Transcript:

00:00:12:19 – 00:00:38:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
It’s time for KC cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. And we are telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them. KC cares is the intersection of the nonprofit and profit communities, making Kansas City a better place to live, work, and play. This KC cares segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Kauffman thought, I’m Ruth bomb Vegas.

00:00:38:11 – 00:01:06:20
Ruth Baum Bigus
Johnson County Community College opened its doors in 1969 off a gravel road in what was then considered the very southern reaches of the county. Well, it wasn’t long after 1971, in fact, that its foundation was created with a specific mission supporting the excellence the college is now known for. The Foundation supports the overall mission of JCPs. Its strategic goals and its initiatives.

00:01:06:25 – 00:01:32:58
Ruth Baum Bigus
They work to provide access to the college for all students, advance excellence through development of community leadership, business partnerships, and financial support. And they promote the cultural activities to enrich the college and the community. Leading the charge is Joy Ginsberg as their Executive Director. Joy joined the college in 2022 after leading another foundation in the community and a rich resume and leadership in the nonprofit world.

00:01:33:03 – 00:01:40:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Joy is joining us today to talk about the College Foundation and its work. Joy, it’s great to have you back.

00:01:40:17 – 00:01:42:18
Joy Ginsburg
Thank you so much, Ruth.

00:01:42:23 – 00:01:50:39
Ruth Baum Bigus
I guess we should not be so mysterious. Prior to this, you were with the Blue Valley Education Foundation, right?

00:01:50:43 – 00:01:54:47
Joy Ginsburg
Yes, I was I was there for, six years.

00:01:54:52 – 00:02:07:47
Ruth Baum Bigus
So you are not new to the foundation world, but this is a different organization. Can you talk a little bit about your kind of your journey over the bridge or across the bridge?

00:02:07:52 – 00:02:34:55
Joy Ginsburg
Sure, I’d love to. I, I actually started my career in the political world. I worked in the state legislature right out of college and then went to DC and worked on the Hill. And it’s funny because I tell people a lot that, raising money and working for a nonprofit is very similar to the advocacy world lobbying and mobilizing grassroots volunteers, is really the same as fund raising.

00:02:34:55 – 00:03:03:36
Joy Ginsburg
So I did that, for a really, really long time. I actually worked for the American Cancer Society for 18 years. And, our advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network. And so we kind of bridged, the nonprofit and, we had a 500 1C4, that we started at the American Cancer Society so that we could do more lobbying, and mobilize people, on the grassroots level.

00:03:03:41 – 00:03:31:23
Joy Ginsburg
Anyway, then I went to Blue Valley Educational Foundation, really, sink my teeth into this local community, raising money, to support teachers and students. And, I felt like there was such a great impact and, probably would have never, ever left there, but, this position opened up and I was recruited and it was kind of too good to be true.

00:03:31:28 – 00:03:49:21
Joy Ginsburg
And so I moved over to the Johnson County Community College Foundation. Really quite, quite a different organization. I didn’t really realize that when I was interviewing how different it would be, but it’s been a it’s been a great challenge and an opportunity for me and my career.

00:03:49:26 – 00:04:12:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, first of all, congratulations for surviving the political world, I think. Thank you. If anybody should get their star stripes, whatever it is, because it’s not an easy world to to navigate. Can you share a little bit about the skills that you developed and how did they translate, or have they translated for you in the work you do today?

00:04:12:16 – 00:04:49:13
Joy Ginsburg
Yeah, I do, I think, I always think back, at, my experience in a campaign and, and how it relates to what I do day to day here. When you work on a campaign, you roll up your sleeves. I don’t care if you’re the campaign manager, the communications person and the receptionist, but it’s all hands on deck all the time when you know there’s, you know, a short period of time where you’re running a campaign, you, and, you know, if labels need to be, kind of dating myself.

00:04:49:13 – 00:05:09:51
Joy Ginsburg
But if labels need to be stuck on envelopes, you know, that’s what you, you know, if, if you need to print out nametags, if you need to greet guests at a fundraiser. And, and I’ve kind of used that experience, throughout my career. Honestly, I’m sort of one of those people that, you know, whatever needs to get done, gets done.

00:05:09:55 – 00:05:37:10
Joy Ginsburg
Nothing. No job is too big or too small. And, and and then the other thing I think that’s very, specific to what I do now is relationship building. When I, when I worked in the political world, it was constantly me cold calls meeting people that I didn’t know, trying to, even I mean, at one of my jobs, I was kind of airdropped into a certain location and I had to find office space.

00:05:37:15 – 00:06:03:43
Joy Ginsburg
That was inconvenient to me. But it it really gave me the sense of, gosh, this is how how you get to know somebody. This is how, you know, you give back to them, because they’re giving back to you and, really, taking the time to get to know people, understand what their priorities are and, and that that’s what fundraising is, honestly.

00:06:03:43 – 00:06:07:25
Joy Ginsburg
And so that’s, that’s really helped me throughout my career.

00:06:07:30 – 00:06:09:41
Ruth Baum Bigus
I want you on my team. Yeah.

00:06:09:45 – 00:06:10:28
Joy Ginsburg
Thank you.

00:06:10:33 – 00:06:28:50
Ruth Baum Bigus
Sign you up. Sign you up. So you made this transition from Blue Valley Ed where he’d been a long time. And feel free to share and talk about some of your achievements while you were there. I know there’s been great successes there for the Blue Valley school system.

00:06:28:55 – 00:07:04:37
Joy Ginsburg
Sure. Well, when I worked at, BBF, my focus was really always on supporting teachers and classrooms and, the impact that that would make on, students and I always say my mom was a teacher, and I remember growing up and all the money that she spent, of her own collecting an envelope full of receipts every year so that she could turn it in, as a, you know, tax deduction, and I and I know it’s hard.

00:07:04:37 – 00:07:25:39
Joy Ginsburg
It’s the only profession, that I can think of where teachers really feel the need to spend their own money. They don’t have, you know, any kind of, you know, account that they can budget off of. And, and they’re so committed to making sure that their students have what they need, that they’re willing to do that. And honestly, I didn’t want them to do that.

00:07:25:39 – 00:07:50:05
Joy Ginsburg
So my goal was always to, collaborate with donors, raise money, we increased, you know, income tremendously while I was there. That’s something that I’m very proud of. And we kept investing more and more and more into, teachers and letting them do things that were kind of out of the box, trying new things, giving them opportunity.

00:07:50:06 – 00:08:14:51
Joy Ginsburg
It kept them very motivated. And I loved the day that we, got to hand out the checks with, we had we called it Surprise Squad. And, I mean, you could give a $500 grant to a teacher, and it felt like we were Ed McMahon giving out $1 million. Really? They were so appreciative and, so excited about the opportunity.

00:08:14:56 – 00:08:31:09
Joy Ginsburg
And that was really meaningful for me. And of course, my daughter went to Blue Valley schools. So, I was always thinking about the great opportunities that, we were able to provide all the students across the board throughout the district as well.

00:08:31:13 – 00:08:38:42
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, some in our audience might be saying Valley, they’ve got all kinds of money. Why do they need extra money?

00:08:38:47 – 00:09:17:22
Joy Ginsburg
Yeah. I mean, you know, Blue Valley is very fortunate in that, the community supports bond measures. There are you know, there certainly is state money that they have available to them. What it doesn’t allow them to do is get right down into the into the classroom. Teachers really still their hands are tied. Bond funding goes to build, you know, capital, campaigns, you know, so if they need an addition onto a school, typically Blue Valley can get that done, with money from, from taxpayers.

00:09:17:27 – 00:09:36:49
Joy Ginsburg
But in terms of the very at the very classroom level, they don’t have any extra money than anybody else does. Certainly they have PTO, that support them, that it’s still it’s minimal when it’s compared to to what the foundation can do to impact them.

00:09:36:54 – 00:09:59:31
Ruth Baum Bigus
Gotcha. Well, let’s talk about Johnson County Community College Foundation. I believe that you mentioned that you had a little bit of a learning curve, some things that weren’t maybe totally disclosed, not in any secretive way, but just I don’t know how when you interview someone, you can fully disclose what a job you know, a job is. There’s always little things.

00:09:59:36 – 00:10:06:16
Ruth Baum Bigus
Talk a little bit about some of those things you kind of had to navigate a little differently.

00:10:06:21 – 00:10:34:25
Joy Ginsburg
Yes. Thank you. And I, I still kind of smile about it just because, I think I had hit, almost two years, and I finally felt like I fully understand the organization, and and now I’m just over. I’m almost two and a half years in, so I’m feeling much better now. But, I mean, for it to take me that long, to sort of get my arms around the organization, it’s quite large.

00:10:34:30 – 00:11:02:42
Joy Ginsburg
We have $52 million in assets, net assets, which is, quite bigger, than anything that I’ve been involved in, thus closely. Anyway, we have at 34 million of that, our endowed funds. So we have quite a large endowment that’s very unique for community colleges. I meet with other executive directors of community colleges across the state of Kansas.

00:11:02:42 – 00:11:29:24
Joy Ginsburg
We meet at least a couple times a year, and it’s I mean, we’re so fortunate here in Johnson County, honestly, that we’ve been able to build up that endowment, to where to what it is. And, I will say, what makes it complicated is when you have a lot of endowed fans, they’re all they’re restricted. We have about, individual funds.

00:11:29:29 – 00:11:56:08
Joy Ginsburg
They’re all, they’re all named. And so the folks that have, named the funds have put restrictions on them, on how we can spend the money. Many of them are scholarships. Many of them are programs. Just about every program across the college, which, you would be amazed. I would encourage people to look at the website and see all of the different things that we teach here.

00:11:56:13 – 00:12:20:06
Joy Ginsburg
We have a program fund. And so, people across campus are, you know, spending money off of, the accounts that they have here, which is great, but and we want them to but, getting a handle on all of those funds and what their, restrictions are and how they can be utilized. That’s been a big learning curve.

00:12:20:11 – 00:12:45:00
Ruth Baum Bigus
Takes a hot minute to know all that and and remember names and who’s funding what and who you can have those meaningful conversations with. We’re talking with Joy Ginsburg. She’s the executive director of Johnson County Community College’s foundation. Well, let’s dive. You mentioned scholarships for students to talk a little bit. If you can, about the student population at Johnson County Community College.

00:12:45:00 – 00:12:52:43
Ruth Baum Bigus
It’s in Johnson County. But I think what you’re going to share is going to surprise some people about the student body itself there.

00:12:52:53 – 00:13:21:15
Joy Ginsburg
I mean, our our student population is so amazing, but and it it is very diverse. They, students come from all over that Kansas City community. There are so many amazing opportunities here that, academically, it’s such a great choice. And a lot of students come here for two years and then transfer to a four year institution and finish out their degree.

00:13:21:19 – 00:13:56:08
Joy Ginsburg
Lots and lots of students get certificates, or a degree here that they can go right out into the workforce, which is fabulous and a high paying jobs and into roles that, are really needed in our community. So, our students are amazing. And, we’re very, very, very proud of how many scholarships we found. We funded for the, the largest amount this past year, $1.7 million, for student scholarships.

00:13:56:13 – 00:14:39:41
Joy Ginsburg
It’s I can’t do the math, but somebody can make $103 a credit hour so that a $1.7 million goes a very long way. But, we are only able to fund about 20% of the students that apply for scholarships. So there’s a huge gap and there’s still a huge need. And I think people would be surprised. Some of the stories that we hear at our scholarship luncheons when students are sharing their stories, students that have struggled with homelessness, with food insecurity, we have I mean, we have a really big range of need on our on our campus.

00:14:39:41 – 00:14:54:58
Joy Ginsburg
And, I’m so thankful that we’re here to support. But we can always we always need more. I mean, to your point about Blue Valley, we do raise a lot of money, and we do have big endowments here, but it’s never it never seems to be enough.

00:14:55:03 – 00:15:08:15
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, I’m glad that you’re helping 20% at least. So those. And it’s not just young people. We should say that too. You say diversity. Talk about the diversity. I think we all kind of get hung up sometimes on colleges. Young.

00:15:08:20 – 00:15:34:36
Joy Ginsburg
Yes. Yes. I mean, we have a lot of traditional students that come here right from high school, but we have a lot of people going back and they want to change, change their career. They want, to, maybe they maybe they have never gotten a degree before. We have, students who are recent immigrants who, need to learn English.

00:15:34:41 – 00:16:08:42
Joy Ginsburg
That’s a huge program that we have. We have, actually, we have 20,000 undergraduate students, and then we have another 20,000 continuing at largest, higher ed institution in the state of Kansas next to University of Kansas. So I think people are surprised by that. I was when I came here. There are a lot of huge but I’ve been surprised about, but now I try to articulate to other people just so that others can, be enthusiastic as I am, about what we have to offer here.

00:16:08:42 – 00:16:21:09
Joy Ginsburg
But it’s I mean, it’s a huge population, lots of opportunities and, and yeah, we’re excited for the role that we, we play in their success here.

00:16:21:14 – 00:16:36:24
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, let’s talk to about developing, you know, community leaders and that aspect of the foundation a little different, I think, from your prior foundation experience, can you talk about that aspect of your position and at the college?

00:16:36:29 – 00:17:04:59
Joy Ginsburg
Yeah, sure. I mean, and I would say, I mean, it’s fairly similar. I mean, we’re a typical nonprofit organization. You know, I always say the governor, the college is governed by elected officials, trustees, and my board is, I mean, my the foundation is governed by, community leaders. And, those are, nominated by our committee.

00:17:05:04 – 00:17:33:49
Joy Ginsburg
We have an executive committee. We have a board of directors. And, they represent industry from, you know, across the community and really give us a great, insight to what what’s needed, where the workforce shortages are, how they can be helpful. But and they also, these leaders are very instrumental in helping us to also raise money, to support our students.

00:17:33:54 – 00:17:45:47
Ruth Baum Bigus
You have lots of events that are pretty much fundraising geared, you know, please share your events and how that works into the foundation life.

00:17:45:52 – 00:18:17:45
Joy Ginsburg
Yeah. We do we do have a lot of events. And, my personal background has always been an event. I, I’m kind of a I call myself an event person. And so I enjoy them. And it is a great way to bring the community together to, to raise awareness as well as raise money. I mean, and sometimes I think the awareness is the most important thing, because you never know who’s going to, you know, come right and and not know and not even know what the, what the college has to offer.

00:18:17:45 – 00:18:33:30
Joy Ginsburg
So a couple different things. Our big, huge signature event, was very recent, Some Enchanted Evening. It’s it’s, a gala, a black tie gala. It’s we were in our 38th year this year.

00:18:33:32 – 00:18:38:36
Ruth Baum Bigus
I was going to ask how long I remember, I’m young enough to remember when it started.

00:18:38:49 – 00:19:06:40
Joy Ginsburg
That’s. I mean, that’s quite longevity for an event. And we try to keep it fresh and new each year. And we did we did incorporate quite a few new things this year. We raised a record amount of money, 1.14 million, this year. And that is well, go to support student scholarships. The event is always focused on, scholarships for students, which is, which is great.

00:19:06:45 – 00:19:35:19
Joy Ginsburg
We had about 650 attendees at Overland Park Convention Center. It was a beautiful event. And I think, again, in terms of building awareness, one of the most important things, and I heard this from a lot of folks that went to the event. What they were most impacted by were our students stories. And we had two students this year and to your point, one very traditional student, one nontraditional, the nontraditional student.

00:19:35:24 – 00:20:04:34
Joy Ginsburg
I was teasing him a little bit in a nice way. Three times a charm hit. That was his third time back at Johnson County Community College. He came right after high school. Just kind of wasn’t ready, to focus on academics. Dropped out, came back, to our culinary academy. Became quite a good chef, but had a medical issue that, was made it very difficult for him to work in a kitchen.

00:20:04:39 – 00:20:31:54
Joy Ginsburg
And, he had epilepsy or he has epilepsy. And, so this time he came back and he’s in our neuro diagnostic program and just got a job at Children’s Mercy. And he is now treating patients that have the same issue, health issues that he’s had over these long years. So he’s finally found, the great and he is on Advent Health.

00:20:31:59 – 00:21:08:32
Joy Ginsburg
That’s one of our scholarships, scholarship recipient. He just told a great story. Our other student, much more traditional, just one year out of high school, she traveled, abroad with, with Johnson County Community College. One other thing that I think a lot of people don’t know is that we have quite a huge travel abroad, study program that she, studied in Italy, this past summer with our our trip, we go on 13 or so different trips across, across the world.

00:21:08:36 – 00:21:29:26
Joy Ginsburg
And, something that I was surprised about, I wouldn’t have thought that, that a community college would have that opportunity for their students. So it’s just, that, you know, great event. And then throughout the year, we, we try to bring, the community to the college at Seven Shades. That evening, we brought the college to the community college.

00:21:29:27 – 00:21:30:36
Ruth Baum Bigus
To the community.

00:21:30:41 – 00:21:58:37
Joy Ginsburg
We we had a lot of different students there, kind of showing off their programs. We had auto tech students simulating and, a training device that they use, to learn how to fix engines. And, you know, we had a fine art student painting the event live. We highlighted our travel abroad, program. Our culinary students packaged, treats for people to take on the way out.

00:21:58:37 – 00:22:20:42
Joy Ginsburg
So we really, we really tried to highlight a lot of things that the college has to offer so that so that our guests really get a good idea of, you know, what we do throughout the year for our students, a couple other events that we do coming up. We can’t rest in this office. We’re done with the gala.

00:22:20:42 – 00:23:00:47
Joy Ginsburg
And now the next event is, Cohen Community Series. Lee Brice, who was a country music artist, very up and coming and, is going to come and, do a benefit concert for us to support scholarships and other programs across campus. And, that’s coming up March 1st. We also another thing that surprised me when I came to, the foundation is that, we also do the fundraising to support the Norman Museum and, and, and Midwest Trust performing Arts Center.

00:23:00:52 – 00:23:27:48
Joy Ginsburg
So all of their sponsorships, all of their events are also run through, the foundation, early May, we’re doing an event for the Norman Museum, which is, going to be fabulous. It’s called a match made in Heaven. We’re bringing in some very special guests, to, highlight, modern art. And, it can’t be missed.

00:23:27:48 – 00:23:47:21
Joy Ginsburg
It’s going to be amazing. And then in the summer, we have an event called, Citizen Scholarships. It’s a women’s focused event to bring women on campus, kind of a networking event. But, they also get a little taste of the impact that we make on funding scholarships.

00:23:47:26 – 00:23:59:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
Oh, my gosh, you’re running around like crazy. Before time runs out, though, I want to make sure please go ahead and give your website so that folks can find out more about the foundation and what you do and how they can engage.

00:23:59:11 – 00:24:07:11
Joy Ginsburg
I would love to hear jc.edu/foundation.

00:24:07:15 – 00:24:31:41
Ruth Baum Bigus
Okay, and if worse comes to worse, I, I did find it at JC seat edu and just put in foundation in the search and took me there. So I have two ways to two ways to get there. What has been the kind of toughest you said there was a learning curve, but the toughest thing in, you know, in your day to day, the challenge that you face and how are you overcoming it?

00:24:31:46 – 00:25:04:03
Joy Ginsburg
Yeah. Well, I always, you know, we try to do so much for everyone across campus and we’re limited. I mean, our staff is limited, so our resources are limited. And I know, we’re very, very, very fortunate. The college actually pays for our office space for our salaries. So I can really go to a donor and say 100% of your gift is going to the mission, which is fabulous.

00:25:04:08 – 00:25:31:33
Joy Ginsburg
But we can’t even if we have the best fundraising year ever. We can’t just hire additional staff, to help us support. So, I mean, that’s that has been a challenge. I think every nonprofit sort of feels that, at one time or another. And so sometimes having to say no, has been difficult. You know, everybody wants, wants to do fundraising events.

00:25:31:33 – 00:25:39:11
Joy Ginsburg
When I first came here, there were a lot of faculty doing their own fundraising events. And we’ve sort of reigned them in a.

00:25:39:11 – 00:25:40:45
Ruth Baum Bigus
Bit.

00:25:40:50 – 00:26:10:09
Joy Ginsburg
To make sure that, you know, their overhead, it doesn’t exceed the, you know, industry standard. And they’re, you know, accounting for things, based on IRS guidelines, as they should. So, I mean, that’s good and bad. So we’ve taken all that back. And then it also causes more work. And I just asked so I would say that’s been really the the hardest challenge.

00:26:10:14 – 00:26:27:09
Ruth Baum Bigus
So it’s education you’re educating right. Hey, we can do this, but we can do that. Or have you thought about that or do you run into some of the same folks from your prior position? Is there some crossover there?

00:26:27:14 – 00:26:53:24
Joy Ginsburg
Oh, not just, there’s tons, a lot a lot of our major donors I already had a relationship with, which is, which has made it much easier for me to transition into this role. I’m constantly still meeting new people and trying to engage as much as I can. More broadly. But, there’s there’s a lot of crossover between Blue Valley donors and Johnson County Community College Foundation.

00:26:53:31 – 00:26:59:55
Ruth Baum Bigus
How big? How big is your staff? You said you can’t just go hiring more people in things. So what what does that look like for you?

00:27:00:00 – 00:27:05:48
Joy Ginsburg
I have, four full time and two part time, and then me.

00:27:05:53 – 00:27:24:45
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, that’s a good bit of, woman people power to get it going. We talked a little bit about challenges. What has what are the sparkling moments for you? What have you really found yourself like? Wow, this was the move. And I like this and we’ll go forward.

00:27:24:50 – 00:27:53:59
Joy Ginsburg
Yeah, I mean, I will oh, I will always, always say it’s the students when I hear the students stories and the impact that we’ve made. We had a student speak, at our citizen scholarships this past, this past summer, and she was working for jobs, and, you know, trying to go to school and trying to support, her family.

00:27:54:04 – 00:28:19:23
Joy Ginsburg
And, the fact that she could, have access to scholarships and lift the financial barrier for her, she was able to focus on her academics. She ended up being in our honors program. She was waitlisted to Yale University. Ended up going to University of Kansas, which is my alma mater. So I think she made the right choice anyway.

00:28:19:28 – 00:28:43:32
Joy Ginsburg
But, she, I mean, she’s going to be a bright star in our future. I mean, she wants to be a physician. I kept telling her, just let me know when you have your medical office, because I will be right there. But that impact, I mean, without that, I don’t know what what she would have done if she didn’t have the help, from our donors, to support her education.

00:28:43:46 – 00:29:11:08
Joy Ginsburg
And one thing that our students constantly say is that it motivates them to to do well in school because they have this, they feel like somebody that doesn’t even know them is supporting them and giving them the motivation to succeed. And that’s been so meaningful to me. So I will always say focus on the students and the impact that I know that we’re making, because I hear all of their stories.

00:29:11:13 – 00:29:45:22
Ruth Baum Bigus
It’s the Johnson County Community College Foundation supporting the students that that go there and, and really, number need that support to lift themselves up and get an education, go out and have meaningful lives, you know, in the community. So kudos to what what the college is doing and, and what you’re doing through the foundation. And again, we want to mention the website is that J.C c C++ edu slash foundation and it’s Joy Ginsberg at the helm.

00:29:45:22 – 00:29:50:37
Ruth Baum Bigus
Joy, thank you so much for sharing what you’re doing. And and the great work of the college.

00:29:50:42 – 00:29:53:48
Joy Ginsburg
Thank you. Were with I appreciate the opportunity.

00:29:53:53 – 00:30:23:31
Ruth Baum Bigus
And thank you for joining us on KC cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We’re produced by a nonprofit called Charitable Communications. This KC cares segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Kauffman Board. To be a guest on KC cares or Underwriting opportunities, please visit our website, which is KC Cares online.org. Spread the love. You’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC Cares Radio and Instagram at KC Cares Online.

00:30:23:46 – 00:30:35:44
Ruth Baum Bigus
Don’t forget, you can catch us Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. on ESPN, 15 a.m. and 15:10 a.m. and 94.5 FM. Thank you for joining us on KC cares.

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