The Catalytic Philanthropy Podcast exponentphilanthropy

It was a win-win solution, hiding in plain sight. Community colleges could serve more parents with young children, if parents had easier access to affordable childcare. Head Start Centers, for their part, want to serve more families. Idea: If more community colleges could host Head Start Centers right on their campuses, eligible parents would have immediate access to free child care, colleges could better tap into a population of potential students, and Head Start centers could get free space and access to aspiring teachers. Abigail Seldin, founder of the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation, did what leanly staffed foundations are perfectly positioned to do - she saw the potential of a great idea, and took the initiative to act on it. Abigail brought together the Association of Community College Trustees and the National Head Start Association, and engaged another small funder, the ECMC Foundation, to provide a modest but critical grant to design ways for more Head Start Centers to locate to community college campuses. The idea is already attracting enthusiastic support from community colleges, Head Start programs, Federal Government agencies, and other potential partners. In this podcast, Abigail explores how the idea and vision emerged, and the steps her small foundation took to help make it a reality. 
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Abigail Seldin is CEO of the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation (SHSF). Under her leadership, SHSF seeded Kids on Campus, a new effort with the National Head Start Association and Association of Community College Trustees to relocate Head Start centers to community college campuses. At SHSF, Abigail also launched a partnership with Getty Images to create new stock photos of today’s college students and published new data on transit inaccessibility that has generated bipartisan legislation. Abigail co-founded and sold a tech start-up and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

It was a win-win solution, hiding in plain sight. Community colleges could serve more parents with young children if parents had easier access to affordable childcare. Head Start Centers, for their part, want to serve more families. Idea: If more community colleges could host Head Start Centers right on their campuses, eligible parents would have immediate access to free child care, colleges could better tap into a population of potential students, and Head Start centers could get free space and access to aspiring teachers. Abigail Seldin, founder of the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation, did what leanly staffed foundations are perfectly positioned to do - she saw the potential of a great idea and took the initiative to act on it. Abigail brought together the Association of Community College Trustees and the National Head Start Association, and engaged another small funder, the ECMC Foundation, to provide a modest but critical grant to design ways for more Head Start Centers to locate to community college campuses. The idea is already attracting enthusiastic support from community colleges, Head Start programs, Federal Government agencies, and other potential partners. In this podcast, Abigail explores how the idea and vision emerged, and the steps her small foundation took to help make it a reality. 
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Abigail Seldin is CEO of the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation (SHSF). Under her leadership, SHSF seeded Kids on Campus, a new effort with the National Head Start Association and Association of Community College Trustees to relocate Head Start centers to community college campuses. At SHSF, Abigail also launched a partnership with Getty Images to create new stock photos of today’s college students and published new data on transit inaccessibility that has generated bipartisan legislation. Abigail co-founded and sold a tech start-up and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Any person at a leanly staffed foundation, no matter their role, can embrace Catalytic Leadership in Philanthropy (CLIP).
In this special podcast episode, Exponent Philanthropy CEO Paul D. Daugherty and senior advisor, producer, and host of the Catalytic Philanthropy Podcast, Andy Carroll discuss this critical mindset and practice, how it fills a gap in the space, and how anyone can begin to adopt CLIP.
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Andy Carroll is a senior advisor at Exponent Philanthropy and the producer and host of the Catalytic Philanthropy Podcast. Learn more about Andy Carroll »
Paul D. Daugherty is the CEO of Exponent Philanthropy. Learn more about Paul D. Daugherty »

In Part 3 of our Podcast exploring the catalyst role of the Earl & Kathryn Congdon Foundation in the economic revitalization of High Point, North Carolina, foundation staff Megan Oglesby and Joe Blosser chronicle the creation of a prototyping and training facility called the Generator. Furniture design and craftmanship has had a long history in High Point. Though manufacturing shifted to other countries, many professional designers and skilled craftspeople continue to reside in the area. To support these creatives and their businesses, the Chamber of Commerce, Business High Point, developed a space downtown for furniture design prototyping and training. Learn how this unique facility contributes to the larger effort, co-led by the Congdon Foundation, to start, scale, and grow businesses, create jobs, and restore dynamism to High Point all through the year. 
 
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Megan Oglesby is the Executive Director of the Earl and Kathryn Congdon Family Foundation based in High Point, NC. The foundation board empowers Megan to fully immerse herself in the High Point community so that she is able to create and maintain strong relationships with nonprofit organizations and community leaders, to understand and articulate evolving needs in the city and region. Prior to joining the foundation, Megan held senior positions at Business High Point - Chamber of Commerce. Megan is a High Point native and currently resides in High Point with her husband and three children. 
 
Joe Blosser serves as the Chief Impact Officer of the Earl and Kathryn Congdon Family Foundation. He previously served as the founding Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at High Point University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

In Part 2 of our Podcast exploring the catalyst role of the Earl & Kathryn Congdon Foundation in the economic revitalization of High Point, North Carolina, foundation staff Megan Oglesby and Joe Blosser describe a key part of the project, a coworking space called the Commons. Megan and Joe share how the Commons was designed to promote networking and idea generation, why the foundation and its partners decided to make access free, and the programming offered by the Chamber of Commerce to meet the needs of both nonprofit and for-profit startups. Learn how the scale and design of the Commons evolved beyond the original plan, and how the Congdon Foundation was clear about its specific role - to do what the for-profit sector cannot do to help entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. 
 
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Megan Oglesby is the Executive Director of the Earl and Kathryn Congdon Family Foundation based in High Point, NC. The foundation board empowers Megan to fully immerse herself in the High Point community so that she is able to create and maintain strong relationships with nonprofit organizations and community leaders, to understand and articulate evolving needs in the city and region. Prior to joining the foundation, Megan held senior positions at Business High Point - Chamber of Commerce. Megan is a High Point native and currently resides in High Point with her husband and three children. 
 
Joe Blosser serves as the Chief Impact Officer of the Earl and Kathryn Congdon Family Foundation. He previously served as the founding Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at High Point University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Small, place-based foundations operate in almost every rural region, town, and city in the U.S. Many of these communities have experienced a dramatic loss of jobs in the past decades. As local foundations make grants to meet immediate needs, their leaders consider whether the foundations might also play a part in rejuvenating local economies and lifting opportunity and hope for the residents of their towns and regions. In this podcast, meet the staff of a foundation of two committed to doing just that - nurturing economic development in a city that once flourished with manufacturing jobs that sustained a large middle class. Megan Oglesby and Joe Blosser of the Earl & Kathryn Congdon Foundation in High Point, North Carolina share ways they are devoting the foundation's many assets to help small businesses start, scale, and grow. Megan and Joe explore how a leanly staffed foundation can use its unique role and position to do what government and business cannot do to nurture economic development - by providing long-term strategic thinking and investment, taking higher risks, and supporting activity essential to business development that doesn't offer profit, such as training, equipment, space for entrepreneurs, and networking.  
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Megan Oglesby is the Executive Director of the Earl and Kathryn Congdon Family Foundation based in High Point, NC. The foundation board empowers Megan to fully immerse herself in the High Point community to create and maintain strong relationships with nonprofit organizations and community leaders, to understand and articulate evolving needs in the city and region. Before joining the foundation, Megan held senior positions at Business High Point - Chamber of Commerce. Megan is a High Point native and resides in High Point with her husband and three children. 
 
Joe Blosser serves as the Chief Impact Officer of the Earl and Kathryn Congdon Family Foundation. He previously served as the founding Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at High Point University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).