Jeff Clarke, who joined the Council on Foundations last month as its interim leader, says he is not a “caretaker” chief executive.
A former business consultant who spent the past nine years at the Rasmuson Foundation, in Alaska, Mr. Clarke says he plans to help the Council on Foundations think through what role the membership organization can play in an era in which more and more people are using the Web and other technology to meet and make connections.
“The council, like a lot of its peers, is just working through this process and getting up to speed and making sense of this change,” he says. Any nonprofit association or membership group that didn’t admit to that challenge wouldn’t be giving an “honest answer,” he says.
Mr. Clarke succeeds Steve Gunderson, who announced in July that he would step down after six years as president. Mr. Clarke will serve at the Arlington, Va., organization through March.
One of his main tasks at the council will be to improve the group’s ties with regional associations of grant makers, relationships he says have sometimes been fraught. He also says he wants to help the council develop a culture that’s more open to change.
Mr. Clarke grew up in Brattleboro, Vt., and received a history degree from Middlebury College. An avid skier who recognized early on that he didn’t have the talent to make it to the Olympics, Mr. Clarke instead became a ski-team director and coach. He served as director of the U.S. Ski Team’s cross-country squad between 1990 and 1992.
The new council leader, who also holds master’s degrees in business and organizational behavior, says he’s fascinated by what makes people excel. He says he became interested in leaving his business career for Rasmuson when he realized what a great opportunity the newly created family foundation, which is the largest private philanthropy in Alaska, could be for the state.
Mr. Clarke, 50, worked as the fund’s vice president and most recently as a senior fellow. He still serves as chair of the board of Philanthropy Northwest and is a co-founder of the PRI Makers Network, an association of donors that make loans and other investments to help accomplish their social goals.
For his seven months of work at the council, Mr. Clarke will receive $210,000.
Following are excerpts from a recent interview.
What about this opportunity interested you?
The holy grail in our sector, and really in any sector, is “collective impact,” as the buzz terminology refers to it now. We used to just call that “working together.” The council should really be the catalyst to help the field understand what the opportunities for that are and to help bring people together. When you’re asked to serve the field in this way, it’s a very compelling opportunity.
What will be your biggest challenge?
The way that people connect, affiliate, share ideas, and work collectively has changed fundamentally. Membership organizations—and I don’t exempt the council—are struggling to figure this out. Twenty years ago, a membership organization might have been the only portal to actually be able to affiliate with the people you wanted to affiliate with. It’s not necessary now. The value proposition for membership organizations—and I’m sounding very consultant-like now—has to be very “sticky.”
What’s at the top of your agenda?
I’ve gone out to members and staff and said, “My job over the next seven months is to serve as the organization’s chief relationship officer.” The thing Ireally want to work most on over the seven months is to move forward the relationships between the regional associations and their capstone organization, the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. I’ve begun that conversation, to say, “We’re all serving the same members, we’re all in the same field, I know we’ve had a bumpy ride for the last few years. I’m a collaborator and I want to change that.”
Is the council considering merging with or acquiring other organizations?
I don’t know that the terminology of mergers is the right one for this field. But there is a consistent theme, and that is, how sustainable is this in its current form? I’ve always felt that we shouldn’t blame the economy for sustainability issues. At the end of the day, it will come down to the individual value proposition. I’d like to proactively get us there and perhaps put a model in place that we can begin to work with. I’d like that model to start with the council, the forum, and the regional associations.
Will the council narrow its agenda? Can it continue to try to be all things to all people?
In the past we would have called that the $64,000 question, but I’m not sure what the right number would be today. It’s larger than 64,000. What we’re trying to determine now is what it means to be a “capital L” leadership organization, given how quickly today’s external environment is changing. There are some big questions and there needs to be honest dialogue and an examination.
So it sounds like there’s a lot on the table.
That’s a good understatement. I’ve clearly been chartered by the board to make the kinds of changes required that will set up the organization in a way that the next permanent CEO has an organization that can take the kinds of questions we’ve been discussing to their logical conclusion.
Are you applying to be the council’s permanent leader?
I’m not. The board really wanted an interim who was dedicated for that period of time.
What books are you reading?
I recently read Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code. He’s an Alaska author. He offers some really interesting data about what it takes to truly become world-class. The other book I just finished is The Box, by Marc Levinson. It’s about how the shipping container changed the world. And then Council board member Akhtar Badshah [who runs grant making at Microsoft] just co-wrote a book, Technology at the Margins: How IT Meets the Needs of Emerging Markets.
