Transcript:

Welcome to KC Cares. We’re Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, and we’re 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 about a place to live, work and play.

00:00:35:04 – 00:01:11:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
This KC Care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. www dot Kauffman dot org. My name is Ruth Baum Bigus. he Kauffman Foundation is a shining star in the philanthropic constellation across the country and probably around the world. Founded in 1966 by Ewing, Marion Kauffman, noted entrepreneur and humanitarian today, the foundation is focused on preparing people for success in their jobs so that everyone has the opportunity to achieve, prosper and do well.

00:01:11:23 – 00:01:45:15
Ruth Baum Bigus
While the foundation is grounded in principles of racial equality, diversity and inclusion, all aspirations of its founder, the Kauffman Foundation, is more than 2.5 billion in assets that invest in the most important projects and organizations focused on people and building practical and workable solutions to today’s challenges. Today, the foundation has a new leader at the helm. It’s Angela Burns Wallace, whose resume is packed with incredible experiences and accomplishments, including stints in state government, the Foreign Service and higher education.

00:01:45:17 – 00:02:14:09
Ruth Baum Bigus
She’s won numerous prestigious awards as well as served and serves on various boards. A lifelong student and a higher education advocate, Dr. Burns Wallace holds degrees from Stanford, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a faculty appointment at the University of Southern California. Dr. Burns Wallace is more than her resumé. She’s a Kansas City native, a working mom and a daughter of older adult parents.

00:02:14:11 – 00:02:22:13
Ruth Baum Bigus
For this ask the Expert episode, we’re so delighted to welcome Dr. Burns. WALLACE Thank you so much for being here.

00:02:22:15 – 00:02:28:10
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Thank you so much for having me. I am excited to be a part of this conversation today.

00:02:28:12 – 00:02:46:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, we would think that everybody knows what the Kauffman Foundation is all about and what somebody in charge does. But I thought it’d be a good place to start to talk a little bit about what your responsibilities are for, you know, helming this auspicious organization.

00:02:46:05 – 00:03:23:08
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So like any other president and CEO, you spend your time handling meetings and meetings and meetings, but in a good way. The work of this foundation and the Kauffman Foundation is really about empowering communities, about being in places, in spaces where we are working to break down systemic barriers, where we are working to help communities with solutions so that they have the power to control their economic stability, their economic prosperity and growth.

00:03:23:10 – 00:03:49:13
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And so our investments over time, particularly over the last few years in education and entrepreneurship in this region and also around the world has really been about how do we help ensure that more people have access to opportunities that allowed them to have that control over their own economic future through that sitting at the helm of the organization?

00:03:49:18 – 00:04:42:17
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
It means that particularly right now, that it’s about us being in line with the communities that we serve, that we’re able to understand and match those needs of that community with the investments that we have with the research and the learning that we do with the convenings that we host and that we bring into various conversations. So my role on a day to day is to listen, is to learn, is to ensure that we are in collaboration, in partnership, in community, to be able to help those that need that access, need to be able to access those opportunities that historically there have been barriers to equitable access.

00:04:42:19 – 00:05:19:16
Ruth Baum Bigus
Gosh, I think back, you know, 1966 when Mr. Kay started this journey, and you would think by now we would made these great strides and great leaps, which we have to some extent, but still so much work to be done. What can you share at this point? What is the state of the Kauffman Foundation and under your leadership, what kind of priorities focus points are out there for you?

00:05:19:18 – 00:05:49:03
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So I would say that we but also around the nation, in conversations around access and opportunity and economic prosperity, I don’t see that going away for us. I think it is part of the priorities. If we think back to Mr. Kay and the work that he wanted to happen around the country, he said in some of his remarks that we would find solutions to tough issues here in Kansas City and to be a model for the nation.

00:05:49:05 – 00:06:18:24
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And we continue to work with our community partners, whether it is peers, funders, nonprofit organizations, those on the, you know, the civic side, our our public sector partners, educational partners to understand the circumstances and issues in our community and then again, to solution around them. Right now, that’s a part of the work that we’re doing. We are in as many organizations go through when you change leadership, a strategic planning phase.

00:06:19:01 – 00:06:39:09
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And so like any other leadership change, when you have that, it actually creates an opportunity for you to refine the work. And for us, we have a beautiful legacy of the investment in the work that we’ve done in and around the community and around the nation. And in this moment, it allows us to better understand that legacy and its impact.

00:06:39:11 – 00:07:05:08
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
It allows us to kind of stand on that legacy. But the beauty of, you know, doing strategic planning for your organization is that you don’t have to be constrained by that legacy. It informs it helps you think about. But our work and thinking about what does this work need to evolve into in the next 5 to 7 years to continue to meet the needs of the communities that we serve?

00:07:05:10 – 00:07:16:02
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
That for us in this moment is what strategic planning is all about, and it allows us to refine our funding priorities coming out of this work.

00:07:16:04 – 00:07:19:15
Ruth Baum Bigus
Where are you in that process?

00:07:19:17 – 00:07:41:24
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So we are kind of chugging along. What I will say is, is that we are close. Our hope is that as we move through our strategic planning, that we are able in the near future to talk about what those priorities are. And again, we are grounded in education and entrepreneurship in the work that we have invested in over the last few years.

00:07:42:03 – 00:08:06:13
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And we know that that will continue to be a part of that of the work that we do going forward. But the question is, what does that work look like from a future lens, not kind of a backwards lens. So we are just kind of thinking about our own horizon of in that this spring we’re in a place in space where we will be able to talk about what those strategic priorities are going forward.

00:08:06:15 – 00:08:17:05
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Looking to set a 2030 vision for the work that helps to drive our direction, and we’ll be excited to share that coming soon.

00:08:17:07 – 00:08:38:00
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, we we can’t wait to share what you do as well. That’s kind of be invigorating to come into an organization, as you say, is is built on a legacy of a man who has become was larger than life in life. And I think is even larger. You know, after that, anybody who met Mr. Kay, I think, would agree with that.

00:08:38:02 – 00:08:55:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
But how fun to get in there And like, dabble Dream kind of, you know. And so are you bringing lots of folks to the table? Is this an exercise of board and staff? How does it work?

00:08:55:05 – 00:09:23:23
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
It is an exercise with an in partnership community. So we have over the last few months, spent time in various communities with partners, bringing them to the table, asking them in different ways. And so we as I started in this role, we did an open house where we opened the doors of the foundation and welcomed over 300 partners to an evening of just celebration.

00:09:24:03 – 00:09:45:07
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And that night, even we launched a survey asking them, as we start to think about our strategic planning, what are some of the priorities? Where do we need to align, where do we need to be careful? But then we built on that and we then pulled together key stakeholders in the community at various levels all throughout the Greater Kansas City region and a few of our national partners.

00:09:45:10 – 00:10:07:21
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And we asked them similar questions, going a little bit deeper. Right? We started to talk about, you know, where is this work? Where’s our work been? Where does it need to go, How does that fit with the work that you’re doing and your strategic priorities and alignment and how can we support and how does it along? So those voices have all been a part of shaping the work as we go forward, but also our team.

00:10:07:23 – 00:10:32:24
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And so we have an amazing, dedicated group of associates that work at the foundation, and they have also been integral in this work. Sometimes when you do strategic planning and as someone who was a strategic planner would come into other organizations and do this work with them. A lot of times you start at the leadership team, right? You take that CEO and their executive team and you put them in the room and they’re like, All right, what are your priorities and how do we want to structure it?

00:10:33:03 – 00:10:56:20
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Then you roll it down to the team and say, okay, here’s the priorities. Like what do you all think and how do we tweak them? We didn’t do that. We put all 80 plus. We are around about 84 associates in a room together. And we kicked off our strategic planning process together with all of us starting to design and to think about what should be these headlines that we’re working toward.

00:10:56:24 – 00:11:16:18
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
What what, who are the communities that we want to ensure that we are serving? What are the outcomes and impacts that we want to see in this work as we move forward? And every single member of our foundation staff was in the room as we started that conversation. Then we did the same thing with the board, took them through the similar exercises, right?

00:11:16:18 – 00:11:37:21
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So it has been a wonderful journey to see the evolution of this work and to hear and to work with people who have said to me, as we are getting further along and starting to test some of our ideas and and make sure we’re going back to those and say, okay, do you hear yourself in the work that that’s coming out of this?

00:11:38:00 – 00:11:56:11
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
You know, as we starting to shape some of our goals and levers, are you hearing what you put in? And to hear people tell us internally and externally, I see myself and I see what what I gave as something that was taken into consideration. It means that we’re on the right path. We still have a ways to go, right?

00:11:56:13 – 00:12:30:14
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
But that idea that we’ve built a process where people have felt that they have been able to give really good feedback and insight and that we are truly echoing that back and how we are crafting. Again, still testing some things, still making sure that we have that alignment. But it is good to hear along the way from various stakeholders, internal and external, that they believe that our process even has ensured that that various voices are being taken into consideration.

00:12:30:16 – 00:12:56:04
Ruth Baum Bigus
I’m so excited now to hear all about this and how how validating for your associates to know that they are not just sitting there waiting for things to come trickling down, but a percolate percolate up. I want to switch for a minute and and take you and our our audience to what I was able to learn. We’re talking with Angela Burns Wallace.

00:12:56:04 – 00:13:30:12
Ruth Baum Bigus
She is the CEO, the woman in charge at the Kauffman Foundation. And from personal observation, very vivacious and exciting. And I want you to know that I have my sparkly tennis shoes on. This lady has got style. At any rate, I want to talk about leadership. You did a presentation for the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, and there were four areas that you spoke about about that I thought were just really enlightening for those people in the room.

00:13:30:12 – 00:13:44:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
And I wondered if you might you might share those for and I could go and give everybody a sneak peek. It was be kind, be ready, be great, be intentional. Yeah. And how that became your your package of leadership.

00:13:44:16 – 00:14:04:08
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Yeah. So for me, you know, when we do this work and when I do this work, you know, my career has always been in public service. So I am a public servant from day one, and I bring that with me as I move into this space. So, you know, this philanthropic space, because I believe that our work is in service as well.

00:14:04:13 – 00:14:39:11
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Right. And but irrespective, there is something about for me, leaders that we really can shape how our organizations move, how we are motivated or unmotivated, the impact that we have. And I love being able to join, you know, the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership’s event, because I love when we take the time to be one of my BS, be intentional about thinking about our own leadership, Right?

00:14:39:13 – 00:15:01:12
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
I see that it’s really important that we have to create capacity and space to be intentional. I start with the end and work my way back because we are our best selves when we give ourselves that grace and space to be creative, right? We are our best selves when we have the time to think deeply and thoughtfully about the work that we do.

00:15:01:18 – 00:15:17:15
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And if we get caught up in the day to day operations of just moving things over and over and over, we are not bringing our best selves to our leadership. And that means we’re not our best selves for our teams, which then our teams can’t be the best selves for those that they serve and what they are trying to deliver, Right?

00:15:17:17 – 00:15:43:19
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So when we talk about be intentional, particularly as a leader, being intentional about your time, your space, how you move, how you show up, what you share can be a true game changer because you never know who is looking at you, watching you as a motto, listening to you, being inspired by you.

00:15:43:21 – 00:16:19:03
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Leaders that I have worked under and I’ve learned so well from are those who didn’t do it well, because you learn what you don’t want to do right and who you don’t want to be in those moments. Right. So be intentional with something that is really, really near and dear to me being kind. Going back to that beginning of that list, the way that we show up and being kind, being human, being authentic, being real in our spaces is really, really important.

00:16:19:05 – 00:16:48:10
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
As leaders, we set the tone of how we move to and three spaces how our teams feel about the work that they do, those that we serve. And so it does not take much to be kind, but it is one of the most powerful things a leader can be in terms of how they show up and how they engage both with peers, with their teams and with those that they serve.

00:16:48:12 – 00:17:20:06
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And it really has tremendous impact to the work. Right. Be ready is is something that I love because I do believe as we do this work, being ready just means that we are positioning ourselves always to be ready for the opportunity that we’ve done, the work that we challenge ourselves, that we have invested in team members, and that next level of leadership so that they’re ready to take advantage of the opportunities that are available.

00:17:20:07 – 00:17:43:14
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Right. And so this concept of being ready is something that really is a way that as leaders, we should walk ready for the opportunity, ready for the partnership, ready for the challenges, ready to engage. But to do that, you got to prepare, right? You you have to make sure that you are putting yourself in places and spaces where you’re learning, where you’re being challenged, where you’re growing.

00:17:43:19 – 00:18:08:21
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
You can’t just be ready overnight. You have to put in the work. And as a leader, that can sometimes be a challenge for us because we have to create space, begin to invest even in ourselves, and be intentional investing in that next level of leader so that when I talk about be ready, it’s about us as an individual, but also our organizations, right?

00:18:08:23 – 00:18:42:07
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And if we’re not ready, our organizations can’t be ready. And if we haven’t done the work, our organizations can’t be ready and then that be great. It can be be great. It could be be bold, right? Like showing up in the work with a manner of just excellence. Right? This idea that we are going to do good work and that we take up space because we are ready to lead and engage in lean in and that we can sometimes be bigger than our dreams.

00:18:42:09 – 00:19:11:15
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And the important piece of that is not about us, but when we are bigger than the dreams, because we are in service, it means we are dreaming big for the communities that we serve. It means that we are calling new and innovative ideas and creative ways to deliver, to serve, to create space and solutions for those who we are trying to serve, and that those that our work has the most impact on.

00:19:11:17 – 00:19:32:11
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So we have to be great because when we are great, it means that we are having a deeper level of impact. The greatness is not about us as individuals. It’s about how we do the work, how we show up. So I hearkened it that morning to the Beatitudes, right? So that these are ways in which you live your life.

00:19:32:11 – 00:19:51:13
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
These are ways in which you show up. And people, lenders stand how you move to and through. And as a leader, we need to take time to make sure that we are thinking about how we lead because it truly impacts what we do and those that we serve.

00:19:51:15 – 00:19:53:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
I’m ready.

00:19:53:03 – 00:19:54:07
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Let’s go.

00:19:54:09 – 00:20:21:16
Ruth Baum Bigus
I’m ready. I I’m so grateful that you shared that because I think it’s something that can translate to any nonprofit, any organization of any size. And I and I love how earlier you used the word grace and allowing ourselves some grace, you know, to not be necessarily great every day all the time, but finding some space to be able to kind of sit and live in that.

00:20:21:16 – 00:20:25:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
So thank you so much for that.

00:20:25:05 – 00:20:49:20
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
You know, I’m is one of those things, Grace is my word. And people know intentional and grace like those are things that like, just sit with me. But Grace is necessary. It’s necessary for us as leaders. It’s necessary that we give it. It’s also necessary that we receive it in the work that we do. And it is something that I think that we don’t have enough of right now in our society.

00:20:49:23 – 00:20:54:00
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
But it makes boy, that it really, really does.

00:20:54:02 – 00:21:06:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
That is that is for sure. Yeah. The foundation’s website, I think, has a lot of language that talks about opportunity, equity, community.

00:21:06:16 – 00:21:07:24
DeAngela Burns-Wallace

00:21:08:01 – 00:21:14:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
Can you share with us a little bit of the importance of those and and how they intersect?

00:21:14:16 – 00:21:38:13
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So what I will say is that part of that harkens back to Mr. K, right? When he talked about the work on the foundation, he specifically talked about the work being that we were looking for solutions, that we were working to take down systemic barriers for those that traditionally that those barriers blocked their access, blocked their opportunities, or that their ability.

00:21:38:17 – 00:22:26:06
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So when we use that language, it’s an important piece of kind of a nod and a recognition that our work is not just about kind of overall economic prosperity in the greater good, but it is about gap closing. It is about, you know, creating equitable spaces. It is about looking at systemic, you know, structures and policies and, you know, conversations and ensuring that we are working to invest and to find solutions and to convene conversations that help us better understand and and to dismantle, you know, some of those pieces that systemically have created barriers or created siloed lanes where, you know, okay, this group of individuals can access this set of resources, but not this

00:22:26:06 – 00:22:57:15
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
set of resources, right? So those words I think we use them opportunity, equity, community in different types of ways. But it’s the idea of the concept that the work that we are doing is about how do you increase these amplified, newly identified opportunities for communities that you know from an equitable lens over time have not had an equitable access to those types of opportunities.

00:22:57:17 – 00:23:41:04
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And then that means those communities are ones in which we serve, that a lot of our work is targeted on that we are looking for partners that do that work, that impact those communities so that we are, again being a part of the solutions to break down those barriers. It’s not necessarily like us doing the work always in community, but it’s it’s and I say that because our work, a lot of our work is us investing right in it’s investing in other entities because those other entities are the ones who are in those communities that are removing barriers on a day to day basis right there in those communities that are working and standing alongside

00:23:41:08 – 00:24:21:15
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
those that know what that community needs and are that again, we play a role sometimes of amplify, right? Of right. Doubling down into an entity that we know is going to have a certain type of deep impact in a particular community, in a particular space, a particular group of individuals or a sector like a lot of the work that we’ve done in the entrepreneurship sector, like knowing that business ownership creation, profitability, sustainability and having that in the hands of the communities that traditionally haven’t had access to capital or the starting of entrepreneur, you know that those business spaces and places, right?

00:24:21:19 – 00:24:32:09
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
That is that through line of when you talk about opportunity and equity and community, that’s when it comes together in a beautiful way.

00:24:32:11 – 00:24:53:15
Ruth Baum Bigus
I have so many questions and so little time. We’re going to have to have you back. This is a tremendous job. You have a tremendous resumé. How do you how are you pulling from past experience to inform current and future experience.

00:24:53:17 – 00:25:29:10
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Every day and three times a day? Right. You know, I I’ve had a career where I have been in federal government, state government, higher education. I’ve served on numerous boards and commissions and with organizations and still do in various capacities. What I will say is and and let’s not forget, I am born and raised from this community, grew up on 67.

00:25:29:12 – 00:25:52:11
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
That is also a piece of what helps inform the work that I do. It’s all of my lived experiences, but every day what I try to do is I think about the lessons I’ve learned, whether it’s in making the connections and understanding those connections and how I leverage them into the work and how we framework to understanding communities.

00:25:52:13 – 00:26:40:02
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
I have lived and worked all over the world and being a diplomat for a part of my career. You live and work in other countries and you sit in different places in your life, right? So every every day I work to make sure that I’m pushing myself to say, Am I bringing my own or am I ensuring that I am listening to my perspectives as we think about the work, but also my work in the public sector across my career has been about tackling issues and looking at how you allocate resources and whether those are dollars.

00:26:40:02 – 00:26:59:23
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
It might be policy, it might be technical assistance, it might be capacity building like that’s the type of work I’ve done in various different environments. And it is a synergy to the work that we do in different ways in that we fund into. So when I say I tap into my past work, like every day, I mean it.

00:27:00:01 – 00:27:27:24
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And then sometimes I literally tap into it in that I will pick up my phone and text someone and say, Hey, we are thinking about such and such. You know anybody who’s doing that? Is there some research we need to look into? There’s somebody I should call and that that text can span from that colleague who is sitting at the, you know, Department of Defense right now as an assistant secretary and say bring work to a really close friend who has been my best friend since seventh grade.

00:27:28:02 – 00:27:49:20
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
But she is a senior leader in health care here in Kansas City right now today, and transforming work over at St Luke’s Hospital. Right. So but it runs the gamut of of all of those lived experiences that I try to leverage into the work that we want to get done for the betterment of the community.

00:27:49:22 – 00:28:12:16
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, I say Kansas City is so lucky, first of all, to have you as a native daughter. Second of all, to have you at the helm of the Kauffman Foundation and I think is a real transitory time in society in general. So we are so grateful and grateful that there’s a listener there which is just wonderful. So thank you for spending time with us.

00:28:12:18 – 00:28:49:18
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
Thank you for having me and welcome the opportunity to come back. I will say, particularly for your population, I just if I can do one quick kind of shout out in there that people may not realize, but this is the 25th anniversary of our building and the opening of the conference center. And so I am trying to take every opportunity that we can to remind, particularly the nonprofit community, if you are a501 C3, you know that our conference center is free for you to hold meetings.

00:28:49:20 – 00:29:18:13
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And if you have, you know, of course your food and beverage is something that we cover covered and cost, but that is also something we try to keep at a reasonable level so that that is not a barrier. But I want to highlight it. After 25 years when that facility was created, it was specifically and very intentionally as a tool for the convening of our nonprofit community so that they had a space that they thought was their own to do their work where they didn’t have to pay for it.

00:29:18:19 – 00:29:43:23
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
And so we want to continue to that celebration of what that tool is into the work. So I say to those who are listening of the KC nonprofit community, just remember that the Conference Center, the Kauffman Conference Center is your home and a place that, you know, we hope that you will use to convene to me small meetings, big meetings.

00:29:43:23 – 00:30:13:15
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
I mean, we have multiple rooms. You can do a very small group of like your board or a small conversation or you can, you know, book out the very large room where you can have 250, 300 individuals as part of a conversation. But just please know, check us out because it is a tool that we we are we are finally getting close to our pre pandemic levels, but we’re still not there, which lets us know there is still more need in the community for that utilization of space.

00:30:13:20 – 00:30:19:02
DeAngela Burns-Wallace
So please think of us as a home and a tool for the community.

00:30:19:04 – 00:30:43:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
We’re happy to let you plug away on that. Thank you to the Kauffman Foundation and to check out information on it. It’s W WW dot Coffman dot org and you can spread the love and find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC Cares Radio and on Instagram at KC Cares online. Don’t forget Saturday mornings you can catch us at 8 a.m. on ESPN, 15:10 a.m. and 94.5 FM.

00:30:43:16 – 00:30:46:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
Thank you for joining us on KC Cares.

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