Yesterday's webinar walking through our new BUILD blueprint gave a great overview on how to develop and scale your own pro bono programs. We showed you the five questions you need to ask before you start and pointed the way to resources that will help you effectively find the answers.
Sound like information you could use? Check out the entire session online at VolunteerMatch's YouTube channel! Also be sure to sign up for their next webinar on July 13, featuring our friends at the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.
If you've ever considered building your own pro bono program but didn't know where to start, you've come to the right place. Tomorrow, VolunteerMatch is hosting a webinar featuring Taproot's Lindsay Firestone and Diana Fischer. As part of Taproot's Advisory Services practice, they have worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies to build and scale customized, in-house pro bono program solutions.
This session will take you step-by-step through the program development process and uses our free BUILD blueprint tools, which are accessible online or as a PDF download. There's only one day left to register, so remember to sign up today! Tuesday, June 28 2011 10-11 a.m. Pacific/ 1-2 p.m. Eastern REGISTER HERE
Follow the conversation on Twitter @VM_Solutions and @taprootfound with #BUILDProBono.
Our board members are more than just great visionaries for Taproot.
They are also leaders in their own industries and communities and have
lots of professional wisdom to share. For the next week, we will be
spotlighting the five newest additions to our stellar board of directors
through a series of interviews.
When you were in third grade what did you want to do? Who were your role models? I always wanted to be a singer. When I was a little girl, I used to direct and produce my own shows with all the neighborhood kids. Of course, I always had the starring role. I was a big fan of Chaka Khan, so I would wash my hair and braid it before going to bed to get that signature hairstyle.
Dreams of superstardom aside, how did you end up so involved in philanthropy? My family had a strong sense of community and giving back. I was a pastor's kid, so my family was always involved in missionary work. Looking back on it now, I think that's where my passion came from. There was real commitment to local issues and people, and I got involved with causes early in life. Growing up in San Francisco also probably played a role. There's this rootedness in diversity, and it seemed like the norm. I think people are often afraid of what they don't know, but I was exposed to so much diversity that learning to accept others was a very natural thing. How did that show up in your career? I worked with VantagePoint Venture Partners, which was really into investing in clean technologies. It was there that I really started to get the idea of integrating doing good with my professional life. And once I caught that bug, I wasn't going to let it go. I also use my professional skills by serving as a mentor and coach to social entrepreneurs through the PopTech Social Innovation Fellows and Rainer Arnold Fellows programs. I bring my expertise in the art of crafting stories to generate awareness, education, and funding.
What do you see the state of the pro bono ethic in your field? I think when people think about philanthropy, especially in Silicon Valley, the dominating idea is you have you make money first, and then you can give it back. You have your Mark Zuckerbergs and Bill Gates, who become multibillionaires in the industry, then turn around and donate huge sums to social causes. That's great, but there's not a whole lot of thought behind how they can use their skills to help out right now. Right, it's the classic earn-and-return model instead of strategically. How do you combat a mindset like that? I operate at the intersection of innovation incubators, philanthropy, and corporate social responsibility, and I keep a pulse on what they are all doing in their respective spaces. If they all understood each other and worked together, it's amazing what they could accomplish because they each bring something to the table, and their goals are so closely related. There's a huge opportunity to link internally the CSR and innovation arms. I think we're seeing more of an appetite for that.
How did you first hear about Taproot? I met Jamie Hartman [executive director of Taproot's former Pro Bono Action Tank] through the Gap Inc. Leadership Initiative, and later Tom Eddington [Taproot Board Vice Chair]. They had that sparkle whenever they talked about Taproot, and I was hooked.
What has been your experience in board service? The first board I served on was for Bay Area Playwrights Festival, which is a fantastic organization. It goes back again to my childhood dream of putting on shows. But that was the first time I realized how difficult it is for nonprofits to achieve the capacity they need. You see there is so much willingness, passion, drive, and intellect, but there are no resources. That was my a-ha moment: when I realized why it's so hard for nonprofits to generate funds. I also serve on the board of ISIS, which promotes innovative sexual health education and HIV prevention solutions. That was a completely different experience: there were so many amazing people on that board from such diverse backgrounds, and I was so honored to be among their ranks and problem solve together.
What have you found to be the characteristics of a great board? First, I think you need to have transparency and clear guidelines as to how the board can facilitate innovation for nonprofits. There also has be a definition of roles for what is expected out of the board and who is doing what so that the members can make the most of their time together since we usually have the opportunity to meet only a few times a year.
What do you think you can bring to the Taproot board? Given my background, I think I can help bridge communications to corporations and help them understand the role of innovation. I can also help articulate story and opportunities for Taproot. I'm here to be a student too and learn from Taproot's experience as a pro bono leader.
What is one fun fact that we wouldn't be able to learn in your official bio? I attended Burning Man. I actually took part in a human art exhibit that was photographed and later published in a book. Fortunately, my face isn't visible in the picture, so you can't tell it's me.
Aaron Hurst is the President & CEO at the Taproot Foundation.
Our board members are more than just great visionaries for Taproot.
They are also leaders in their own industries and communities and have
lots of professional wisdom to share. For the next week, we will be
spotlighting the five newest additions to our stellar board of directors
through a series of interviews.
Roberto Orci, a leader in marketing and advertising, is president and CEO of Acento. He was a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble (Mexico), VP Management Supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and was President of La Agencia de Orci, the fourth largest independent Hispanic agency in the U.S. Roberto also has a long history in helping corporate clients develop close ties to nonprofits and community initiatives. Check out our conversation on Roberto's international marketing experience and how he's seen community involvement translate into customer engagement.
Where did you get your start? Where did you grow up, and who were your role models? I was born in Mexico, and I grew up with my folks in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Houston. When I was young, my dad was appointed to the Mexican diplomatic service. I had really great role models, especially my parents. I learned so much at an early age going to state dinners and meeting interesting political and entertainment people. I was very blessed from that perspective.
Thinking back, what first made you realize the importance of giving back to the community? When my father was counsel general, I remember visiting migrant worker camps and making sure they were being treated well and looking out for their well-being. I was maybe eight years old at the time, so it's something I've always been involved in.
How did you wind up in marketing and advertising? When I was in high school and college, I worked in retail, and I was always intrigued by why things moved and how behaviors were conditioned. When I was a sophomore in college, Proctor & Gamble approached me and asked me to take a test. I did, and they offered me a job when I finished school. My first job straight out of being educated was at P&G, where I became a brand manager.
That's an international company--where did you work? Which brands? I chose to live in Mexico City. I worked on Ariel, which is kind of like the Tide of Latin America and Europe. Then I worked on Crest and Zest bar soaps.
But then you left brand management for the advertising agency. How did that happen? I got recruited by Ogilvy & Mather. I wound up working with them in three offices--Mexico City, Toronto, and Houston--and in virtually every category, from deodorants to fighter jets and rocket launchers.
Why did you decide to strike it out on your own at a certain point? In 1988, my brother convinced me to come over from the 'dark side,' which was general market advertising, to specifically Hispanic marketing. He had just started a firm in Los Angeles, so I partnered with him at La Agencia de Orci.
What was it like to partner with your brother? It was very interesting because we had been competitors in Mexico. I was at P&G, and he was at Colgate. But we always got along very well, and I learned a lot from him. We were partners for 14 years. But he's my older brother, and I needed to go off on my own.
How did you work together? What roles did you each fill? He is very creative and has a lot of really great ideas. I am very disciplined, and I am good with clients. We complemented each other very well.
When you created your own agency, what was your vision for the organization you wanted to create? I wanted to create an agency that would be able to address current and future needs of clients. We bought an agency that was small and had tremendous potential, and the first order of business was to expand our capabilities. We took Acento from traditional advertising, and we added direct response, digital, publications, promotions, and most recently, entertainment marketing. My path was to find the best people in all those different areas and convince them to come work with us. And we have, and we're doing very well. We have clients all over the country and offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and we just opened New York. We're well-distributed, and we're in pretty broad categories: retail, banking, insurance, healthcare, food. It's a good mix.
How do you leverage the talents of your team to make a difference in the community? We know companies that do something for the community are rewarded by consumers with their business. Very early on, we started doing this. For example, when I was in Orci, we developed the Good Neighbor Program with Nestle. Supermarkets that were Nestle clients or Nestle distribution points were tied to schools and charities in the area, and we publicized that. It was very well received by customers.
Ah, cause marketing. Exactly. We've also worked with organizations like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. For example, around census time we did pro bono advertising to promote Be Counted. For SUPERVALU one of our current clients, when they do grand openings of stores, we'll do health fairs and have a nutritionist talk to people about how to eat healthy and how to cook healthy. There are lots of ways to work for causes pro bono and do cause marketing for our clients. It seems like a natural thing to do.
Aaron Hurst is the President & CEO at the Taproot Foundation.
Our board members are more than just great visionaries for Taproot.
They are also leaders in their own industries and communities and have
lots of professional wisdom to share. For the next week, we will be
spotlighting the five newest additions to our stellar board of directors
through a series of interviews.
Gari Ann Douglass is Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer of 3ality Digital. Previously, she served as the Chief Financial Officer at Technicolor Entertainment Services. For over fourteen years, she held a variety of executive roles at Paramount Pictures including Senior Vice President, Finance and Operations in the Home Entertainment division and Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance. Gari Ann also serves on the board of First Entertainment Credit Union and the advisory board for the Entertainment and Tourism Management program at Cal State Fullerton. Gari Ann and I sat down to talk about her unlikely path from country girl to entertainment executive elite.
Where are you originally from? I am a native Californian. I grew up about two hours east of Los Angeles in a little map dot called Nuevo. It was a great childhood. I went to Paris High School, which is a slightly larger map dot, and then I went to UC Riverside for two years. I thought I wanted to be a horse vet but could not hack the science, so I decided it would probably be a good time to switch to something that I could do and knew I was good at: accounting. I changed majors and changed schools and went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and got a degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting.
Horse vet - where did that come from? I grew up on a horse, and if I wasn't riding a horse, I was training them. At a fairly tender age of 14 or 15, the farm owner would go away for weeks at a time and leave me in charge of dozens of horses. I got to be involved with foals being born and watch them take their first wobbly steps, then break and train them. It was a great way to grow up.
How did you get hooked on community service and giving back? I was active in student government, 4H, and my church, and I think that's probably where my roots are: being involved in those kinds of organizations and clubs where there is always a focus on giving back and taking a minute to help someone else. My grandparents also set that example as farmers. My grandpa and my uncles were very generous and always made sure that if they had extra, they took care of others. I don't remember a time when there weren't strangers at the Christmas or the Thanksgiving dinner, and I like that.
So what does your family think of where you've wound up? Ultimately, I think they're all proud. I've been lucky enough to be successful in my own little nugget of a family. My husband was a stay-at-home parent. When our children were young, he was the guy who got them up, got them fed, got them to school. We called him Mr. Mom. Having him in that role allowed me to aggressively go after my career and community activities. It's worked.
What have you done to instill in your children the same sense of giving back and helping others that you experienced as a child? Throughout their lives, Bruce and I were involved in whatever they were taking part in. We weren't just there as another parent; we were leading the activities. For example, when my oldest son, Mackenzie, was in the high school band, I was on the board of the booster program for four years running. He has said to me a number of times, "Mom, you've made such a difference. I'm really glad that you did that. I was proud that I could say, 'That's my mom! Look at what she's done!'" My approach is always to lead by example. I come from third- or fourth-generation of office professional. How do you feel it being the first-generation of your family to work in a white collar environment? I've never thought of it in those terms. My parents expected good and important things from me. They set the bar really high, and mind you, neither of them have a college degree, but they always instilled in me that there are no excuses, and there are no ceilings. You just go make do. They gave me the confidence and support as a kid to do that. I grew up with a lot of opportunities to provide leadership, whether I was playing sports or managing a horse ranch.
I know you still have many years ahead of you, but what have been you been most proud of doing or being a part of in you professional career to date? I have been lucky enough to identify a number of people and hire them straight out of college with little experience. I still think of them of kids, but they're now senior vice presidents and executive vice presidents. They're doing good and important things, and looking back now, I take some pride in that. There have been a few other career highlights. For instance, I led the operations team that shipped over 30 million copies of the movie Titanic into North America. My team buckled down and worked together, and we did some amazing, groundbreaking things to make that happen.
Why did you choose entertainment as an industry, and what was the path to getting there? It was an accident.
Most good things are. When I graduated from Cal Poly, I went to work for Pricewaterhouse because I had decided I wanted to become a CPA. After nearly four years, of the blue, I got a call from a headhunter. I wasn't looking for a job and really wasn't interested in speaking to him, but finally I made a deal with him: if you'll leave me alone, I will go on this one interview to Columbia Pictures. I didn't have an updated resume, and I didn't mean to be late, but traffic was horrible. It was a windy day, so I was disheveled when I walked in. It was the perfect storm for how NOT to approach an interview. But it went really well, and so I went to work for Columbia Pictures as director of contract accounting. I was there for about three and a half or four years. Then I spent close to fourteen years at Paramount. I finished my MBA at that point, and I moved up quickly. I took a degree in accounting, and I parlayed it into some really solid management positions.
Tell me a little bit about where you are now and what you're doing in the world of 3D. I'm in this little company called 3ality Digital, which is in the business of creating and selling technology to enable the live capture of 3D. We actually have platforms with a whole bunch of automation technology that have two cameras, one for the right eye and one for the left because that's how we see. It's putting those tools in the hands of filmmakers to allow them to shoot live-action 3D on a 2D budget and create images that are pixel-perfect coming out of the camera so they don't require a ton of post-production.
What movies or shows have been filmed with this technology? We just finished Spider-Man, Peter Jackson is using all 3ality Digital gear on The Hobbit movie that he's busy on. A few others coming up. We made a movie U2 3D, which was released in 2008, and it's still held out as really the high-water mark in quality for live-action 3D. We've been involved in a number of broadcast events. The gear was really designed to facilitate live broadcasts where you don't have an opportunity to post-produce. We've got customers all over the world using it.
How did you first hear about Taproot? One of my former colleagues from Paramount Pictures--a smart woman named Frances--approached me about it and asked if I would be interested. I did some research on my own and talked to a few people, and I liked the organization, so Frances very kindly recommended me to the board.
Have you found much of a service ethic at the companies where you've worked? To different levels, companies I've been involved with have been supportive of community activities. Paramount, for example, had a mentoring program, which was fantastic because you could just see the difference in kids starting from their first exposure to the studio and to their mentors, and then watching them blossom and lead meaningful lives. Paramount was always very supportive of anyone who wanted to teach at whatever level and provided resources and the time off to spend in the classroom.
How prevalent do you feel the pro bono ethic--the idea of using your financial skills to help nonprofit organizations--is in your profession? I have to think that there are people like me who are financial executives and who feel the same sort of calling to give back and to help others. I have to think they're out there. It may well be an untapped reservoir. When you think back on your career when you retire many years from now, what do you want to have felt your contribution to both the business community, but the broader community as well, will have been? I like to think I was able to share the benefit of my education and experience to make organizations better so they can better serve their membership. I like to think I'm helping to engineer improvement for the greater good.
What's one little factoid you want everyone on the Taproot board to know about you that they wouldn't get from your bio. When I do have more time, one of my activities will be to get involved with being a docent and leading hikes. I love to hike.
Aaron Hurst is the President & CEO at the Taproot Foundation.
Our board members are more than just great visionaries for Taproot.
They are also leaders in their own industries and communities and have
lots of professional wisdom to share. For the next week, we will be
spotlighting the five newest additions to our stellar board of directors
through a series of interviews.
Akihiko (Kiko) Washington is Executive Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources for Warner Bros., where he manages global human resources, including organizational planning and development, recruitment and compensation, and employee communications. Kiko previously led human resources efforts for parent company Time Warner and spent 15 years at HBO, Time Warner's premium cable television network. He is also on the board of United Friends of the Children, First Entertainment Credit Union. and the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. Kiko and I chatted about the state of pro bono in the human resources sector and the qualities of an effective board.
When you were in third grade, what did you want to be when you grew up? I was probably thinking about being a professional sports athlete. I was heavily into baseball. I was a pitcher, and I was quite large for my age, so I was able to dominate. Then in fourth grade I realized that folks were catching up to me, so I started to think about just playing and having fun and going to school and seeing what would eventually happen.
Besides awesome pitchers, who were your role models? I can tell you on the spot it was John F. Kennedy. I was born in 1958, and I remember exactly where I was when he was assassinated. It's probably my first deep memory of an event that occurred during my childhood; I was five. After that I heard a number of his speeches about giving, about the Peace Corps, about asking not what your country could do for you but what you could do for your country. That spoke to me: I can give back to people and the community. I caught that bug pretty early on in life.
So how did you end up in the people business? Human resources is not the career choice most children dream about. I went to Wharton for my undergraduate studies and was on my way to law school. As I tell people, you never know how your career will take a bend in the road. You should always be open to what the world brings to you. So there I was, sitting in a bar having a beer, and a fight broke out. I wound up helping this guy who was getting the crap beat out of him. We ended up in the hospital, and he ended up being the head of human resources for Gulf and Western. He offered me a job, so instead of going to law school, I got into human resources working for this guy, who then brought me with him to HBO. And that's how I got into the media and entertainment business from an human resources perspective! That's fantastic--and you stuck with it! What do you get out of it? Where do you find your bliss in that work? I think there's kind of a balancing act between the present and the future. You're looking at how you manage the current workforce and provide the right resources and developmental opportunities while also keeping an eye on the future and where the business is going. So for me it's an interesting role because it's constantly changing. I think it was John Gardner who said human resources, when done well, is like a trampoline, but when it's done poorly, it's like putting cinderblocks on people's feet. How do you make sure you're helping people jump higher, not hindering them? You need flexibility and a solid understanding of the current and future environments. I think it absolutely has to be tied to the business. Human resources can't be a function that's sitting on the side. It has to be one of the business objectives--an integral part of 'where are we going' and 'how do we get there'--so you're partnering appropriately to move the business forward. What's the human resources professional's case for corporate pro bono? I believe that providing an environment where people can give back and become part of their community helps to attract and retain the best and the brightest employees. What is going to solidify their commitment to you better than a spirit of giving back within your organization? And that's a reflection of my personal belief: giving back fills your heart, it fills your soul, it gives you the opportunity to do for others what will make a difference. What are the human resources issues nonprofits face, in your experience? There are huge voids insofar as recruitment and staff development, and in order to succeed, they need the financial and people resources to make it happen. I think it all wraps around the human resources plan. How prevalent is the pro bono ethic in the human resources community in Los Angeles? I think most human resources people, when asked, will do whatever they can to help. There has been a disconnect between the need and the resources, and this is where Taproot comes in to be that bridge in the community. I sit on the board of United Friends of the Children, so I can help provide executive search for them or developmental programs for the kids as we transition foster youth from transitional housing to gainful employment. Many of my counterparts I'm sure do the same, but they are one-off efforts with no single funnel to help connect them. What are the key characteristics of an exceptional board? One is leadership: the energy and vision that the leader provides to the organization so that people believe in where it's going. Secondly, I think it's active board members, working board members, not board members who are there for another line on their resume or because it sounds good to sit on boards. It's important to insist that each board member gives, whether it is donating financially or building connections or developing programs. Finally, each board member should there because the specific issue is something they honestly believe in and have a track record in, and they've worked in that area. I think choosing those members is a very important part of the equation, and I think Taproot has historically done a really good job at that.
Our board members have brought a lot of passion and skills and commitment--and a willingness to take risk. It's hard to govern in a high-risk entrepreneurial setting. I agree with you, and I think that risk-taking is important not only on boards but within organizations. When you look at any new startups cornering the market, many times they are a function of old industry not adjusting or adapting and allowing someone else to come in. Boards need to be flexible, looking to the future and moving forward--strategically, of course, but also aggressively.
When you someday retire, what do you want to look back and say your impact was? What I hope to have done in a very small way is to have everything I touched made a little bit better, whether that's through Taproot or United Friends of the Children or any other organization. What is wonderful about Taproot is it can touch United Friends of the Children and every other not-for-profit--it becomes a bridge in helping to grow those organizations. I just hope to make a difference in helping kids find their way and find their careers and find their love and take care of their families, and eventually they can give back the same way.
Years from now, when the Kiko Washington story someday comes out, who do you want to play you? You've got to go with Will Smith.
And who would play your wife? Well, we consider ourselves to be the United Nations. My mom was Japanese, and my dad was half African-American, and his other half was Native American and white. My wife's mom is Mexican, and her dad is white. So we kind of have that rainbow thing with our son, whose name is Austin Salvador Takeda Washington. So if I think of my wife, I'd probably cast...Salma Hayek?
Having never met your wife, that works. Yeah, I'll go with that--Salma Hayek.
Aaron Hurst is the President & CEO at the Taproot Foundation.
We dedicate our lives to progressive work in an effort to help those in need today. We also hope that our small acts will play some humble part in accelerating the march of progress. And perhaps most importantly, we take responsibility for ourselves and our actions. We don't pass the buck to the next generation with an optimistic wink.
We believe that individuals who have the courage to take a visible stand for issues they care about should be acknowledged and honored. For instance, June 19 has been dubbed Matt O'Grady Day at the Taproot Foundation. We give our team the day off to celebrate the wedding anniversary of our former vice president of national expansion, Matt O'Grady, who tied the knot with his partner in San Francisco three years ago. And more importantly, we are celebrating a major milestone in the civil rights movement in this country -- the legalization of gay marriage in the largest state in the land. Join us next year by providing your organization with a day off to recognize the progress of civil rights and the hard work still ahead.
In his latest blog post, Aaron examines the tension between the inevitable march of progress and our own human efforts to create social change. Check it out on his Huffington Post blog!
Our board members are more than just great visionaries for Taproot. They are also leaders in their own industries and communities and have lots of professional wisdom to share. For the next week, we will be spotlighting the five newest additions to our stellar board of directors through a series of interviews.
Chan Suh is CEO of Broome Crosby Ltd., a
new company he created in 2009 at the intersection of technology, business and
social responsibility.Previously, Chan
co-founded Agency.com, an interactive marketing agency, now part of Omnicom
Group Inc.Chan is also director of
Daniel's Music Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides free music
programs for people with disabilities in the New York area. He was inducted into the
Advertising Age Interactive Hall of Fame in 2001. I sat down with Chan to discuss his experiences in pro bono and the true meaning of being a leader.
Say you had all of the money, and could create a foundation to give it all away. What would be its focus? Defending the powerless, either from hunger or from political oppression or from abuse. That would be my thing.
That was a quick answer. Where did it come from? I was born in Korea in '61, when the war was still very fresh. And I saw firsthand what powerlessness means in the life of a child and the life of an entire country. You were founder and president of Agency.com. How big was it at its heyday? Oh, about 1,800 people.
Wow, that certainly gave you a lot of power. What did that experience teach you? It was exhilarating and really scary at the same time. I really wanted to do well by the people who worked for me. Once you have 1,800 people working for you, your life, or at least what you do, is no longer private. So I tried to navigate that with some grace. One thing I learned quickly is that silence is usually interpreted as negative, so I tried to over-communicate.
There's an old saying that the surest sign of corruption in a leader is that rules don't apply to them. Did you ever feel that way? I don't know if I was tempted to think so, but it didn't come to fruition for two reasons. Number one, I have a really great friend of mine who works with me and is the most honest man I know--in the entire world, ever. In this business, for some reason, there's also always a comeuppance, and I knew it. Especially in our business, everything always comes out. So I was very keenly aware of that, partly because of mistakes I had made earlier. For instance, one time my assistant sent out everybody's salary on a spreadsheet to the entire staff. What? How'd you put that one back in the box? I made a genuine apology and said, 'Hey, I'm sorry about that, it wasn't meant to be.' It still got on AdWeek and all that stuff. But six months later, nobody remembered.
Does Agency.com do pro bono work? Yes, we did a bunch of pro bono work. We did projects for the Fire Department of New York, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and others. And then, of course, there were other people in our offices who did work with local charities. And then you made a switch, going to work for some of the bigger ad agencies. Did they do pro bono? I found that the idea of pro bono was a very well-known concept, but the actual practice was practically nonexistent organizationally. It was really everybody doing their individual thing on their own.
So the firms weren't saying, 'We're going to do five million dollars of pro bono service!' It was more, 'If you want to do it on your own, Godspeed." Exactly. The prevailing attitude seemed to be, 'If you want us to do something for an organization, write up a proposal.' There was no one telling us, 'Listen! What you do is important, and you can contribute to nonprofits this and this and this way. We're here to help you organize and focus your contributions because it's important to the company.' It wasn't like that at all, anywhere. And it was supremely inefficient.
So, why'd you join the Taproot Board? When you and I first talked about what you're doing, the thing that really struck me was that I had built a lot of playgrounds. I have painted walls, installed windows and plumbing--none of which I was qualified to do! But that's what I was able to do hands-on. I realized that you guys had hit on an incredibly genius formula: let people do what it is that they do best. That is incredibly powerful because, while that's a nice thought, you guys had actually figured out how to organize and focus it. That's the difference between having a passing idea and being effective and having impact in the world. You've done that.
Thank you, it's been a lot of fun. Many years from now, what do you want your impact to have been on Taproot? I'd like to help Taproot evolve with changing the landscape in human labor and endeavors and needs. I'd like to help grow the organization to its maximum reach and achieve maximum impact.
One last question: What's one thing interesting fun fact about yourself that I wouldn't be able to find out through a simple Internet search? I used to be a bouncer at a reggae club.
Aaron Hurst is the President & CEO at the Taproot Foundation.
Earlier this month, we launched BUILD: A Blueprint for Pro Bono Program Development, a comprehensive new resource to get you started on creating and scaling your own pro bono programs. You've had a chance to browse our tools, and now you can hear from the experts!
Taproot is partnering with VolunteerMatch to bring you a webinar on how to use our blueprint and answer the tough questions when it comes to creating effective, high-impact pro bono programs. The session will be hosted by our Taproot consultants Lindsay Firestone and Diana Fischer, who have worked with Fortune 500 companies in connecting the skills of their employees with the needs of community nonprofits through our Advisory Services practice.
Tuesday, June 28 2011 10-11 a.m. Pacific/ 1-2 p.m. Eastern REGISTER HERE
Follow the conversation on Twitter @VM_Solutions and @taprootfound with #BUILDProBono.
New Orleans, a city of true
culture: raw jazz, free fun, and an amazing sense of pride and appreciation by
tourists and locals alike. My ticket to this fantastic city came by way
of becoming Taproot's Pro Bono Hero Contest.
It seems like just yesterday when my friends and colleagues voted for me via
Facebook, I was awarded the title and given access to the National Conference
on Volunteering and Service. This gathering is attended by over 5,000
individuals, imagine all that change energy in one place at one time! Last
night, I was formerly announced to a room of corporate executives, nonprofit
professionals and foundation leaders. The setting for the proclamation was
just as exciting--The Pro Bono Penthouse: A super-swank space right on the
river.
Being around such amazing life
changers, I feel re-inspired, really grateful to Taproot, and excited to be a
techie that does Pro Bono.
New Orleans Rocks for Five
Reasons:
I'm surrounded by
like-minded, socially conscious individuals who are working day in and day out
to bring about positive social change.
I get to network with
leaders of organizations and corporations such as Intel, Gap, VolunteerMatch
and Deloitte who are all connected to using the Pro Bono ethos to influence
change.
I'm meeting individuals who
have dedicated their life and time to volunteering around the world: from
building playgrounds throughout the US via KaBoom
to bringing school supplies to schools in Africa by way of buildOn.
I get to dance the Lindy
Hop with locals I've never danced with before! Dancing with folks in the
birthplace of Jazz is like having a dynamically silent conversation of a lifetime
in just 5 minutes!
I get to participate in all
of the cool plenary sessions, including those promoting Taproot's cool new
tool, BUILD.
This summer, I'll be Making it
Matter by participating in a weekend hack-a-thon in Denver, CO called Project Fresh Kicks where both nonprofits
and techies will work throughout the night to create technical solutions for
problems. That is the future of self-empowered social & tech change!
I'll have more from New Orleans
in a few days. Come back and check for more.
It's here. After nearly a year in development, the BUILD: Blueprint for Pro Bono Program Developmenthas arrived.
BUILD is an easy-to-understand overview of the key steps you need to take to launch a new pro bono program or refine an existing one, including quick start tips and best practices from Taproot's Advisory Services team.
We think this will be an incredibly valuable resource for a few reasons, which I'm going to share momentarily. But first, I want to say thank you to the team of people behind the BUILD Blueprint. Tom Scott, of Tom Scott Design, provided his stellar graphic design expertise to us (pro bono, of course!) and brought this tool to life, visually speaking. Jon Mires, our tireless web developer, and the whole Taproot External Affairs team deserve a hearty round of applause. Finally, a special thanks to Abby Frost of Gap Inc. and Matthew Hines of Capital One. They generously donated their time as peer advisors and truly helped shape BUILD into what you see today.
Here's why BUILD is exciting for us and why you should be excited, too.
BUILD is designed to answer five key questions we know you get hung up on when thinking about how to design and launch a new pro bono program.
BUILD offers action-oriented tips and tricks to help you solve the things we know can seem impossible - understanding your employee skill sets, determining specific needs of your nonprofits, and how to roll out a group of pilot projects, to name a few.
BUILD is a walking tour of the key steps that go into building a pro bono program and incorporates many of the other tools and resources that Taproot has developed in the past. We've linked them directly to the step of program development where the tool will be most relevant.
The BUILD content lives as a series of pages on our website - which means no long whitepaper to read through! (There's also a downloadable PDF in case you want to take BUILD to-go.)
We hope that BUILD helps you take the first steps down the path of pro bono program development. We will be posting blogs related to the BUILD content throughout the coming months, so be sure to stay tuned for additional insights from Taproot's Advisory Services practice.
If you've ever considered building your own pro bono program but didn't know where to start, you've come to the right place. Tomorrow, VolunteerMatch is hosting a webinar featuring Taproot's Lindsay Firestone and Diana Fischer. As part of Taproot's Advisory Services practice, they have worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies to build and scale customized, in-house pro bono program solutions.
When you were in third grade what did you want to do? Who were your role models?
Where did you get your start? Where did you grow up, and who were your role models?
Where are you originally from?
When you were in third grade, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Say you had all of the money, and could create a foundation to give it all away. What would be its focus?
Earlier this month, we launched 
