Princeton AlumniCorps’ Emerging

Leaders professional development pro-

gram is launching this June in Wash-

ington, DC! The program has already

generated a great deal of interest from

area nonprofit employees and alumni

of the Project 55 Fellowship Program.

We plan to announce our first class of

Emerging Leaders over the 2011

Reunions weekend.

Emerging Leaders is designed to

transform young professionals work-

ing in the public interest into invested

nonprofit leaders. Participants will

develop the leadership capabilities,

management skills, and confidence to

accelerate their careers while yielding

tangible results and lasting value for

the nonprofit sector. Over the course

of ten months, participants will

develop leadership

competencies and

sector-specific skills,

benefit from mentor

and peer support,

and practice

―leadership-in-

action.‖

The program has

the twofold potential

to transform the ca-

reer trajectories of

those who show promise as future

leaders of the nonprofit sector, and, as

a result, to have a transformative im-

pact on the sector itself. Emerging

Leaders welcomes participation from

graduates of Princeton and other uni-

versities who are committed to innova-

tive leadership in the nonprofit sector.

The pilot program, set to begin on

June 5, will include full and half day

sessions taking place once a month

until April 2012. The curriculum in-

cludes a ―stretch‖ project where the

participants will plan, manage, and

execute a specific goal within their

organizations.

The lead facilitator and trainer for

the Emerging Leaders curriculum is

Hilary Joel ’85. Joel is an executive

coach and management consultant

with 25 years of experience across nu-

merous industries. With the program’s

promising outlook, AlumniCorps

hopes to develop a tested, scalable cur-

riculum that can be adapted for use

with future cohorts in cities around the

country.

Email :

EmergingLeaders@alumnicorps.org.

In This Issue

New Emerging Leaders Program to Launch June 5

Visit Shared Effort online to read these articles and more!

blog.alumnicorps.org

2 Keystone Society

3 Interview with AlumniCorps Board Chair Kenly Webster ’55 and President Bill Leahy ’66

4 Regional Updates

5 Marty Johnson ’81: Volunteerism in Perspective

5 Development Update

Volume 14, Number 2 Spring 2011

Join us during Reunions 2011!

Alumni in Action: The Opportunity & Challenge of Public Service

With panelists Doug Borchard '82, Margarita Rosa '74 and Wendy Selig '86

2:00 - 4:00 p.m. • Friday, May 27, 2011 • McCosh 28

Princeton AlumniCorps Open House

Reconnect with classmates, former fellows, mentors, and other alumni. Celebrate 21 years of PP55 Fellowships, and our two newest programs for

alumni of all ages: Emerging Leaders and Community Volunteers!

4:00 - 6:00 p.m. • Friday, May 27, 2011 • 12 Stockton Street

Hilary Joel ’85, Stan Katz h’21 and Margarita Rosa ’74

Page 2 Shared Effort

Forward-thinking donors who include Princeton

AlumniCorps and Project 55 fellowships in their legacy

planning comprise the heart of The Keystone Society. In

order to become a member of the Keystone Society, one

indicates in writing that they have made a planned gift to

Princeton AlumniCorps. George Hackl ’55 is the Chair of

the Development Steering Group and a charter member of

the Keystone Society. As a charter member, George leads

the way for others to help sustain and grow our impact.

Young Princeton graduates, one after another, followed

John Fish and Chet Safian into inner city agencies in Chi-

cago and New York to learn what programs—whether in

education, housing, community or healing—work well to

lift society. The graduates number in the thousands now,

working in cities all around the country. They come from

universities far beyond Princeton. We know there are many

institutions in our society that don’t work well and these

young people are finding out why, taking responsibility,

and changing them. We need thousands more leaders just

like them.

I spent a good part of my retirement years with Project

55, encouraging and helping lead this work. It takes dedi-

cated people. It takes organization. It takes money. I see

how grateful these young people are for the experience, for

the knowledge it brings to their future civic roles. I have

heard many of them say, ―Project 55 changed my life‖, and

I realize this has been the most significant part of my

retirement years.

Embracing this 20-year endeavor is the way many of our

classmates responded to the questions ―If not us, who? If

not now, when?‖ And I ask myself, ―What better way is

there?‖ This has proved to be a remarkably successful

journey.

It is not a hard leap from

there to ask: ―How do we

keep this going?‖ Our

class has built a solid

organization. We have

brought younger alumni

and others onto the Board

of Directors to perpetuate

the process. There are

hundreds more volunteers

around the country playing

significant roles. These

younger people are taking

this work to a higher level

under a new umbrella

name, Princeton

AlumniCorps, serving

graduates of all ages. The

enthusiasm, the knowledge,

the inspiration, even the name, The Princeton Project 55

Fellowship Program, are the heart of Princeton Alumni-

Corps.

Time is running out for all of us. How do you keep this

work going? What better way? Ann and I decided to make

a bequest in my will to Project 55 and Princeton

AlumniCorps to cover my annual contribution from interest

payments.

It’s a gift that will make a real difference and will build

civic leadership indefinitely. What better way! A bequest

celebrates what we have done and what we can continue to

do long into the future. I hope you will join me in the

Keystone Society.

To learn more about becoming a charter member of the Keystone

Society, please contact Kathleen Reilly, Executive Director,

at kreilly@alumnicorps.org.

The Keystone Society — What Better Way!

Thomas D. Boyatt '55

Stephen M. Boyd '55

Charles W. Bray '55

Milton J. Deitch '55

Sara H. Deitch S'55

John H. Fish '55

James A. Gregoire '69

George C. Hackl '55

John D. Hamilton '55

Richard L. Herbruck '55

Peter Jefferys '55

William Leahy '66

Oral O. Miller '55

A. Chester Safian '55

John C. Tucker '55

Nelson H. Wild '55

Alan M. Willemsen '55

Keystone Society Charter Members

George Hackl ’55

Princeton AlumniCorps Board Chair

Kenly Webster ’55 and President Bill

Leahy ’66 were interviewed for Shared

Effort by Jim Lynn ’55. Plans are under-

way for Kenly’s replacement as Chair af-

ter his three year tenure expires this June.

Q: Kenly, you’re finishing up your sec-

ond hitch as Chair. How did the prob-

lems you had to deal with change be-

tween the first hitch and the second?

KW: Roughly three years ago we [then

Princeton Project 55] adopted a new mis-

sion statement that was the product of a

Board no longer dominated by Class of ’55

members, with the assistance of a PP55

President from another class. Transition

was a major new challenge. With transition

came a strengthening of the responsibility

of the Executive Director and much more

centralized control, which took patience to

accomplish.

Q: What was your biggest challenge as

chairman?

KW: The biggest challenge clearly was to

implement, without contention, the transi-

tion. Smooth transition was critical.

BL: I think that as President in this transi-

tion, my role was to assist in expanding the

board, looking for individuals from the

younger classes.

Q: Was there ever a time when you wor-

ried that this really might not work out

well?

KW: The doubt came about nine years ago

when we were experimenting with other

forms of succession that did not material-

ize. Mainly, we sought to identify another

class to pick up the management of PP55,

and that turned out to be a concept that

other classes were not willing to undertake

as a class.

Q: What’s the next big challenge facing

the organization?

BL: All of us were affected profoundly by

the economic downturn. Regardless of

how the transition was going, the reality

was that finances were going to potentially

affect what we could do to sustain and

expand the program. This was all beyond

our control, and it’s been heartening to

shore up last year – a year that could have

been a profound deficit – by establishing

the [20th anniversary] gala, which made it

a profitable year instead. This financial

challenge, of course, will continue into the

future.

The other challenge which we have

worked with over the last couple years has

been integrating individual classes with

Princeton AlumniCorps. It has been diffi-

cult because this organization began with a

camaraderie of a group within a class. This

is the kind of spirit the University kind of

instills in each class, and when you bring

institutions together and try to merge them

and their interests, sometimes you end up

not being able to do it because of individ-

ual spirits – ―we should be in charge‖ or ―it

has to be a class number.‖ The name

change allowed for other generations to

feel engaged with our organization.

We’ve initiated two new programs: the

Community Volunteers program, which I

think is going to be another way of engag-

ing people who have had no true relation-

ship with the original organization, and

secondly the Emerging Leaders program,

which should allow us to sustain many of

our PIP alumni into the nonprofit world –

which I hope in turn will bring them back

for Board positions with our organization.

Q: Is there any danger now that Prince-

ton AlumniCorps might be spreading

itself too thin with two new programs at

once along with a very well-seasoned

and successful Princeton Project 55 Fel-

lowship Program (formerly the PIP)?

KW: I do not think so. Financially, we

have, for 20 years, raised the money to do

what we wanted to do. There are many

supporters of the organization to draw

upon. From the standpoint of staffing there

are ways to ensure that projects have less

demand on staff and that staff has efficient

participation in the projects. In sum, you

have two safety belts: one is strong staff

organization (and hiring outside people to

help), and the other is a wide network to

attract funding.

Q: Now’s your chance to answer any

questions we should have asked but did-

n’t.

BL: Any organization goes through its

adolescence and into its early adulthood,

and this organization was doing that as

they approached their 20th year. What

happened was the development of disci-

pline within the Board – some very indi-

vidual subcommittees, with designated

rules and procedures, which are going to

be very important as we go forward, be-

cause an organization really can’t survive

when it meets on an ad-hoc basis and with-

out any kind of internal discipline. This is

very important for the issue of perpetuity.

KW: How is transition going to ensure

perpetuity? I think we have put in place a

very strong organization comprised of the

Board, board committees and staff. Al-

though we have the transition in place,

we’re going to have to fight each year to

keep it permanent. To do this we have tar-

geted programs that are designed to attract

leadership and financial contributions from

alumni classes from all decades after the

’50s.

A second force in perpetuity may well

be attracting leaders from graduates of the

PIP program. Almost all of the current

leadership comes from graduates of

Princeton, who as such have a common

bond. But there is a second common bond

among the PIP graduates who have all

vastly benefited from the program. There-

fore there is an additional fertile leadership

source from these program graduates. But

I would not expect a president of the or-

ganization to come from the PIP alumni

for yet a number of years.

Volume 14, Number 2 Page 3

An Interview with AlumniCorps Board Chair Kenly Webster ’55 and President Bill Leahy ’66

President Bill Leahy ‘66 and Board Chair

Kenly Webster ‘55

-Bay Area- The Bay Area is continu-

ing its efforts to grow its

program. Two new partner

organizations, including the

Boys and Girls Club of the

Peninsula, where Peter

Fortenbaugh ’89 is the Ex-

ecutive Director, are cur-

rently interviewing appli-

cants for fellowship posi-

tions next year. The local

committee has also begun

brainstorming possible seminars for

2011-12 fellows, and looks forward to

continuing its partnership with Stan-

ford’s SPIN and Harvard’s CPIC pro-

gram for these events.

-Boston-

Fellows, AlumniCorps supporters,

alumni and local members of the class

of 1955 recently attended a seminar at

The Food Project, where they visited

the organization’s greenhouse. Look-

ing ahead, AlumniCorps and the Har-

vard Center for Public Interest Careers

will be volunteering at CitySprouts’

school gardens in Cambridge, MA for

a half day of service. Boston is always

looking for new Project 55 partner or-

ganizations to increase the number of

placements! If interested, visit the

Boston area page on the AlumniCorps

website.

—submitted by Rebecca Nemec ’05

-Chicago-

Over the last few months, the Chi-

cago Area Committee has continued to

stay busy, organizing weekly seminars

with the Northwestern and University

of Chicago Public Interest Programs as

well as regular events for fellows. In

February, fellows explored the city's

emerging arts scene as part of the Chi-

cago Arts District Gallery Night. On

March 5, PP55 Fellows, mentors, and

Area Committee members gathered at

the home of Amanda Peluse '02 to dis-

cuss, over wine and cheese, fellows'

experiences thus far. Finally, we're

excited to announce our upcoming

joint AlumniCorps/Princeton Club of

Chicago precept on "The Future of

Education Reform in Chicago", organ-

ized by Committee members Erica

Jones ’06 and Stacy McAuliffe '98.

The precept will take place on May 17

and will feature a panel of local

Princeton alumni active in the educa-

tion sector. Executive Director Kath-

leen Reilly will be attending.

—submitted by Aiala Levy ’07

-Connecticut- Two fellows have already signed on

to be a part of the 2011-12 fellowship

year in Connecticut, both at Norwalk

Community Health Center. Two other

organizations are currently interview-

ing applicants and Harry Berkowitz

’55 is hopeful that we’ll be able to con-

tinue to grow the program.

-New York- On March 23, Dr. R. Gordon Doug-

las '55 moderated our seminar on Sus-

tainable Food and Public Health. Pan-

elists included Nancy Easton '88, Co-

Founder/Executive Director of Well-

ness in the Schools. We also invited

fellows from Harvard, Stanford and

Dartmouth to participate in the semi-

nar. On April 3, Mike and Lois Rob-

bins '55 hosted the first ever Princeton

AlumniCorps Alumni Fundraising

Phone-a-thon during which 136 suc-

cessful calls were made. We are also

looking forward to welcoming more

fellows to New York and participating

in our annual "Politics and the

Press" seminar which will

be moderated by the First

Lady of Princeton Alumni-

Corps in New York, Judy

Hole Suratt.

—submitted by Kristen Smith

’03

-Philadelphia-

Carol Rosenfeld ’05 and Ka-

tie Thaeder ’09 have teamed

up to strengthen the Philadel-

phia program. They met with

the Princeton Club of Phila-

delphia in February and Carol has led a

successful effort to recruit new partner

organizations for the 2011-12 fellow-

ship year. If you’re interested in volun-

teering in Philadelphia, visit the Phila-

delphia area page on the AlumniCorps

website.

-Washington, DC- After a workshop on "Career Next

Steps" in January, the DC program is

wrapping up its seminar programming

with a string of content-based sessions,

covering education reform, federal

government service, and health care

reform. In February, AlumniCorps

Board Member and Managing Director

of the National Council for Teacher

Quality, Arthur McKee ’90, joined

Shantelle Wright of Achievement Prep

Academy to discuss the challenges and

promise of DC public education. In

March, fellows heard from a panel of

alumni working across the federal gov-

ernment, and in April, they'll be join-

ing a health economist at the Depart-

ment of Health and Human Services

and one of President Obama's senior

Page 4 Shared Effort

Regional Updates

49

The Project 55 Fellowship

Program is proud to welcome

new fellows thus far!

Visit Shared Effort online to see the current list!

Volume 14, Number 2 Page 5

Volunteerism in Perspective

Thanks to the AlumniCorps for orga-

nizing last month’s ―Engaged At Every

Age‖ (EAEA) Conference to explore

volunteering from a variety of perspec-

tives. While a schedule change pre-

vented me from joining as a panelist, I

enjoyed the chance to sit in on an after-

noon panel.

It triggered some thoughts about

what I’ve learned over the last 30 years

as a manager at Isles, a nonprofit com-

munity development and environ-

mental organization based in Trenton

that works with over 1,000 volunteers

annually. In addition, I serve as a vol-

unteer with organizations statewide

and nationally. AlumniCorps asked

me to share a few of those lessons

here.

Volunteerism in Perspective

Historians and social scientists write

about voluntarism as a uniquely

American concept. With over one mil-

lion private, registered charities across

the country, burgeoning numbers of

Baby Boomers reaching retirement

age, and millions in search of more

―mission-driven‖ and meaningful lives,

an entire industry of voluntarism has

arisen. A Google search of Volunteer

Opportunities offers over 15 million

hits.

No wonder that voluntarism often

becomes an end goal. Questions like,

―What’s a good volunteer opportu-

nity?‖ often quickly move to a discus-

sion of technique (Does the organiza-

tion make it easy for volunteers? Do

they manage them well? Are there

clear, identifiable objectives, etc.?). Or

the discussion will turn to the type of

organization that works best for volun-

teers. At the EAEA Conference for

example, some speakers suggested that

small organizations are better for vol-

unteers than big ones, ―staff driven‖

organizations are worse than

―volunteer driven‖ ones, or that organi-

zations that volunteers can really influ-

ence are better (at least for those from

Princeton) than those you can’t influ-

ence.

To me, this focus on technique or

type of organization is a part of the

picture, but not the main part. The real

goal for organizations is to perform at

the highest level in relation to the re-

sources (money, volunteers, etc) flow-

ing into them. The best organizations

are those that focus on being the best

organizations—not the best volunteer

opportunity.

What we hope, is that organizations

can perform highly while also effec-

tively involving volunteers—because

volunteers add to their performance.

In my experience, I have seen volun-

teers destroy organizations, and I have

seen staff do the same. I have wit-

nessed large organizations give volun-

teers better experiences than small

ones. I’ve been a volunteer board

member of a staff-driven organization

(think Princeton University) that func-

tions quite highly. And I have seen

―smart‖ volunteers that tried to control

organizations and systematically un-

dermined them.

So what’s the best advice for those

seeking to volunteer?

1. Keep your eyes on the prize.

Life is short, so try to find the best

organizations working on the things

you care about. ―Best‖ organizations

ask hard questions of themselves and

others, maintain continually improv-

ing systems to manage information

(financial, contacts, volunteers, etc.),

admit that which they are not doing,

and strive to get upstream or to the

―core‖ of the challenges they address.

2. Remain humble.

You may or may not know what the

organization should do. Be open to

being wrong. Be open to how volun-

teers can get in the way. The art of

managing nonprofit organizations is a

relatively young specialty, and bring-

ing your ―business‖-like approaches

may not be what’s needed. We are all

learning as we go.

3. Then ask about the techniques

and types of organizations out there.

There’s a place for this discussion.

It’s just at the bottom of the list.

Marty Johnson ’81 is President and Founder

of Isles, Inc., a nonprofit that fosters self-help

approaches to community development, educa-

tion, energy efficiency and urban environmental restoration. (www.isles.org)

2 Months Left to Reach Our Goal!

Thanks to those who have given, we are at 73% of our goal to raise $228,000 from individual donors this year. Make a gift today to help us reach 100% by June 30!

Amount raised as of April 15, 2011 Amount left to raise by June 30, 2011

Marty Johnson ’81

PRINCETON ALUMNICORPS

12 Stockton Street

Princeton, NJ 08540-6813

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

“You will be saying that shared effort to solve our problems is not a hopeless venture” — John Gardner

Princeton AlumniCorps Board of Directors

R. Kenly Webster ’55, Chairman

William R. Leahy, Jr., M.D. ’66, President

Jessica D. Johnson ’98, Secretary

Charles F. Mapes, Jr. ’55, Treasurer

Thomas D. Allison ’66

Illa Brown ’76

Margaret Crotty ’94

Andrew Goldstein ’06

James A. Gregoire ’69

John D. Hamilton, Jr. ’55

Stanley N. Katz h’21

Katie Ko ’09

James D. Lynn ’55

Kathleen McCleery ’75

W. Arthur McKee ’90

Dominic F. Michel ’70

Kathryn A. Miller ’77

Paula Morency ’77

Ralph Nader ’55

Anthony Quainton ’55

Michael D. Robbins ’55

Margarita Rosa, Esq. ’74

Marsha Rosenthal ’76

Warner V. Slack ’55

Samuel T. Suratt ’55

Scott Taylor ’75

Richard E. Thompson ’55

Richard O. Walker ’73

Lindsay Wall ’02

Princeton AlumniCorps Staff

Kathleen E. Reilly, Executive Director

Carrie Diaz-Littauer, Office Administrator

Sara Gordon, Project 55 Fellowship Program Manager

Arti Sheth ’08, Development Officer

John Shriver, Program Director, Community Volunteers

Please visit us at www.alumnicorps.org

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Effort electronically, please email

us at info@alumnicorps.org