jody mahoney | finding the right capital for great causes

GIRLS, UNCLE JOHNNY, AND A BUCKET O' TOOLS

My real Uncle Johnny was killed at Pearl Harbor before I was born. But my brother-in-law, (if you live in Maryland, take your car to his shop--John Hook Automotive in Beltsville, MD) is widely known as Uncle Johnny. I've been calling him Uncle Johnny for years. I spent a weekend in September with Uncle Johnny, my nephew Rich and my niece Michelle helping my sister relocate to a new home after she lost hers in Hurricane Irene. Kind of a personal "H4H" weekend--we were there to work hard. Uncle Johnny came prepared--his own power washer, a generator, a bucket filled with incredible tools, tubes of caulk, sheets of green board drywall. Over the course of 48 hours, Uncle Johnny taught me to: rip out a bathroom wall and build a new wall using green board drywall; mud & tape that wall; frame out a window; powerwash a building using a mix of bleach and water; build a landing and a set of stairs. But even better, he taught me how to use all these great tools. Did you know there are different sizes of hammers? Drills are magic--they do everything. Mud and tape is pretty cool, and framing a window isn't so hard. That rubber mallet does a million things without scratching. And the most important of all--use the right size screwdriver. I mean, really. It makes a big difference. I am one of 5 daughters, so no one ever taught me about home improvement, AND I LOVE IT. I've now re-grouted my bathroom. Painted the exterior of my house in San Francisco, complete with scraping, sanding, patching, caulking, priming, and painting. Yep, that was me on the ladder. Got 2 bids, one for $3100 and one for $2500. I did it myself. I keep getting up in the morning and going outside to gaze at the back of my house. I did this, I repeat again and again. I assumed that Johnny's father, Buck, taught Johnny this knowledge. I was certain it was passed down by men from father to son, and girls just got the short end of the stick because our fathers didn't teach us. But that was npt the case with Uncle Johnny. He taught himself. He said a project would come along--he is part of a faith-based network that tackles building projects on behalf of vulnerable populations--and he taught himself. All his hand tools are jammed crazy together in a big paint bucket filled with just about every useful tool you could need or want. I thought about Clint Eastwood's film Gran Torino when he explains to a young Laotian immigrant that a man spends a lifetime acquiring his tools. Well, I'm a girl and behind the power curve. But I have my father's wooden measuring stick from the 1930s. I have an electric screwdriver. I have needle nose pliers, and regular ones, too. Now I have tools to apply grout. Lots of paint brushes and caulk. I need a caulking gun. I want new tools for Christmas. I want to renovate my downstairs bathroom, myself. Forget perfume and jewelry. I want my own bucket o' tools. Thanks, Uncle Johnny.

The Woman’s Fight

I am travelling through Morocco with the TechWomen delegation. I've visited small villages where women are the predominant earners, struggling to find distribution channels for their work. We teach them ecommerce, packaging, marketing, competition. Unable to ask their own product questions—the village men are the voices we most often hear—these women genuinely want to move their products into broader distribution. We describe Etsy, PayPal, eBay, leave materials, links and business cards. But I keep thinking, why can't they learn to develop iPhone or Droid apps? Teach them Google's app builder. The younger women are not afraid.

Contrast these rural women with Fatim Essahra El Mansouri, first ever woman mayor of Marrakech. Or Milouda Hazeb, Parliamentary Representative and President of Ennakhil District—only ten percent of Morocco Parliamentary Ministers are women, but Madam Hazeb wants thirty percent, and 50 percent of women in government. Madame la Mayor queried us extensively—what about affirmative action for women? What about the EU move toward board quotas?

The woman's fight is how these influential women describe the fight for equal rights in Morocco. They blame their English, but I don't think it's a language faux pas. Unlike our US and EU colloquial women's movement, the woman's fight defines the changing face of Moroccan patriarchal society, as led by women such as Madame la Mayor or Madame Hazeb. The expectation of these strong, determined women is that individual efforts must be powerful enough to pave the way for the thousands of women at home, in villages, towns and cities. And they hold themselves accountable, so it literally become's the woman's fight, one woman at a time.

Perhaps the groundbreaking work of Madame la Mayor and Madame Hazeb will one day impact the lives of artisans in the Association A-Foulki Pour Femme. These rural women craftswomen live in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains--charismatic, hardworking, and smart, but with such limited economic options other than the sale of handicrafts. They struggle to build businesses that will keep them impoverished. If they can make candles, couldn't they make Droid apps? Is that too far a stretch? Perhaps it is. Or perhaps we should take the Berber words a-foulki in the literal sense. Lifting these women out of poverty is good, and beautiful.

Intel Science Talent Search—Welcome to the Real Meaning of Elegant Science

Kim Warren-Martin, Women's Initiative Manager for Intel Global Diversity and Inclusion, generously extended an invitation to the Anita Borg Institute to attend the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search Gala held in Washington, DC on March 15, 2011. I was the lucky attendee on behalf of the Institute.

Forty finalists—high school seniors chosen from over 1,700 applicants—spent a week in Washington DC, including meeting with President Obama, culminating in a science fair/poster session displaying their work at the gala, and the ultimate discovery of who among them would be one of the top ten winners slated to receive awards ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.

I've thought about these finalists and their work for the past few weeks. I was stunned (yes, I know I never met a hyperbole I didn't like), but stunned is the only word I can use—by the extraordinary depth and intellectual pursuit of these high school seniors. I won the local science fair in elementary school with a research project on the pathology of plants, and while younger, I still remember the thrill of winning.

But these kids, because that is what they still are—kids—developed a new treatment strategy for liver cancer (Selena Shi-Yao Li, Mira Loma High School, CA); discovered a completely new species (Bonnie Rae Lei, Walnut High School, CA); studied the impact of exposure to particulate matter, demonstrating that agricultural workers in the Central Valley are indeed significantly impacted, especially during the winter months (Krystle M. Leung Naperville Central High School, IL); found a link between the food additive carrageenan and cancer (Prithwis Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Woodbury High School, MN); and invented a ternary Toffoli gate to improve the efficiency of quantum computing algorithms—essentially, faster and more efficient computers (Yushi Wang, Sunset High School Oregon).

My table mate was Matthew Miller, Western Alamance High School in NC who actually altered the aerodynamics of wind turbine blades, starting first in his family's garage, expanding to a university wind tunnel. Matthew won 3^rd place and $50,000 for his remarkable work. Our other table mates erupted in excitement when Matthew was named, including Betty Shanahan, CEO of the Society of Women Engineers, Thomas Servello, Director of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, and Pia Wilson-Body, Intel Senior Manager Global Diversity and Inclusion.

I was heartened by the scholarship, inquisitiveness and rigor of these students. 16 of the 40 were young women. Science and technology permeated their elegant, game changing solutions. I felt a sense of limitless possibility, a pride in what makes us who we are. Science on the cusp of discovery.

If my future is in the hands of these young people, I salute each one and gladly turn the reins over to them. Thank you, Intel.

Women’s Empowerment Principles, One Year Later

Equality Means Business

Do you know that women account for $20 trillion of global purchasing power—more than the entire GDP of China?  Or that women influence 80% of all purchasing decisions, worldwide? [1] Or more sobering to women in the US--American women are the majority of voters, 80 percent of consumers, majority of graduates of colleges, professional and graduate programs, and the driving force of entrepreneurship.  And yet the wage gap persists, only a handful of women are on corporate boards or in corner offices--no matter the field or profession, women business owners still face unnecessary obstacles, Congress is only 16 percent women, and quality affordable and accessible childcare--concerns that most affect mothers--are still only a dream for most.[2]

On March 9-10, 2011 I attended a joint meeting of the UN Global Compact and UN Women scheduled to coincide with International Women’s Day.  The purpose of the meeting--TAKING STOCK, SHARING LESSONS—was designed to present lessons from the field.

A speaker at the 2010 meeting and participant in 2011, I was struck by the difference between the inaugural 2010 meeting and the follow-up 2011 meeting.  This year, the room was full to bursting—every seat was taken, people were sitting on the sidelines, in the aisles, standing in the doorway.

In 2010, there were very few men in attendance.  In 2011, men were everywhere—men from Deloitte, IBM, Deans Beans, Calvert Asset Management, Banco do Brasil, Ceylon Asset Management Pvt. Ltd, Caixa Econômica Federal, and Sumitomo Chemical America to name a few.   The opening remarks were given by His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General. 

And the women—what a remarkable group of smart women, starting with the extraordinary Hon. Linda Tarr-Whelan, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow, leader, author and former Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women....a mother of 2/grandmother of 4.   Linda is definitely my new hero.  And the brilliant young Saadia Zahidi, who heads the WEF’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme.   Irene Natividad, Chair, Corporate Women Directors International, who argues passionately that we should implement quotas for women on boards similar to the EU initiative (40% board seats occupied by women) until there are enough women on boards that it just no longer matters.  Ellen McLatchey, Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Symantec Corporation—it seemed that most of the people in the room had a story to convey about Symantec’s support. Round it out with Cherie Blair (yes, formerly of Number 10 Downing Street) and founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Geena Davis, Founder of  the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media .  Geena Davis wryly observed that if we measure the number one job women occupy as portrayed by the media, particularly the film industry, that job would be princess.   

Board quotas or princesses…what’s your choice?

I want another set of choices and believed that if it were up to the women and men in the room, my choices would be outstanding.

How about these choices as profiled in the Deloitte Gender Dividend Report:

“The future belongs to those of us, female or male, who can adopt and embrace the feminine archetype.” John Hagel III, cofounder Deloitte Center for the Edge, Deloitte United States

Or this simple economic fact… in the US, nearly all net job creation since 1980 has come from small businesses operating for fewer than five years. Today, the number of women owned businesses in this category is growing at twice the rate of growth overall… and the job creation [we] need to fuel any kind of middle class is not going to come from corporations, it’s going to come from small business,” says Harvard business professor Nancy Koehn.

Or this… more educated women than men move from their country of origin in search of greater opportunities producing a female brain drain of global proportions. Countries and companies that lose educated women suffer a double loss—they lose a worker and a potential mentor

 

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[1] http://www.deloitte.com/genderdividend Deloitte Gender Dividend Report

[2] http://demos.org/issue.cfm?e=Womens_Leadership_Initiative Women’s Leadership Initiative

December in Bangalore: Sounds of the Season

I am in India for the second time in my life, five years after the first.  Things I most remember from my first trip—a mad fusion of sound and color and beauty and decay--are very much part of my second trip.   An almost unbearable level of external stimulus exists here that reminds me (in much larger scope) of New York City.  I always give myself twenty-four hours in Manhattan to get my game face on, and then I hit the streets.  India is the same for me, but on a massive scale. 

I was troubled about coming to India in December.  I love Christmas.  Not the commercial Christmas—I boycott Black Friday by spending the day donating to charities—but I love the array of sacred music everywhere—concerts all month long.  My favorite, the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, remains with me for the entire year.  I always think of the song In the Bleak Midwinter because the lights in the Cathedral are dimmed as the sacred music spills forth, often on the eve of the darkest, shortest day of the year.

But no solace here.  India is constant noise, regardless of the hour.  Street dogs barking, cars honking, trucks rumbling up the street, motorbikes everywhere, construction at all hours—a hurly burly (as in noisy confusion, tumult) that pounds through you.  But I am an urban creature—given the choice, I vacation in cities all over the world.  So I spent yesterday getting my Bengaluru game face ready, and planned to venture out.

Unfortunately I'm jet lagged and couldn’t sleep, so I got up at 5 AM to read.  All of a sudden I heard this odd sound.  I located it as external, and I opened the door of my balcony.  Lo and behold—it was the Muezzin from a nearby Islamic mosque, issuing the predawn first of five calls to prayer.  Hauntingly beautiful—I know it is a cliché, but it really was haunting—and I stood entranced, the Muezzin’s voice calling the faithful to praise Allah, the predawn prayer including, “it is better to pray than to sleep.”

Here I was, lamenting the absence of sacred music and when I least expected it, music arrived.  A Muezzin’s voice mixed with the still, dark, bleak midwinter December morning in India, and the sounds of the Adhan issued forth.  Come to prayer.  Come to prayer.

An iconic California day, drove up CA35, gorgeous Indian Summer weather, beautiful leaves, jazz on the iPod, and an early Thanksgiving meal with people I really like. One good day leads to a good week leads to a good month and all of a sudden it's a great life.

WHAT THE DYING TELL THE LIVING

Suddenly awake, you would banish

The pious priest from your beside

While exultant tears of your daughters

Score the background.

Your cool, thin-veined hands

Direct one daughter to sing.

And to the others, you’d say:

Cover all mirrors, I’ll not gaze back.

Wash your hands in a bucket of water—

I won’t cling to your fingers.

Leave through the same door you entered—

I’ll not follow.

                             In memory of my father, Richard Francis Mahoney

Thanksgiving 2010

Hands-down, my favorite time of year is Fall, particularly because these days fall gets swept away by Christmas as soon as the Halloween jack-o-lanterns are extinguished. 

Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. She has been gone from my life for what seems like an eternity.  For some reason, I remembered with great clarity a Thanksgiving Day years ago.

Indian summer had come late to Maryland.  The leaves were down, but the muted fall colors remained.  Not the bright reds and oranges, but the rust, beige, browns and gold.

I stood on the sidewalk of the only house I remember living in as a child, wrapped in a dress I loved and my mother’s sweater.  My mother, who could have been an operatic soprano had she not had five children, stood in the kitchen, cooking and singing.

She’d opened the kitchen window and the smell of dinner and the sound of her voice drifted around me, mixing with the late afternoon sun.  And I fell madly in love with everything in the world at that exact moment.

I realize now how rare those feelings are of pure, joyous mad love.  I twirled again and again, my arms thrown wide to see how far my skirt could bell, the scent of Shalimar drifting from my mother’s sweater, my shadow on the sidewalk bathed in the kind of warmth that only happens in November where just behind that warmth, winter stands armed and ready. 

2010 Social Enterprise Summit

I attended this conference for a few reasons--first to evaluate emerging forms of capital/funding and new organizational structures. Second was scaling--that is the buzz now, everyone talking about scaling.  Sadly, 90% of social enterprises can't scale because of access to growth capital, distribution, or regulation.  The third reason is that I want to generate a match for a large investment Google made in Anita Borg Institute, so I am beginning to think about what story we can tell that is interesting/compelling.  Fourth was to begin to interject ABI's name within this community.  And lastly poking around for talent--just talking to folks.

 

I haven't been to this conference for about 5 years, and what I noticed immediately is that there are newer, more interesting models taking over this space.  I go to a social capital conference in the fall held at Ft Mason--SOCAP10 Social Capital Markets Conference and it is very cutting edge, with industry, financial, practioners, all together.  The social enterprise alliance conference I am at today feels very nonprofit-centric--very few industry folks, no banks, etc. 

Scaling and capital were most impactful.  We are using a micro franchise model for ABI's GHC India conference and for our US GHC regionals, which I didn't really know. Franchise is a great scaling tool.

 

Re capital, ABI already has track record of successfully using debt as a tool which many nonprofits and ngos are really afraid to do.  However there are some very interesting funds--one in particular based in Philadelphia www.opportunityfinance.net.  I talked to EVP about financing.  I am also interested in mezzanine debt, which is another name for subordinated debt, or funders willing to take a 2nd or even 3rd debt position.

 

There is a new model of social enterprise emerging in US called a L3C--a low profit limited liability company. This is a hybrid for profit nonprofit model.  5 states have approved this model--all the profits have to get plowed back into the organization, and the profits must fit with the mission of the organization.  For the first time, you are seeing foundations offer PRIs (program related investments which are foundation loans at 0-2% interest.  These are not grants).  I think this L3C model is going to grow significantly over next few years, esp if nonprofits end up having to pay income tax in some form, which 22 states have on the dockets right now in light of the decline in tax revenues the states are facing.

 

Women in IT Panel Hosted by Year Up New York

I was invited to participate on a panel hosted by the wonderful workforce development organization Year Up New York.  If you don’t know about Year Up, they help young adults from challenging backgrounds achieve a “year up” in order to join the workforce as technology staff, or go on to school—community college or 4 year programs.  The remarkable stories of these young people are life changing and life affirming—as is their youth, tenacity and resilience. Support Year Up—it is the work of all our lives.

 

Year Up New York convened a 1-day Women in IT program hosted by Microsoft and facilitated by Abbie Lundberg, former editor in chief CIO Magazine and current founder/principal Lundberg Media.  Two panels, each featuring seven CIO/SVPs and a nonprofit representative, convened to discuss success factors and challenges of being a woman in IT.  The panelists represented a broad array of sectors, and were very senior. The session was deemed closed in order to allow for candid exchange between the panelists and audience.  All panelists were women.

 

Each talked about their journey to the top, describing early challenges—one woman, the first woman ever on the trading floor in a London Exchange was spat upon by her male colleagues—to current dilemmas including jobs that didn’t materialize after relocating one’s entire family to another country. 

 

It struck me that these were very technical, seasoned, tough women—strong leaders, big budgets, complex technology and business issues while managing large staffs often with many women reporting to them.  Each panelist addressed the same kinds of issues we deal with all the time at ABI: mentoring, leadership, networking, role models, and lack of women at the top. 

 

Many panelists had worked their way up through the technology staff ranks.  Most did not come up through computer science ranks—instead they rose through multidisciplinary paths.  What struck me about these women, however, was how comfortable they conveyed themselves in leadership roles.  They had lots of women on their staff, they are leaders themselves, and each seemed completely at ease being leaders—I’d have worked for any one of them. 

 

It was at the conclusion of the program that the ‘true’ gems occurred, however.  Each panelist was asked to give one piece of advice to the audience.    Every bit of advice was worthwhile—smart, timely, shrewd and actionable.  I decided to pick a few of my favorites and share them, although this is a misnomer—every piece of advice was my favorite.  I felt honored to share company with them.

 

1.    Create a personal transition team for yourself 4-5 people when a major life transition occurs.  One panelist talked about creating your own transition team and not attempting major changes on your own, alone.  Her advice was to single out people that represented different parts of the transition plan, invite them to join the team, assign them roles, secure their commitment to the team for its duration, and get them to be an active part of your transition from one role to another. 

 

2.    Don’t settle for less because it can take much longer than you think to climb from where you settled to where you really belong.  A panelist  spoke openly about accepting a job below her skill level because she lacked the confidence to push for what she wanted, and described eloquently how long it took her—longer than she expected—to regain the ground she gave up by taking a lower skilled job.  This is true for many women that often don’t always understand how to move up, and she gave a brilliant summation of how easy it is to waver, not stand firm, and not wait for the right job.  If you don’t believe it, just read the book Women Don’t Ask.

 

3.    Don’t waste your time trying to change the company, it won’t happen. Don’t hold on to a job for too long.  I’ve heard this advice before, from women that have actually left companies and been re-hired by the same company but at a much higher level.   The panelist spoke candidly and openly about how women often remain too long in a job, hoping the company will change, the boss will change, etc.  She encouraged women to consider changing jobs and not hold on to a job that is not going in the direction needed to support the woman’s career.  The company, the boss, the job situation may nor change, and at some point a woman has to fish or cut bait—leave in order to achieve her next career goals.

 

4.    Take risks, especially as a woman.  This particular panelist was my kind of woman—shrewd, tenacious, quietly outspoken—qualities that I personally enjoy in a leader.  She talked about the importance of not playing it safe in your career, and taking risks—actively looking for risk.  I know—easy to say take risks, when in fact it is scary, unpredictable, and difficult especially if you are a working single mother, sole breadwinner, etc.  But she conveyed that in many ways, being a working woman and a woman leader is all about risk, much of the time.  She had a way of conveying the urgency and importance of risk-taking that I found compelling and believable, and I left her discussion thinking women often don’t understand how to think bigger.  We think too small as a way to minimize risk, when in fact, we should be thinking bigger.  Just think of how many jobs a woman-owned company could create if women thought bigger…

 

And what was my piece of advice?  Go for the gold.  Grab the brass ring.  Think about what you want, put a plan together, and go get it.  Life is short—make it count.  Don’t let all the obstacles stop you from what you want.