la kitchen
intro’d to Robert Egger and la kitchen here via Sandy.
I oftentimes refer to the fact that the number one challenge for your generation is – will you redefine what success and happiness looks like, instead of mimicking the folly that led to the econom
His most recent initiative, The L.A. Kitchen (set to open this year), will recover fresh food and fuel a culinary arts job training program for men and women coming out of foster care, and older men and women returning from incarceration.
Robert: I was walking along this morning and thinking about how nonprofit leadership is in the hands of association presidents. That’s one of the giant reasons we are in the state we are in; associations, by their very nature, aren’t leadership groups. They bring people together for conferences to discuss problems, but when it comes to responding to the problems, they are usually risk adverse.
In fact, many of the people who lead these groups, or their boards, are lawyers or accountants, who have been trained to be risk adverse. At the very moment the sector needs dynamism, innovation, bravery…the leaders of these organizations, the leaders of our movements—whether it’s the academic, foundation leaders, or association presidents—none seem equipped or prepared (intellectually or economically) for the type of leadership not only our sector needs, but our society needs. Our society needs an elevated nonprofit sector, but to get there, we need people who are prepared to challenge antiquated ideas about the role we play in the economic and political process.
In fact, one of the things I find comical is these leaders are constantly telling young people that there is a leadership crisis and promote classes or cohorts so they can teach you leadership, but all they are teaching is their version of leadership, which the sector does not need. FYI—there really isn’t a leadership crisis. There are thousands of people ready to assume responsibility for our sector, and who are ready to lead us in new directions. What we don’t have (due to stupid ideas about overhead) are retirement plans that would allow long-time leaders to step aside. That’s a real problem…leaders who can’t afford to leave.
What they are saying here is that you can make money here because we have great nonprofits.
Yet, you never hear them say this. You never hear candidates saying, “I love the nonprofit sector. You all bring in so much money in from outside of this city, and you employ so many people, and the work you do makes our city thrives. Elect me, and we will work together to ROCK this CITY.”
That’s the future. Not because it’s good for nonprofits, but because its good for America.
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