Nonprofit Management Experience
As an undergraduate student, I had a keen interest in "helping people" and original thought I wanted to be a social worker. But alas, I think I had business in my genetic code, as I was the only granddaughter of two business owners and the only daughter of a Harvard MBA.
I did get an opportunity to exercise my first passion while at the bank - I was Small Business Campaign CO-chair for the Milwaukee United Way, and I served on the Bank's Voluntary Action Committee which helped to organize volunteer activities for the bank's 2500 employees. Those are both good examples of corporate social responsibility.
So when I left the bank to pursue my first passion, it was natural that I wound up using my business skills to advance a social agenda. I was Executive Director of the Wisconsin Coulee Region Community Action Program from 1980-1986. The organization had a $3.5 million budget and about 150 employees. It was an incredible experience. The region that Coulee CAP served was one of the most poverty stricken in the state. We operated job training programs, Head Start, home weatherization services, food pantries, clothing centers, and many other programs.
This experience showed me how important it is for nonprofit organizations to have good management. We were always challenged to do more than the funding would allow, and wise use of resources does involve difficult choices. Further, under my leadership, we got involved in the exciting work of using business models to improve the communities that we served. For example, when there were not enough child care providers to enable our single parents to get jobs, we started a child care center. When some of the most difficult to employ still couldn't get jobs, even after they were trained, we operated a sheltered employment industry which manufactured storm windows.
I think this is where I started to make the connections between business and nonprofit leadership which later became the basis for the "social entrepreneurship" emphasis. There's more on that concept at the following link