September Edition 2004 - New York Nonprofit Press

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10 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz September 2004 NEW FACES F AT THE TOP FOYE continued from page 9 the board. We are going to have input from the Agency Executive Council which includes representatives of member agencies. We are going to be reaching out to public officials in both counties and talking to our member agencies directly.” UWLI is already taking steps to incorporate Community Impact principles in some of its existing grant programs. In the past, UWLI’s Targeted Care Grant program was a pool of approximately $300,000 which was allocated into small grants for a large number of member agencies. “Starting in the fall, we will be making 12 or so grants of about $25,000 each,” says Foye. “The grants will be much more focused. This is a way for us to dip our toe in the Community Impact pool while we are still developing the strategy overall.” Foye also intends to broaden the ways in which UWLI reaches out to potential donors. One step was the recent recruitment of Sean Phillips as Senior Vice President of Major Gifts. Phillips comes to UWLI from Family and Children’s Association where he served in a similar capacity. “Sean’s joining us gives us another leg to the stool,” says Foye. “He is a major presence on Long Island in the major gifts and planned giving areas. He has a tremendous amount of experience and credibility as well as relationships with major players in the philanthropic world on Long Island.” In addition, Foye hopes to ramp up UWLI’s special events fundraising. “Except for the Long Island insurance event, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, we haven’t had a major presence in special events and we are looking to change that on a selective basis,” he says. “We are doing a special gala celebration of our 40th anniversary in October. Attorney General Spitzer is the keynote speaker and John Durso, President of Local 338 of the Retail Wholesale Department Store Union/United Food Commercial Workers on Long Island, is the honoree. That is another arrow in our quiver.” Community Impact also means increased coordination in terms of grant making and service delivery. “One of the things that have struck me as a newcomer to this world is how fragmented it is,” says Foye. “We want to figure out an appropriate way to coordinate our activities, which is an easy thing to say but not an easy thing to accomplish.” He cites the existing work of the Long Island Funders’ Exchange in this area and looks forward to expanding partnerships with key grant makers including the Long Island Community Foundation, the Rauch Foundation and others. One possibility, he explains, might be an effort by the philanthropic community to “adopt” selected villages or towns in Nassau and Suffolk for targeted grant-making projects. UWLI’s new President/CEO acknowledges his status as a relative novice in the nonprofit arena. “Frankly everybody in this world has more experience and knowledge than I do,” he says. However, Foye brings valuable corporate experience and business contacts to his new position. He has been Executive Vice President of Apartment Investment and Management Company, a New York Stock Exchange-listed multi-family real estate investment trust. Previously, he was a Mergers and Acquisitions Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Managing Partner of the firm’s Brussels, Budapest and Moscow offices. “I am a Long Islander,” says Foye. “I have spent my entire life in New York City or Long Island, except for three years when I was exiled to Europe by my law firm. I know the community and I know the business community. I am Vice Chairman of the Long Island Power Authority and I think that has been helpful in exposing me to opinion leaders on Long Island. I am hopeful that these business strengths will outweigh my weaknesses as I get up to speed on the health and human service world” So far, Foye feels that he has received a warm reception from a community eager to see the UWLI re-energize its fundraising efforts. “The Nonprofit community has a stake in the success of UWLI. They recognize it and we recognize it. I think it is our job to work together to be more effective.” Jack Lund President/CEO YMCA of Greater New York Jack Lund may have been new to the region when he took over as the YMCA of Greater New York’s President on April 1st, but he is certainly not new to the field. “I have been a nonprofit professional for almost 35 years,” he says. Nor does the size and scope of the New York “Y”, with 4,500 employees and a total budget of $115 million, scare him. “I have run some pretty large and diverse organizations before,” says Lund who was Chief Operating Officer for the Chicago YMCA and most recently CEO in Milwaukee, which had 17 branches, only two shy of New York’s total of 19. “Each time I enter a city, I take a pretty similar approach -- the full immersion strategy,” says Lund. “I get out and connect with people, learn about the organization and how we are seen, who the leaders are. Certainly in New York, that is challenging because the leadership network is wider and deeper. Right now, I am doing a 100 day listening tour. “I also have the comfort of knowing how YMCAs work,” he explains. “Having done this for about 30 years, I can walk into a “Y” and instantly tell you whether things are good or not -- and why.” So far, Lund likes what he sees.
September 2004 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz 11 NEW FACES F AT THE TOP “The YMCA of Greater New York has a lot of strengths and a very good foundation of financial resources, people and properties,” says Lund. “Our branch staff is very proud of what we do, particularly the work we do with kids which was a real hallmark of the last president and the last administration.” Lund has heard a desire for greater emphasis on staff development. “Helping people to build their careers and get the appropriate academics and other kinds of support,” he explains. “Since that is a priority for them, it is a priority for me.” “With our board, we have a great group of people that are very passionate about our work,” he continues. Nevertheless, he says that there is a consensus among its members that the board can go from “good” to “great”. With several existing board vacancies, “we want to be strategic about developing the board,” says Lund. “We want to really begin to think about leadership succession planning. That will be a priority.” “One of the other things the board feels very good about is the success we have had with corporate and foundation fundraising, but they acknowledge that there is still lots of upside. There are still a lot of untapped resources and the fact that we have such an enormous appetite for serving kids -- and serving kids in programs that are almost 100% subsidized -- means that we have to find a continual renewable source of funds. “We have a very diverse and somewhat fragile funding mix that works for us,” says Lund, “a combination of earned revenue, contributed income, support from the public sector and some endowment earning. Some of our branches generate revenues over expense and share resources with those branches that, by design, do not generate revenue over expense.” Looking forward, Lund sees three major issues on the horizon. “One is that we continue to focus on our work with kids. We want to reach everybody, but we particularly want to emphasize our work with kids. We want to continually find more ways to reach kids and reach them in more effective ways. “Second, during the last several years, this organization has begun what can be called the first true strategic comprehensive recapitalization program in 100 years. When we opened up McBurney, it is my understanding that that is the first new “Y” we have opened up in 50 years. So, we are somewhat behind the trends in the country in terms of having contemporary capital assets. Continuing that process of renewing our facilities and making sure they are up to date will be a priority for us. “The final thing is, as we look out over a map of the city, what are the neighborhoods where the “Y” should really have a presence and at this time doesn’t. I am particularly interested in partnering with organizations and having a presence in the South Bronx, Washington Heights and a couple of neighborhoods in Brooklyn.” Lund has experience expanding the “Y’s” presence. “While I was in Milwaukee, we opened seven new YMCAs in low income neighborhoods,” he says. “Philosophically, we have a mission to serve everybody. That is saying a lot, but I don’t know any other organization that has a presence in as many diverse communities as we do in New York City. We are in those neighborhoods by design. The things we do will vary from neighborhood to neighborhood because the needs are very different. What comes along with that is a financial formula that allows us to generate revenue in one neighborhood and have it available to be consumed in another neighborhood. That will continue to be fundamental to the success of the “Y” in New York City.” For Lund, talk of new branches and programs doesn’t only mean added bricks and mortar. “We have 19 branches but we are in 340 locations,” he says. “We operate out of several hundred schools. There is a duality of our geography. I don’t ever see us not being a branch and facility-based organization, because it is a model that continues to work for us, but I think the really great “Ys” are the ones that are willing to get outside their walls and find other ways to serve.” Lund also has some thoughts about program areas he sees the YMCA exploring. “We are very well positioned to have a more positive impact on kids’ health than we are currently,” he says. “At a time when kids’ health numbers – obesity, diseases of childhood -- are just collapsing, what can we do to begin to turn some of those around? A lot of resources that had traditionally been available just aren’t there. I am thinking about health programs and gym class. Is there a role for the “Y” to play, either as the ‘gym teacher’ for New York City schools or as a place the schools can take advantage of by using our expertise and facilities?” In Milwaukee, Lund developed a charter school as a partnership between the “Y” and a small academic institution. “We brought the administrative strength; they brought the academic strengths,” he says. “We already are very much in an educational support role through our after-school programs and some other things we do. We want to continue figuring out how we can support not only public education, but education broadly defined.” YMCA membership is something Lund wants to make available for all New York City children. “One of the things we have done in other cities is to create a Youth City Membership. For $5, a kid can become a member of the Y,” he explains, noting that they were usually willing to waive the $5 fee. “The amazing thing to me was that all these kids got membership cards with their picture on them. For kids living in low income communities, that was the first thing they ever had in their possession that said they were important and they were connected to something. We didn’t know that was going to happen but it was wonderful experience and we kept doing it. Maybe we should do that here.” Flexible, Diverse, Professional, Available, Quick… Key attributes describing a Social Work p.r.n. relationship. Settings and social workers nationwide have found they have a friend in Social Work p.r.n. A partner who understands the business side yet also cares about the well-being of social workers and clients. 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