Beth Miller is Executive Director of the Creative Education Foundation, which provides personal and professional development in Creative Problem Solving and other deliberate creativity processes. Beth taught writing at Trinity College and Quinnipiac University and is an award-winning writer and historian. Her work was adapted as the play, “An Education in Prudence,” produced by the Open Theater Project. Beth received an honorary PhD in Arts and Humane Letters from Southern New Hampshire University, was one of Trinity College’s “50 Women for the next 50 Years,” and was recognized nationally as one of the “Women We Admire” in the United States.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CXO Outlook Magazine, Beth shared her professional trajectory, insights on diversity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector, her secret to striking a work-life balance, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Beth. Please tell us about your career path and what brought you here.
Like many nonprofit fundraisers, I stumbled into this work. While I was completing my college degree at Trinity College, the development department approached me to assist with writing grants because they heard I was “a good writer.” Doing development writing for Trinity introduced me to the nonprofit sector. From grant writing, I moved through the ranks of nonprofit development until I earned the title of Development Director. Many people in the nonprofit sector report that the role they like least is fundraising. I love it. I love fundraising because it allows me to find ways to connect people and resources, and when that happens successfully lives are changed both for the donor and for the people and programs that benefit from donations. After serving as a Development Director for ten years, my desire to grow as a leader increased; also, I had worked for a few Executive Directors that ranged from ineffectual to toxic, and I believed I could do a better job. I worked with a few nonprofit Executive Director placement professionals to help me redesign my resume and cover letters, and to shift my interviews to highlight my leadership as well as my fundraising accomplishments. Ultimately, I was hired as the Executive Director of the Creative Education Foundation (CEF), and I have been in this role since 2014.
What do you love the most about your current role?
I love being the Executive Director of CEF because our professional development training events and workshops empower people to tap into their natural creativity and leadership ability to forge stronger personal and working relationships. CEF was founded by Alex Osborn, the “father of brainstorming,” and the man upon whom the main character in the television series “Mad Men” was based. Alex believed that everyone is creative and that they can be trained to be deliberately creative, and we continue his legacy by training people of all ages, in all industries, from around the world in Creative Problem Solving (CPS). It is an honor to work to continue Alex’s legacy, and to work with others to help them understand that they have tremendous creative potential. I also love that I get to work with so many talented consultants who train people in an array of disciplines including CPS, conflict resolution, Polarity Thinking, and many other processes that are designed to encourage productive collaboration, self-awareness, and innovation. Not only do I have the honor of working with these amazing people doing this important work, I get to mobilize my nonprofit management, leadership, and fundraising skills to continue this important mission and support a broad and dynamic community.
How can nonprofit fundraisers help donors make more meaningful contributions to their organizations?
Nonprofit fundraisers can help donors make more meaningful contributions by having real conversations with donors. It is critical to know why donors are connected to your organization – how they first got connected, and why they stay connected. It is also really important for fundraisers to talk about the vision for the organization and how the financial (and other contributions) donors make help make the organization thrive. A particular challenge in nonprofit fundraising are restricted gifts – gifts that can only be used for specific projects. Nonprofit organizations are most in need of unrestricted gifts and operational funds that allow them to direct funding where it is needed. For a nonprofit to thrive, it needs more than funding for programs; it needs funding to pay nonprofit salaries, facilities, insurance, and the other expenses required to run the organizations, to retain top talent, and to ensure the safety and success of programs. When we have real conversations with our donors about the needs of the organization, we can develop informed partnerships that elevate donors’ understanding of the many “unsexy” but critical expenses required to ensure that programs are delivered well, expertly, and sustainably.
How can younger generations, such as millennials and gen Z, make decisions about how and where to make philanthropic contributions?
Philosophically, younger generations (like all generations) should identify philanthropic initiatives that they care deeply about. They should also create a personal annual budget that includes the amount they can afford to donate and consider the impact they seek to make with their donations. This intentionality will help them feel satisfaction with their philanthropic engagement, and will help them to manage their finances. Donors (of all ages) should also spend a little time researching the organization they intend to donate to. A simple Google search will show whether or not there have been any negative news stories about the nonprofit about which donors should be concerned. If they want to do a deeper dive, they can look up a nonprofit’s tax documents. In the United States, nonprofit tax documents are available via ProPublica or GuideStar. You will want to look at the nonprofit’s most recently filed 990 (the US tax form). Check for significant changes in income – this could indicate an organization in a downward spiral and in trouble. Tax filings also require narratives about any challenges or legal issues the nonprofit may have faced in that tax year. These narratives are at the very end of the tax documents. If the organization does NOT have recently filed taxes, they may not be in good standing, and you should not donate until you get clarity on their nonprofit standing.
Working in a historically male-dominated industry, what has been your journey breaking down barriers and stepping into leadership roles?
Unlike other industries, the nonprofit sector is female-dominated with averages ranging from 60-62% of nonprofit Executive Directors and CEOs being women. There is, however, a “glass escalator” effect particularly with larger nonprofits with leadership roles that are high profile and high paying. The “glass escalator” effect describes male candidates’ faster elevation to top paying, larger responsibility nonprofit roles. Another challenging aspect of diversity in the nonprofit sector is that it is led predominantly by white men and women in the United States, with people of color, particularly black women, making up most worker positions. This is true for many industries, but this lack of leadership equity in the nonprofit sector reflects a history we must strive to evolve away from. Many charitable organizations in the United States trace their creation to wealthy white women. At the turn of the 20th century, there were many powerful and wealthy families, with well-educated and unemployed women, who started charitable societies. These include such notable and far-reaching organizations as The Boys and Girls Club of America. Many operas, ballets, museums, and other arts societies emerged at this time and were funded by wealthy women often with their own and their husbands’ money. This entrenched the “great white hero” phenomenon. This had a few deleterious impacts on the nonprofit sector – firstly, it reaffirmed white and upper class superiority, and secondly, it affirmed the notion that it was déclassé to get paid for nonprofit work. The repercussions of this class, race, and gender-based history echo today in the: persisting resistance to funding equitable salaries for nonprofit workers in general; the lack of diversity in leadership positions across the nonprofit sector; and the persisting idea that nonprofit work is “women’s work” and therefore, less professionally valuable and less based in expertise than for-profit work. For my part, I actively recruit women board members from diverse backgrounds. I am proud that CEF has a female-majority board. I also do not apply for nonprofit leadership positions that predominantly serve people of color, as I do not believe I am a representative leader for those populations as a white woman. I also work to educate my board and our community about the expertise required to run a successful nonprofit, and I fight for my own and my colleagues’ salaries and benefits to reflect the value of this work.
What are your thoughts on diversity and inclusion? How important is it to have authentic conversations with leaders, professionals, and changemakers to create more acceptance across the globe?
It is incredibly important to address diversity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector. As I mentioned above, the genesis and persisting philosophy behind many nonprofits is that successful, monied, white folks should care for (in a paternalistic way) under-resourced populations of people who are predominantly people of color. As white leaders, we must be constantly alert to this supremacist positioning, which has not been earned but rather assumed due to the privilege of having white skin. Moreover, the disparity of suffering in the world, which predominantly impacts people with disenfranchised identities that unfairly provoke lack of equity, justice and fair access to resources. For example, a nonprofit leader who has never experienced homelessness cannot full relate to someone who is unhoused. A woman of color living in poverty due to famine in her country has little in common with a white nonprofit worker who has always had access to safe food and water. It is critical that people who have experienced – and who are currently experiencing – the hardships that nonprofits seek to alleviate and solve are involved in the solution-making work as thought partners and as leaders. This work requires honest conversations about how privilege keeps critical voices silent, and that puts into action truly inclusive leadership.
Who has influenced you the most in life and why?
There is no one person who has influenced me the most in my life. In general, I am extremely cautious about any influences that might lead to reverence. It can be fraught to have heroes – it makes it difficult to see their flaws, and it can inhibit a growth mindset, which requires questioning what we have learned and, at times, who we have learned from. Further, I have needed different mentors at different times of my life. Right now, I find that most of my mentors are younger women because younger women have grown up with a greater sense of themselves, more faith in their ability, and a more clear and courageous ability to understand themselves and their dreams. This was not something I grew up with in my generation, and at times my lack of experience with encouragement keeps me from believing in myself. If I am totally honest, I have been most influenced by the bad or ineffective leaders I have encountered over the course of my 20-year career. I have worked for leaders who were unfair, unclear, inconsistent, and emotionally dysregulated. Every time I am engaging with my colleagues or board or volunteers or partners at my organization, I strive to be fair, clear, consistent, and calm. This is not because I have witnessed or worked with many leaders who had these qualities; this is because I worked with and witnessed and witness many leaders who do not have these qualities and I saw just how much damage they did to their workers and their organizations. It is my goal to stay on my growth edge, and always to reflect on how I can do better.
What is your secret to striking a work-life balance?
Nonprofit workers are often overworked and under-resourced, and working in situations that can be deeply personal and even life-saving. This creates a tremendous amount of pressure on workers’ free time, as well as their financial and emotional well-being. Having work-life balance requires control over your schedule and grace for stepping away from critical work to attend to personal needs and well-being. This is a tall order. I am able to manage my work/life balance in part because I do not have children, so I have fewer people depending on me to be fulfilled, safe, and successful in their lives. As the boss, I also have a high degree of control over my schedule. I keep Mondays free to catch up with critical work and plan out my week, and I keep Fridays free for longer term, strategic projects. There are times when this general schedule must shift, but I work to stay faithful to it. As an introvert, many meetings can be exhausting for me. So, I work to limit the number of meetings I have on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I have also shifted from scheduling one hour meetings. For new “get to know you” meetings or check ins, I restrict meetings to one half hour. I also do not schedule back-to-back meetings. I give myself time to process and recharge between meetings. I have also ensured the maximum amount of paid holidays for me and my colleagues, and I make sure we all take our vacation days. Additionally, I advocate for me and my colleagues. Each June, we run our famous Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI). CPSI is a 5 day deliberate creativity professional development conference, and we have a small staff that runs this important event with the help of volunteers. Each year, I noted that everyone on our staff needed recovery time after CPSI. It felt unfair to me that staff members with fewer personal days than me would have to use those days to recover from the work of CPSI, so I petitioned my Board to allow us to close the office for the week after CPSI. In short, when I need help to maintain work/life balance for myself and my colleagues, I ask for it. My colleagues also know that we have a “family first” policy, which means the work can wait and that we will support one another in covering various workplace responsibilities. In this way, I enjoy, model, and support work/life balance.
Where would you like to be in the next 5 years?
In my current role at CEF, we are close to some exciting breakthroughs that could positively accelerate the impact and success of the organization. I can see myself at the helm of CEF in five years as a bigger, more robust, and more impactful organization. I am particularly passionate about forging meaningful collaborations between nonprofit organizations, and I believe CEF is well-positioned to curate, initiate, and support such collaborations. It would be amazing to help lead a shift in the nonprofit sector from a “hunger games” mentality – i.e. competing nonprofits scrapping for limited resources and funding – to an integrated, effective, well-funded, equitable, and well-resourced network of nonprofits that truly move the needle on society’s most critical social issues. I am working to do this in my current role, and would be thrilled to lead this work at a larger nonprofit organization or at a grant-making organization in the future.
What advice would you give to others looking to do something similar?
I would advise people to read about the nonprofit sector in general and to read about the particular segment of the nonprofit sector they hope to work in. Many people look to nonprofit work or even start nonprofits because they think they will be working on programs or problems about which they are passionate. Much of nonprofit work is administrative and either directly involved in fundraising or deeply tied to the success of fundraising. I would encourage them to be sure that the work they hope to do in the nonprofit sector is the actual work of the job they are looking to acquire in the sector. Great resources for information about and trends within the nonprofit sector include The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Nonprofit Quarterly, GuideStar, and Blue Avocado. As a build on one of the questions above – if someone finds themselves interested in or interviewing with a particular nonprofit, they should do a Google search on that nonprofit to find positive and negative news about that organization. They should also go to GuideStar to look up the organization, and review their most recent 990 tax forms. These forms will reveal top salaries and also require the reporting of any major legal or financial issues for the organization. I cannot stress one final point enough – if you are considering starting a nonprofit, research to see if other organizations are already doing what you would like to do, and understand that you will be spending most of your time setting up your administration and fundraising – which is rarely the work people want to do when they start a nonprofit. If you start a nonprofit that does work already being done in the area, you will potentially draw funding away from an organization that is better established and better equipped to do the work you seek to do. Instead, see if you can work with that nonprofit in your shared area of passion.