.360 - 00:42:22.330

people have come to me and stepped up and said Bob, we're sick of business as usual and we want to support your Josephs and they are they are doing so I hope that you will join them and and recognize that the red lights are on whether

00:42:22.330 - 00:42:50.729

or not the vehicle gets pulled over to the side and true repairs are made will depend a large measure on what decisions you make. Into the future. Thank you. This is an interactive session. We have an hour of questions and answers that Mr. Woodson has graciously

00:42:50.729 - 00:43:10.300

agreed to participate in. Uh, let me just summarize a couple of things that struck me as I was listening to his statement. He encourages to be self-critical. To examine the conventionalities of right and left. To engage in a thoughtful, not a reactive debate, to shift the

00:43:10.300 - 00:43:26.229

paradigm, to get out of the box, to examine the social economy as we do the market economy. To be like Pharaoh as managers, and that's a new one. And at the conference where we've never done aharo analysis, but maybe we have to. He also taught us

00:43:26.229 - 00:43:38.770

how to do Joseph analysis, which is, which is a new management discipline. To resist ransom, to be effective and to be transformational, uh, what I will do is simply call on people in different areas of the room to try to spread it around and if I

00:43:38.770 - 00:43:54.639

find that there are issues that are accumulating, probably ask a number of people to ask the same questions so that he can address them at one lot. We're open for questions. Yes, ma'am. Hi, I'm Emily Rothford from the Fannie Mae Foundation. I have a thank you

00:43:54.639 - 00:44:10.000

for uh yes we did support that project um my question is you set up a little bit of a paradox for us and that is to fund risk taking to fund those the seeds who have the seeds of change in neighborhoods, yet you also want us

00:44:10.000 - 00:44:24.699

to fund results so that it. We had not known for example that that uh concerned brothers were going to be successful but what if they had needed the seed money to be successful there's a little bit of a chicken and egg phenomenon. How can we be

00:44:24.699 - 00:44:48.629

risk takers fund innovation, yet we you also ask us to show results. OK, first of all, Like in any venture capitalist, what a venture capitalist looks for is results in microcosm. They look for someone that has developed a unique niche, has a small business that is

00:44:48.629 - 00:45:08.159

successfully addressing the problems in a small community grassroots leaders are pretty much like that. They have demonstrated that they can solve problems of teen pregnancy and others like this in in their own neighborhood. And so there, the matter of effectiveness has already been demonstrated. So the

00:45:08.159 - 00:45:31.469

question is, how do you go and find people who are doing things successfully in microcosm. Like any venture capitalist, the dilemma is too much capital insinuated into a commercial entrepreneur can smother the entrepreneurial event. Too little can starve it. So there's always that tension between how

00:45:31.469 - 00:45:50.929

do you insinuate capital into a small business so that it grows and prospers. So you must treat a social entrepreneur the same way. It's a matter of sitting down with those individuals based upon your knowledge about training and experience and how things grow and say let

00:45:50.929 - 00:46:08.100

me work with you to take what you have done that works in 5 blocks and expand it so it works in 20 and from there the entire city, but let's do it as a partner and invest that's what a venture capitalist does. But there are other

00:46:08.100 - 00:46:29.709

situations as in the case of Pastor Garcia and other groups around the nation that have been operating for 30 years. What we ought to do is rather than support research that I call failure studies, we spend $35 billion every year on social science research examining the

00:46:29.709 - 00:46:48.060

deficits of the poor. And you can learn nothing from studying failure except how to create it. So what we should do is go out into those communities if you have to have research and evaluation, I believe in that. But sit down with the people that are

00:46:48.060 - 00:47:03.870

producing results in microcosm and say how can we take our resources and study it and then publish these results and then help you to grow but also to answer your second question, go to those that have been around 20 and 30 years and say how can

00:47:03.870 - 00:47:26.689

I join with you to take what you're doing, stabilize it, and even make it grow beyond where it is. But the key here, whether it's in microcosm or larger is both, both entities are producing measurable results. Measurable results what we're asking for. The other problem that

00:47:26.689 - 00:47:41.729

we face is that many corporations, it always blows my mind, but he said we would love to help them, but these people are God centered and religious, and we're worried about the separation of church and state. I said, my God, where does the Constitution say that

00:47:41.729 - 00:48:13.370

a private institution has to be held to the principles church church and state? Yet corporations steadfastly defend us. Aggressively The question is does it work? If it works, then you should support it. But I hope that answers your question. I heard 3 different 3 new issues

00:48:13.370 - 00:48:41.860

that were raised in the answer scaling up faith-based initiatives and measurement. I just throw them out. My experience is that when you do have organizations that have been active at the grassroots level for 20 or 30 years, they their approach. To helping the poor is extremely

00:48:42.229 - 00:49:08.469

non traditional and sometimes it's so non-traditional that it it's almost offensive to corporate America uh because they because they demonstrate because they you know they are church based and so when you engage you myself particularly engage the company. And looking to that grassroots, those grassroots efforts,

00:49:08.870 - 00:49:36.379

the dis the comfort level of the executives of the corporation. Uh, is, is not there and then beyond that when you do step out and you start helping those grassroots organizations, the pressure from the, uh, the, the, the elite leadership uh on to that corporation. With

00:49:36.379 - 00:49:54.879

that alignment is is very significant. I mean it's almost like. You're if you wanna be part of the leadership you better not get down into that that grassroots effort you know you need to stay where I I mean that and those are the conflicts that corporate

00:49:54.879 - 00:50:11.324

America faces with regards to doing grassroots community efforts. Well, first of all I think there was something that you said. I'm not sure I understood you said they demonstrate something that's what makes them controversial, but see, let me just say that's a lot of public kind

00:50:11.324 - 00:50:32.899

of, uh, manifestations that are, you know, part of it is that in corporate America you talk behind closed doors you don't expose you know yourself to or your problems to the public. OK, first of all, the kind of grassroots Josephs I'm talking about. Are not like

00:50:32.899 - 00:50:52.050

Acorn or any of the the the organizations that are demonstrating outside of corporate headquarters. In fact, what you all are doing is sending the signal to grassroots groups if you want to get money from corporations, cuss them out. Um, support policies that raise their taxes and,

00:50:52.120 - 00:51:09.459

and, and, and makes the climate hostile. In fact, if you look at studies for every dollar you give to a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports lower taxes and a more friendly environment, you give $3 to those who oppose it. I asked people at the Public Affairs

00:51:09.459 - 00:51:30.830

Institute when I started my seminar, I said, explain to me why corporations give out of their corporate giving office. Uh, to organizations that lobby against the corporate interest and then pay lobbyists to lobby on the other side. That's schizophrenic. And I said to you, I'm giving

00:51:30.830 - 00:51:46.399

you 3 days to answer it. I didn't get one answer. Why that's done. But I, I, I, I have to say to you that the organizations that I'm talking about, the Josephs, they are not the organizations that are out picketing anyone or or whining or complaining

00:51:46.399 - 00:52:06.489

or shaking their cup. They're the people like the Alliance of Concerned manners who are busy serving the people. Most of what they do is not controversial. It's just that they, it is, it is, they're ignored. Because people, most CEOs that I have talked with, the first

00:52:06.489 - 00:52:23.489

thing they say, get us out the newspapers. And the way you do that is pay the ransom. And I'm saying that that you cannot no longer do that. And you've got to begin to do in your in your, in your corporate life, which in your social

00:52:23.489 - 00:52:43.169

giving what you're doing in your investment side, and that is to look for outcomes. Because otherwise you're going to wait until it is your sons or daughters who are in jeopardy. But you see, it isn't just the money that creates a problem for legitimate grassroots Joseph.

00:52:43.300 - 00:53:03.600

It is the validity that comes with corporate dollars because you are validating an approach. You're sending a message not only to grassroots people in the media and to the general public, but you're saying you sanctioned these policies. So it's just more, it's more important than just

00:53:03.600 - 00:53:23.110

money. I would like to ask a question. One of the things that I do is to answer questions from companies and more recently among the questions that are are most interesting that I've been getting directly at the conference board, uh, one from a company in Texas

00:53:23.110 - 00:53:39.929

and another from a company in Ohio. And they both had to do with what was the appropriateness of a corporate response to some manner of faith based initiative on the one hand, it had to do with political contributions, believe it or not, one company that was

00:53:39.929 - 00:53:56.810

developing a plan of sorts to I guess encourage involvement in a pack. Uh, and one of the ways that they would do that would be to allow an employee to make a grant out of the foundation of that company to an organization of their choice, and

00:53:56.810 - 00:54:13.429

increasingly they were bumping up against people who were active in religious organizations or religiously changed organizations or blessed as the case might be and. The company wanted to know what the policies were what the conference board knew about what companies were doing and then a similar

00:54:13.429 - 00:54:27.489

question developed in another part of the country about some of the same but did not come out in the same format, but the essence of it was is that there appears to be a a lot more uh review of the fact that things in communities are

00:54:27.489 - 00:54:44.179

occurring with community institutions including churches. And that if a corporation is gonna be effective in the community, it might have to reconsider how to deal with churches or with faith based initiatives. My question therefore is, what advice do you have? because corporations have to be very

00:54:44.179 - 00:55:07.459

practical creatures. And the individuals here are mechanics of practicality as well as strategies of community engagement. What advice we give this group on how to be effective managers representing the corporate interests and deal effectively with faith based organizations. In the first place, it is very interesting

00:55:07.459 - 00:55:25.790

that, that, that, um, the whole faith phenomena is something that is seldom discussed. In corporations it is, is first of all is to talk about it but also I think that there is something else that we don't talk about and I'm surprised that we haven't heard

00:55:25.790 - 00:55:43.860

about it that's related to that and that is the whole issue of of race re rears its head as well. Uh, and, and, and so that the whole church phenomena then is some another controversial issue. We'll discuss the, the maybe the race issue in a little

00:55:43.860 - 00:56:00.310

bit. But I suggest that If you reach out. To the uh to first of all to find out what the market is out there, what are the churches doing to restore their community? Look at what Floyd Flake is doing in in Queens, New York. A pastor,

00:56:00.469 - 00:56:20.629

that church is the 4th largest employer in Queens, 484 employees. There are other phenomena around the country, so I suggest that corporations have to look at these new these young pastors and also some of these non-church but faith centered organizations to find out first of all,

00:56:20.709 - 00:56:37.939

what is the market? How many people do they represent? What are they doing? We're trying to get funding for a film, a major documentary that would explore this and go around the nation and, and look at some of the worst rundown neighborhoods and in the mid

00:56:37.939 - 00:56:54.600

midst of them are islands of excellence, centers of competence where for instance, let me give you an example in Detroit. One church, a pastor took over a church. They would just crack houses all over the place, and he came in. He found that the church had

00:56:54.600 - 00:57:17.629

about $250,000 in assets and $17,000 in liabilities rather than building a new edifice, what he did instead was take those assets, purchased the 50 boarded up houses, using church members, renovated them. And brought them online, but the cost of renovating it was $50,000. The uh the

00:57:17.629 - 00:57:37.550

market cost of the house value was $60,000. But therefore he couldn't get them insured for their replacement value which was more like $80,000 so what we were able to do was persuade an insurance company to come in. And insure these houses for their market value because

00:57:37.550 - 00:57:57.290

companies don't know how to make character judgments in these neighborhoods, therefore redlining. So rather than just whining and complaining and filing suits against the company, what we do is show the company how to make informed character judgments in these communities by going to the pastor and

00:57:57.290 - 00:58:15.629

through the church and ensuring those houses because the people are not gonna burn them and walk away with a windfall and as a consequence of successfully demonstrating among these 50 houses that you can insure them. The way you would houses in the suburbs, the pastor and

00:58:15.629 - 00:58:35.379

the nonprofit was able to take this paper to the bank, receive, saw the paper, take this money then and purchase 50 more houses and renovate them. And thus other pastors began to step up and say how can we take this drug infested uh apartment building over

00:58:35.379 - 00:58:55.500

here come together purchase it, expel all of the drug addicts and then put our people in there. There is an example of how corporate America can work side by side with the. Josephs in the restoration of an entire neighborhood using the the the centers of moral

00:58:55.500 - 00:59:16.179

influence that the church has that has commercial and and social outcomes there is there is just one example of how they can all come together uh to restore these communities. May I have a show of hands how many of you are with companies that have policies

00:59:16.179 - 00:59:36.629

regarding working with faith-based initiatives by that name? Wow, a lot more than I would have thought. How many of you have policies or activities that engage in outcome measurement in corporate community involvement? It's less it's interesting. There's more activity on the side of measuring, I guess,

00:59:36.639 - 00:59:56.669

or or judging faith based than there is on in total outcomes and that's very interesting development. Yes, ma'am, and red. I'm CJ Van Pelt with Cisco Systems Foundation. Just a note on faith-based and how we handle it. It's not that we don't fund faith-based, um, because

00:59:56.669 - 01:00:10.300

as you rightfully point out, many of them are the people that are have the trust of the community and are doing those things. The thing that we look for is whether or not it actually promotes a specific religion and whether it excludes anybody because they are

01:00:10.300 - 01:00:26.070

not of that faith and, uh, as you drill down deeper, you, you know, you get into the real. Discussions about well it actually does promote the faith but uh but on the on the very top level that seems to satisfy um us and and the and

01:00:26.070 - 01:00:40.560

the people at the top too as long as it's results oriented as long as the program is good um as long again as it doesn't discriminate against those that are not of that faith. What, what most of the churches do, as Floyd Flake and others, they

01:00:40.560 - 01:00:59.290

have established separate nonprofit entities that meet all of the tests of nonprofits. And they meet their IRS standards and so the investment then is not in the church but in the activities of uh of the church. Uh, as a, as a subdivision of it, so, but

01:00:59.290 - 01:01:20.370

it is, it, it is really producing some dramatic changes in neighborhoods and a source of restoration, not just in residential properties but other churches are reclaiming some of the commercial section also what they're doing is making people work ready for instance, uh, we have something that

01:01:20.370 - 01:01:42.310

we call marketable character. That Bell Atlantic, for instance, has to spend an additional $100,000 for every crew that goes into a high crime area by union contract. And so if there are 9 crews operating, that's an additional $900,000 that company has to put out. So we're

01:01:42.310 - 01:02:00.320

saying to the protest groups say you're redlining. I don't care what your cost is serve it anyway we say by contrast, let us look at ways that we can add value to you and you can add value to us. So if I have got ex gang

01:02:00.320 - 01:02:21.139

leaders that have been trained with capital commitment in Washington DC, we have an effective telecommunications technical training school. That has trained over 800 young men and women, half of whom were on welfare before, now making 25,000 $30,000 a year in the telecommunications field. We've taken 5

01:02:21.139 - 01:02:42.360

of our ex-gang leaders who are now successfully completing that course, one of them at the top of his class. If one of those young men were to drive a Bell Atlante truck in a high crime area, you don't need security. So therefore his background and experience

01:02:42.570 - 01:03:01.929

has a marked advantage over someone without that background. And so it's the same with the restaurant owners and others. In other words, if you look at it from the market perspective, I always ask the question, what advantage do the people we deal with have over others

01:03:01.929 - 01:03:18.500

without that background? And as a consequence, if we were able to apply this to Bell Atlantic, it means that they would save hundreds of thousands of dollars. They should keep half of it, but then they should be willing to share the rest of it with the

01:03:18.500 - 01:03:42.750

nonprofit and hopefully with us, so you have a win win win situation. Anyone who comes to you. With a proposition. Where it is taking from one group to give to another. I would say that that's not a legitimate proposition. But legitimate Joseph organizations will always come

01:03:42.750 - 01:04:01.040

to you and say how can we sit down and figure out a way that all of us win. And that's where the innovation occurs. Taking ex-gang leaders and not only ex-gang leaders, but there are people who never rode in a stolen bike. We, we spend as

01:04:01.040 - 01:04:21.139

much time dealing with kids in those environments that have, they're in poverty but not of poverty. We need to ask ourselves how did a mother raise 5 children in a crime, drug infested neighborhood and all of her children went to college. There's uh uh uh uh

01:04:21.139 - 01:04:34.239

the the the gris of research we need to go into those neighborhoods and ask how many other people are in there, how did they achieve what they did against the odds? What is it that we can learn from these people that can be a source of

01:04:34.239 - 01:04:52.750

new insight and information for advising others or for even advising your own giving programs? I would love to see research and and and going into the neighborhoods to do asset mapping. But we don't do that. If I were to do a survey, if I were to

01:04:52.750 - 01:05:09.290

treat you the way we treat poor folks, I would send people out to your tables and I'd ask you. How much you pay in mortgage payments, car notes, credit card payments. Then after I I I I accumulated all these, I would stop and say these folks

01:05:09.290 - 01:05:26.830

in this conference in rough shape financially. Because I do not have an accurate or adequate picture of you until I look at your assets versus your liabilities. We never ask poor people about their assets. We only ask them about their liabilities and then try to fund

01:05:26.830 - 01:05:57.830

cures for these liabilities. Rather than asking them of their assets and how we then can promote more of these. And fund others like them or find out what kind of enabling uh support we can provide. That In the center there. You, yes. Good morning. Uh, my

01:05:57.830 - 01:06:18.850

name is Virginia Victorin from the Arco Foundation in Los Angeles. My throat's dry, sorry, um, one of the things that I think we have found at ACO that. Is a challenge especially now in California with race relations where they are California 209 Hopwood in Texas investments

01:06:18.850 - 01:06:42.209

that we're trying to make in education, um devolution with the D E V I L, um. Whatever that is. You're right, um, one of the challenges I think that we face as program officers is trying to come up with strategy that allows us to invest in

01:06:42.209 - 01:07:03.419

technical assistance that is required in trying to fund those innovative type of programs because it's not a fad. Issue it can't be it can't be sexy it has to, you know, you have to be committed to going beyond the dollar, taking the time to go out

01:07:03.419 - 01:07:21.389

there, nurture those relationships, connect these people to the Center for Nonprofit Management to, uh, going out there to see what their, you know, do they have a business plan. They don't many of them don't know what that is, so how do we find ways as liaisons

01:07:21.389 - 01:07:41.179

perhaps between what our corporate entity wants to see what the community wants to see, and helping bridge the difference and it cannot be short term, um, but I think one of the effective roles that we can play is the brokering of resources. It really is um

01:07:41.179 - 01:07:59.550

and and brokering is is exactly what what is required but again even in the field of education. We have found in some of the lowest income communities in Newark, New Jersey, for instance, which is a basket case educationally. But for the past 30 years, there's a

01:07:59.550 - 01:08:22.500

school called the Chad School where 70% of the children coming to this school. Are from single black female headed households with incomes less than $20,000. And therefore it cost the school about $4000 to train these kids. 98% of these kids go on to college or post-secondary

01:08:22.500 - 01:08:41.088

education. There's no violence, no teen pregnancy. And yet if you look, and so here is an example of excellence in the presence of despair is the same with the Messer School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where it in public school systems there it takes 500 young black men

01:08:41.088 - 01:08:58.729

starting kindergarten to graduate one from high school. Where 60% of the teachers said they, they wouldn't send their children to those schools. And so it seems to me without even getting into the debate of educational choice or what have you it seems to me that business

01:08:58.729 - 01:09:17.060

should have some responsibility to seek out these islands of excellence in these communities and seek to make them the best of what they do and then using them as intermediaries to help others to do the same thing to help their children. But when you look at

01:09:17.060 - 01:09:36.509

the Chad school and others that are around the country. Businesses are not investing in those kind of uh uh uh experiences. They're not doing it. And so it's not a matter of getting a, a, a risky that's not even a risk anymore. Chad school had 6

01:09:36.509 - 01:09:57.830

of its 9th graders compete with 263 public and private schools throughout the state of New Jersey in a math contest. Chad school came in first. But yet you didn't hear about it. These are kids that are not supposed to do what they're doing. And so it

01:09:57.830 - 01:10:20.189

seems to me that corporations should rush in. Two examples like that. Provide them with the kind of of support they need or at least publicize what they do and bring them in to discuss how you began to build on that to come come out. But there

01:10:20.189 - 01:10:44.890

doesn't see, in other words, It's interesting that you can waste millions of dollars if it's well managed. Mhm But you cannot risk a new dollar on $1 on something that's innovative. But that's exactly the opposite of what happens in a market economy. When the computers were

01:10:44.890 - 01:11:02.490

very large and I remember at the University of Penn physics department, these two young men had this I guess it was Univac or one of them took over the whole floor. It was the only floor with air conditioning. Now there are two ways that the American

01:11:02.890 - 01:11:25.189

economy could handle this. One, we could subsidize access, which have been more expensive, or we can support competition and innovation. The economy of course selects the latter and as a consequence 1000 flowers bloomed. Everybody had a chance to receive support to kind of compete with the

01:11:25.189 - 01:11:41.169

large computer and as a consequence, the one that you have on your desk is large and has more capacity than that one. Now are there winners and losers in this? Absolutely. If you continue to make large computers, you lose. But we act as if whatever we

01:11:41.169 - 01:12:00.759

do can never produce any losers. We have to accept the fact that if we are engaging in social entrepreneurship. That there are some people who are going to lose some of the people that you've been funding for years and years. Yeah, they should not be perhaps

01:12:00.759 - 01:12:21.890

funded if they're not producing results. Is that gonna produce some political fallout? Absolutely, but not as much as you think. Because the race, grievance industry, and the poverty industry has convinced you that they have popular support. And therefore, whatever you do will come at a cost.

01:12:23.060 - 01:12:55.060

Some companies call them on it. And found that there was no large cost. And therefore was able to step outside the paradigm and do something different. I say you're at that crossroads right now. It's back here. Good morning. I'm Carla Hall from Detroit Edison. My colleague

01:12:55.060 - 01:13:11.919

and I here from Detroit. We're trying to figure out the pastor you were talking about and embarrassingly we, we can't figure out who that might be, although we're sure we probably funded him, so. Yeah What I wanted to bring up, I think, uh, one of the,

01:13:11.990 - 01:13:28.669

the challenges that I'm grappling with here as a, as a corporate funder is you keep saying things like go out and find, seek out, reach out, throw a broad net, and I think um. As much as most of us would like to do that, we're usually

01:13:28.669 - 01:13:44.240

very, very small staffs. I mean, I come from a city where there's GM, Ford, and Chrysler, some of the largest corporate foundations in the world, and they may give away $100 million a year and have 3 people to do that. Um, and I just think we're

01:13:44.240 - 01:13:58.319

so tied to our desk shuffling paperwork and the special projects and as much as we know we need to get out and seek and find, we just don't have the staff hours or time to do it, unlike maybe a large private foundation which it made me

01:13:58.319 - 01:14:13.964

think about that's what you're describing with 10 to 12 professional program officers with specialized areas who spend their lives. Trying to find those, you know, projects that work so I guess I'm asking you for advice on how do we, you know, take the time to find

01:14:13.964 - 01:14:27.444

those, seek out and go when we don't have the time and uh as you mentioned they're not the agitators, they don't come to us, you know, readily and unless it's a widely publicized project like a few you mentioned we might not ever know about it and

01:14:27.444 - 01:14:40.330

yet we don't have the time to go out and seek. Well, there are 3 answers. One, that's what the National Center does, and we are in 38 states. We've set up a website and we're trying to really build to the point where we can be a

01:14:40.330 - 01:14:56.779

resource for people, but there are people here and I see Cliff Ehrlich out there. He has even a stand up, Cliff, would you, and here's a man, he doesn't have any staff. And perhaps he ought to answer that question. How did he find these people? That

01:14:56.779 - 01:15:13.720

would be, uh, I would like for him to respond to that and while the microphones coming to him in Detroit, the Randal section, Raveendale, Tony McIlwain, she's in my book. Hollywood is doing a movie on her life. Uh, that'll be released this summer, I think, uh,

01:15:13.839 - 01:15:30.450

and, and so that's coming up, but it's fascinating as much publicity that Tony and the residents of Ravendale have received, they're starving to death. But you can ride down the street in Detroit as you probably know, and ride through these rundown neighborhoods and then suddenly you

01:15:30.450 - 01:15:46.540

cross one street and the homes are nicely manicured, the lawns are manicured all because of what this grassroots Joseph has done. And yet they are starving to death. They have demonstrated they can get rid of the drug addicts, they can clean up the neighborhood, they can

01:15:46.540 - 01:16:05.430

stop the crime but yet even with all this publicity, a movie is being done of her, where are the funders? That's her isn't it isn't a lack of publicity. The question is, and, and I still haven't answered it, why aren't people beating our door down? Cliff

01:16:09.379 - 01:16:22.870

I found Bob Woodson. I read William Raspberry and I was really perplexed at the social problems that we're all facing, by the way, my name is Cliff Erlich. I worked for Marriott for a lot of years and I retired about a year and a half ago.

01:16:23.620 - 01:16:36.899

Um, and decided I wanted to do something a little bit different with my life than I had done for the preceding 37 or so years. And uh decided there were a lot of these social issues that were very, very vexing and I didn't know what the

01:16:36.899 - 01:16:56.680

answers were as I read and um looked around Bob Woodson seemed to have more answers than anybody I knew so I found Bob Woodson. uh, Bob, among other things, sponsors in uh something called uh Achievement Against the odds. Excuse me, which is a dinner every year

01:16:56.890 - 01:17:16.930

where he celebrates the people in the communities who have made these advances and these have accomplished these great um. Contributions uh in their communities so I found Bob I provide support to Bob because he has the network. I have Bob and then put me in touch

01:17:16.930 - 01:17:34.669

with one of the small groups that works that in Washington um has an activity and I have supported that, uh, you know, I, I, I was biting my tongue here at some of the questions that you all were were asking Bob. And the the question about

01:17:34.669 - 01:17:52.939

risk came up and. I thought to myself the alternative to taking the risk is to continue to put money in the same old places, and the question would be is putting money in the same old places accomplishing the social goal that you you're uh you'd like

01:17:52.939 - 01:18:09.759

to achieve and um I think you know doing the same old thing and expecting a different result is what someone defined insanity to me to be. Is you know we've got to do some different things as individuals or as businesses um so I I'm, I'm gonna

01:18:09.759 - 01:18:28.620

put in a plug for Bob Woodson and the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise because they know where those organizations are that you wanna find. Lady Good morning. I'm Lisa Williams with the Fannie Mae Foundation. Um, we're not all Fannie Mae Foundation. I just have to be

01:18:28.620 - 01:18:45.464

two of us here doing that. Good morning, Bob. Um, and we're supportive of National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, but I wanna talk about when you talk about risk taking and venture capitalists and what you're. Saying about not having enough staff, I think what it is is

01:18:45.464 - 01:19:00.705

at least for us at the Fannie Mae Foundation, it's less not having enough staff but what you're gonna have a workshop about later this morning and that's changing strategic direction and that's looking at how you do it differently and what the tolerance level is for that.

01:19:01.200 - 01:19:19.149

Because venture capitalists, quite frankly, do not give out 100 grants in a year or make 100 investments in a year, and as grant makers often we do. Uh, if we're honest about that, and so my question to you, Bob, because I've asked it from the corporate

01:19:19.149 - 01:19:35.149

side and from the foundation side, what is our tolerance level to look at our grant making as an investment portfolio where there's some risk there and then there are others that are more of the traditional grants and then there is room to do the technical assistance

01:19:35.149 - 01:19:49.819

and capacity. building for those that you want to build up, but those take time. You cannot give somebody 100 or more groups to work within a year and say they're venture capitalists. They are not, so I've asked that of grant makers and funders what's the tolerance

01:19:49.819 - 01:20:05.220

level to moving toward that? But I wanna ask you, Bob, what's the tolerance level for nonprofits for funders to move toward that because that's a lot of no. I'm not so sure I I understand your question. Would you, I guess my question is this if we're

01:20:05.220 - 01:20:22.839

going to be venture capitalists. And we're going to work with an array of organizations, some of them more traditional, um, perhaps have proven track records, but there are others who are see programs and you know the ones I'm talking about, the ones that we've worked with

01:20:22.839 - 01:20:40.435

you on, and they take time, they take technical assistance and capacity building along with giving that grant and sometimes that grant doesn't come for a while, uh, because you're doing the capacity building and all of that. Takes time and all of that takes money. If I'm

01:20:40.435 - 01:20:56.165

going to do that as a grant maker, we're going to do that that means that there may be 10 to 20 yeses a year. They're gonna be a lot of no's now we know as grant makers our tolerance level for that is not there yet for

01:20:56.165 - 01:21:14.209

some of us. Uh, I'm wondering, representing a nonprofit organization, what's the tolerance level for nonprofits who don't make the cut. What's the tolerance level for that? No, because I think that helps to contribute to the trying to fund a little bit of everybody because it's hard

01:21:14.209 - 01:21:26.810

to say no, not just from our point of view, but there are a lot of nonprofits that don't wanna take that no. OK, I, I got your question. Let me also add when you, you said something, I think it was very important, and that is strategic

01:21:26.810 - 01:21:41.410

direction. I think that is true of the Annie Casey Foundation too. No one has been more critical of them than I have. And I had a nice dialogue with Doug Doug Nelson and and Ralph Smith and as a consequence of that dialogue they indicated that some

01:21:41.410 - 01:21:55.439

of the things that they were doing that they wanna change and as a consequence I must say they stepped up too to support this uh crime initiatives and helping us to take it to different cities so there's an example of changing strategic directions acknowledging that what

01:21:55.439 - 01:21:56.049

you've done in the.