< Program Taps Retired Execs To Help Nonprofits

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Heard on Morning Edition

October 16, 2009STEVE INSKEEP, host:

The late Senator Edward Kennedy wanted to promote volunteer service, and he sponsored a law called the Serve America Act, which took effect on the first of the month. The law expands programs like the Silicon Valley Encore Initiative, which is a Bay Area pilot project that pairs retired corporate big leaguers with nonprofits that could use their expertise.

Rachael Myrow of member station KQED in San Francisco has more.

RACHAEL MYROW: After 20 successful years at Hewlett-Packard, Leslye Louie left in her mid-40s. She wanted to do some good in the world. The question was, what exactly?

Ms. LESLYE LOUIE (Encore Fellow): I entered the wild world of Craigslist, and I would do a lot of volunteer work. I literally stuffed envelopes.

MYROW: This is a former VP of sales and marketing talking, for a $15 billion business unit at HP. Louie can stuff envelopes, but she can also offer something a lot of envelope stuffers can't.

Ms. LOUIE: In between being a volunteer and sitting on the board, which is a little bit more removed, is a huge field of contribution.

MYROW: Then Louie got a call from Hewlett Packard. The tech giant was launching a pilot program with Civic Ventures, a San Francisco nonprofit focused on getting baby boomers nearing retirement to launch into Encore careers, careers with a social purpose. Yvonne Hunt is HP's VP in social investment.

Ms. YVONNE HUNT (Vice President, Social Investment, Hewlett-Packard): Typically the answer is, well, I'd like to go into the nonprofit sector, but I don't know how to do it.

MYROW: Hunt says a lot of nonprofits could use the kind of expertise cultivated in private industry.

Ms. HUNT: Human resources, IT, marketing.

MYROW: The key is finding a way to connect corporate talent with nonprofit need, which is the idea behind the Encore Fellowships HP set up with Civic Ventures.

Ms. HUNT: This is just a nice, innovative model that allows those two worlds to merge.

MYROW: Civic Ventures interviewed Louie to assess her skills and interests, then offered her a shortlist of likely nonprofits. Soon, she and another HP alum headed off to Partners in School Innovation, a 30-employee, three-and-a-half-million-dollar organization focused on ground-level reform at urban public schools. CEO Derek Mitchell says the nonprofit's clients are school administrators and teachers.

Mr. DEREK MITCHELL (CEO, Partners in School Innovation): We really help them refine lesson plans, look at the data after they've applied their new lessons, and ask the question of, how could it have gone better?

MYROW: The Encore Fellows did something similar for Partners. Over the course of one year, they developed a performance-management database. Louie explains.

Ms. LOUIE: What data, what matrix, what evidence do we have of the actual impact they're having at different levels, at the school-wide level, at the grade level and at the student level?

MYROW: When it became clear that the computers at Partners weren't up to the task, the Encore Fellows got HP to donate new equipment. Winning over the staff at the nonprofit was not so easy.

Ms. LOUIE: In my first presentation, I think, I used the P word, profit, quite a few times, and it just felt so awfully. I hate to even remember that.

MYROW: The awkwardness didn't last. Within four months, Louie was asked to serve as acting CEO during the leadership transition that brought in Derek Mitchell.

Ms. LOUIE: I don't think I would have gotten here with Craigslist. No, and I worked for some fabulous organizations as a volunteer. But no, I don't think you can just walk in and convince a CEO that you can lead the reorganization of the whole institution to be results-driven. They'd probably throw you out. Yet, that was the trust that was placed in us because of this program.

MYROW: It's worth noting the Encore Fellows don't work for free. Hewlett Packard chips in 12-and-a-half grand a year per fellow, as do participating nonprofits. Mitchell says putting a price tag and a deadline on the partnership ensures that the fellow and the nonprofit are focused on making the most of each other. Would he do this kind of thing again?

Mr. MITCHELL: In a heartbeat.

MYROW: The Serve America Act calls for 10 one-year Encore Fellowships in each state, with federal funding to help make it happen.

For NPR News, I'm Rachael Myrow in San Francisco.

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