FLiP Meets: Young Founder Rusty Stahl - interview by Bodi Luse

A huge percentage of our readers dream of founding their own nonprofit one day. So, in the next few months we'll be posting occasional interviews with "young founders" so that our community can learn from their experience. If you are a young founder of a "socially good" organization, or know one, shoot me an e-mail - wschneider@changingourworld.com - to share your experiences with the FLiP world.

When we started FLiP, every person we spoke to - every single one - said to us, "You really should talk to Rusty Stahl". We set about getting to Rusty, founder of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (E-PIP), right away. His entrepreneurial spirit, his networking ability, and his commitment to the sector make him an invaluable resource to anyone looking to work in the world of grant-making. Right from those first few months Rusty has been a big FLiP supporter, so we thought it was only fitting to kick off this series with a short interview of Rusty.

Future Leaders in Philanthropy (FLiP): What’s your background?

Rusty Stahl (RS): I grew up in Philadelphia and went to college at George Washington in Washington, DC. After college I went right to Indiana University and got my MA in Philanthropic Studies from the Center on Philanthropy there.  I knew coming into my senior year that I wanted to know more about how nonprofits work so that I could find my place in them, and was looking for someplace that could teach me that in a practical and thoughtful way. I got into a one-year, non-degree fellowship at the Center on Philanthropy, which gave me enough credits that it was an easy decision to go on for my MA.

FLiP: How did you know so early that you wanted a career in nonprofits? In college, I don’t think that I knew what a nonprofit was.

RS: My exposure to nonprofits started early – my high school was a public school that was co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. Then sophomore year in college I did the Americorp program part-time through George Washington’s Office of Community Service and was exposed to lots of social service nonprofits in DC. That same year, a big conference on service learning came to campus and so I was exposed to many nonprofits from across the country by working on and attending that.

Also in college, I interned at a public relations/strategic communications firm that only worked with labor unions and progressive nonprofits, so I got to see them in action through a communications lens.

After college, I applied and was chosen as a program associate at the Ford Foundation. The program associate program at that time was structured as a two-year apprenticeship program. I worked on Peace and Social Justice, in the Governance and Civil Society Unit.

FLiP: How did EPIP get started?

FLiP Meets: Leslie Lenkowsky

Over the past few months, I have been thrilled to have had the opportunity to talk with Professor Lenkowsky a number of times. FLiP asked Professor Lenkowsky to answer a few of our more burning questions about his experiences in philanthropy, which he did (as you can read below) in fine style. For more information, please take a look also at the previous post, which has a short summary of Indiana's University's academic programs. 

Leslie Lenkowsky
Professor, Public Affairs and Philanthropic Studies
Director of Graduate Programs for the Center on Philanthropy

Prior to rejoining the faculty of Indiana University in January 2004, Leslie Lenkowsky served as the chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate in October 2001. Prior to joining the Indiana University faculty in 1997, Prof. Lenkowsky had served for seven years as president of Hudson Institute.

A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, Prof. Lenkowsky received his doctorate from Harvard University. His writing has appeared in such publications as Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, The Public Interest, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the Indianapolis Business Journal, and he has spoken frequently to educational and philanthropic groups throughout the United States. He has received honorary degrees from Franklin and Marshall College, John Carroll University, and Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Future Leaders in Philanthropy: How did you get involved in philanthropy?  What has been one of your most meaningful work experiences related to philanthropy?

Leslie Lenkowsky: Serendipitously.  In the mid-1970s, with my doctorate just a thesis away, I took a job in state government.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but did not turn out that way.  Through mutual friends, the head of a foundation in New York City who was looking for a program director contacted me and I was eventually rescued from the backwater that was typical of most state capitals at the time.  I knew next to nothing about foundations or philanthropy then.  But the foundation head took a chance on me and it worked out well, I guess.  At the very least, it shaped the rest of my career.

That episode also defined what I regard as most meaningful in my work experiences.  Ultimately, philanthropy is a people-business, whether one is raising funds, giving money away, assisting the needy, or as I do now, teaching young professionals.  I receive the greatest satisfaction when my efforts contribute to helping a person succeed – as the author of an important book, the leader or staff member of an organization doing good work, a public servant, or in other ways.

One example on my mind as I write this was the support I was able to provide, through the foundation for which I worked, for a fairly obscure professor who had written an impressive article on human rights issues that I had read.  The support enabled her to establish a center and build on the themes she laid out in her article.  She was eventually appointed by President Reagan as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where she became a forceful advocate of American interests and a symbol of hope for oppressed people everywhere.  That was Jeane Kirkpatrick, who recently passed away. I could list many others.