Author: Sue Robinson

Our global social safety net, that helps people gain access to education and health care and assists with meeting basic human needs, depends on private funding in the form of philanthropy.

Three national experts in nonprofit leadership and philanthropy will speak April 8 at the University of Richmond on the topic of “Private Money/Public Causes: Leadership, Philanthropy and the Common Good.”

The conference is free and is the last program for the 2009-10 Jepson Leadership Forum season that is exploring the concept of The Common Good. The session, which includes a networking luncheon,  will be 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on campus at the University of Richmond. Registration is required and seating is limited. Details.  

Speakers:

• Deborah Bial, Ph.D., president and founder of The Posse Foundation, a youth leadership development and college access organization that sends students from diverse backgrounds to selective colleges and universities throughout the United States. She is considered an innovator and is widely respected nationally as a leading educational strategist.
• Patricia M.C. Brown, Esq., president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare, a managed care organization owned by Johns Hopkins Health System and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. An expert on health care reform, she is a 1982 graduate of the University of Richmond, an attorney, and former assistant attorney general for Maryland. She is serving as the 2010 Leader-in-Residence for the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.
• Leigh Carter is the executive director at Fonkoze USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing financial and technical support for its Haitian partners at Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution n Haiti. Fonkoze was founded in 1994 by a Haitian Catholic priest who started the institution with a vision to provide the means for all Haitians, even the poorest, to participate in the economic development of the country. Recipients of Fonkoze grants are women because they are the backbone of the Haitian economy and the doorway to the family unit.

In the Washington Post’s blog “On Leadership,” Jepson School of Leadership Studies Professor Joanne B. Ciulla writes about Sarah Palin and “The genius and pitfalls of charisma.” The posting is cited here:

“In response to the On Leadership question: As Sarah Palin goes about laying the foundation for a possible presidential candidacy, what could she do to burnish her leadership credentials beyond her conservative base?

A leaders’ credibility depends on how well he or she fills follower’s expectations in a variety of contexts. Presidents lead in settings ranging from town hall meetings to cabinet meetings. Each context requires them to possess the appropriate personal affect and relevant information.

At the Republican Convention and the recent Tea Party gathering, Sarah Palin exemplified the qualities that people want their leaders to have in such contexts. She demonstrated a keen sense of the emotional state of the room and effectively united the crowd – mostly by attacking a common enemy. Palin makes her audience feel good about themselves and empowered, but most importantly, she makes them want her as their leader. She does all of this with caustic humor moderated by a down-home charm (that her followers call “authenticity”), and a plain speaking style that conveys the idea that “The truth is simple and I have the truth.” Palin likes to call herself a “maverick,” but her leadership style has the hallmarks of a charismatic leader.

In the context of rallying the troops and preaching to the converted, she has plenty of leadership “cred.” The media coverage she gets adds to that credibility in the eyes of followers. Pundits of every stripe speculate about whether Palin will run for president. This gives the impression that they regard her as a credible leader.

The question is, what happens when Palin finds herself in contexts where people expect leaders to be knowledgeable about the issues and propose solutions to the nation’s problems? How does she expand her base?

The obvious answer is to hire consultants, crank up the conservative think tanks, and create the Palin platform. Palin says that she has been studying up on the issues. If she runs, she probably will hire policy wonks, but how much will she study?

As Max Weber observed, charismatic leaders play by their own rules. They do not recognize or value competence, and they see their authority residing outside of the realm of every day concerns. Charismatic leaders get into trouble when they become overconfident in the power of their emotional appeal and personality. If Palin wants leadership “cred” she will have to avoid this trap and remember that being a great cheerleader does not mean that voters will let you play the game.”

The always thoughtful Jonathan Zur, president and CEO of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, was part of a long piece in Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch about Richmond, race and reconciliation. (University President Ed Ayers was also among the thought leaders discussing Richmond’s slave-trading history.)

The 2003 Jepson School of Leadership Studies alumnus Zur articulated an action-oriented approach to dealing with Richmond’s past. He told the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “We’ve had a lot of dialogues for the dialogue. … Let’s look at our education system. Let’s look at our housing. Let’s look at our city-county structure. Let’s think about who benefits from things being the way they are, who’s invested in things being created the way they are and staying there. And so the work then is critically looking at these structures and institutions that have been governing our way of life for so long, and perhaps making changes where changes need to be made.”

“People have very different lived experiences in metro Richmond,” said Zur, who grew up in New Jersey. “And so the conversation is why and how. And the action is, ‘What do we do to change that so there is an equitable lived experience?” The article