On Wednesday, May 29th, 2019, The Fedcap Group released its FY19 First Half Financial and Operating results. This effort, conducted twice a year, provides key stakeholders with regular and timely disclosures about financial and operational performance, mission-related impact, and trends and challenges for The Fedcap Group and underscores our commitment to fiscal transparency.
Please click on the image below to download the PowerPoint presentation.
The United States is considered one of the richest nations in the world, yet we rank below 16 developing countries in terms of poverty. Only four other countries rank below the U.S.
As of 2018, 42.6 million Americans were living in poverty. Of those, 13.4 million are children—nearly the total populations of New York City and Los Angeles combined.
The consequences for children born in and living in poverty do not disappear as they age. The impact of their poverty extends beyond their immediate family and seeps into every sector of the community, from education to service and product business to government and charitable entities.
Children who are poor are hungry. They have problems with memory and concentration. Their sleep patterns can be disrupted. Their brain development can be stalled or stagnated. They are more susceptible to illness. They are more prone to anxiety, depression, and withdrawal. They tend to behavioral issues, which may well have consequences in the classroom and in the community. As they grow up, these consequences take their toll on society as these children default to crime, substance use, or other mental illness based on inadequate means from birth.
At The Fedcap Group, we know that education and employment are the pathway out of poverty. Every one of the top-tier companies that are part of The Fedcap Group are building and delivering tactical, practical, and precise innovations to improve economic well-being.
• We are creating aspirational environments within educational settings—encouraging children of all abilities to dream big dreams and then helping them succeed.
• We are providing the tools, information and the supports so that youth transitioning from foster care can enter college and helping them graduate.
• We are providing training and building networks of healthy support so that individuals in prison re-entering society have the skills and supports to succeed.
• We are creating job opportunities in the community for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
• We are assisting those with mental illness and substance use disorders in their recovery and participation in the workforce.
• We are assisting individuals over age 55 to re-enter the workforce.
We are working hard to solve—not serve—the problem of poverty.
Ultimately, the goal is to create a healthier society, where children and adults of all abilities thrive. This is the work we do every day.
How might your business or social enterprise join our mission in creating a truly better world?
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
Last Tuesday, The Fedcap Group convened our bi-annual Solution Series: Socially Responsible Investing: The Moral Case for Impact Investing. Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), is an investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social/environmental good to bring about a positive change. SRI has potential in mitigating the toughest issues challenging the world today, including climate change, access to health care, and poverty.
Today, more than one out of every four dollars under management in the United States is invested in socially responsible investments. The number in the U.S. alone amounts to $12 trillion dollars.
Our panelists last week included Christina L Alfandary, Managing Director of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and Sustainable Investments at GAMCO Investors, Inc.; Robert Brown, Senior Partner and Founder of Atlas Impact Partners; and Martin Whittaker, CEO of JUST Capital. While each of our guests had a different lens on the topic, they had in common the clear precept that socially responsible investing is good for business, must keep growing as a concept and as a reality, and must be a catalyzing mechanism for ensuring the future of our planet and our society.
As the Fedcap Group refines its work in the area of Economic Development, establishing Community Development Financial Institutions as vehicles for helping individuals with barriers establish their own small business and contribute to the economy of their community, the concept of SRI is of great interest. There is tremendous potential for investors to partner with non profits like The Fedcap Group to impact the economic well-being of people in impoverished communities.
Our Solution Series is intended to tackle topics of importance to business in the 21st century, to generate discussions on issues that require thoughtful solutions.
If you would like to watch our Solution Series on Socially Responsible Investing, you can view it by clicking here.
Enjoy!
At The Fedcap Group, we are in the business of solving tough problems—not just serving them.
As we work to solve problems, we spend a significant amount of time ensuring that we are clear about the actual problem we are trying to solve and we question our own assumptions about the problem, the people we are serving and the solution.
A critical component of these conversations is examining the service pathway, seeking to understand where along the pathway we might intervene to change the outcomes. Where would a different and precise intervention make a measurable difference? What about the current design of service systems is actually contributing to the problem? For example, how might we change our service delivery for children with disabilities that would impact long term outcomes such as college attendance and graduation, employment, self-sufficiency?
Also incorporated into our culture, are deliberate conversations around our own assumptions, biases, and judgments that are informing our approach to problem solving. This transparency is imperative if we are to be successful. For example, what assumptions about the capacity of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities led us to believe that sheltered workshops instead of competitive, community- based employ was the best solution?
Being transparent and inviting our biases to the table means we clear them out and we can work together to find not just an answer, but the right answer to solve, not just serve the problem.
What assumptions do you have the might get in the way of finding the best answer?
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
The Fedcap Group is pleased to announce the launch of two new companies in the United Kingdom, Fedcap Employment and Fedcap Scotland, extending its operations and impact throughout the U.K.
The two newly-formed companies are part of Fedcap UK–a growing network of top-tiered nonprofit agencies dedicated to the well-being of the impoverished and disadvantaged. In the U.K., the two new enterprises will oversee major employment programs across the U.K. with the hiring of 130 employees to support the continuous delivery of services to thousands of people.
Last year, The Fedcap Group, led by President & CEO Christine McMahon, expanded its footprint internationally when it combined with Kennedy-Scott, a non-profit agency that provides employment services throughout the U.K. “We are very excited about our expanding UK enterprise,” said Ms. McMahon. “The formation of these new companies means we are able to create broader impact, further leveraging the proven models we’ve developed throughout the United States. We are partnering with seasoned professionals who bring first-hand knowledge of the communities and constituencies we will be serving and who have strong partnerships with businesses and enterprises throughout the United Kingdom.”
Fedcap Employment and Fedcap Scotland will be led by workforce development expert Brian Bell. “We’re delighted to be able to help secure the jobs of many people doing amazing work across the U.K. as we look to support people back to work, or even into work for the first time,” said Mr. Bell. “We believe that everything is possible, and we’re looking forward to helping people achieve what they want. This work is just the start. We are extremely ambitious and will be building on the experience and success of our parent company, The Fedcap Group, to develop and deliver further programs of support across Britain. We will innovate and help to transform the lives of as many people as possible.”
Fedcap UK is led by its President, Grant Collins, who is also SVP for Workforce Development at The Fedcap Group. “We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations in United Kingdom to widen our global reach and scale,” said Mr. Collins. “The models we have created here in the U.S. are replicable and are having measurable and sustainable impact and now the power of those models will be felt abroad.”
For more information, please contact: Steven Zarnfaller at szarnfaller@fedcap.org.
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” – Christopher Reeve
In 1987, Ronald Reagan declared March as National Disabilities Awareness Month. Since that time, there have been huge advances made—both theoretically and practically—around integrating individuals with disabilities into the workforce and into the community. It has been a long, evolutionary process that included passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), that ensures students with a disability are provided with Free Appropriate Public Education that is tailored to their individual needs.
And yet, there is much more work to be done. Stereotypes, stigma, and assumptions remain. The number of unemployed among those with disabilities still remains way too high. And possibly the most problematic—there remains a pervasive underestimation in all that people with disabilities can achieve.
Can you imagine how different the lives of adults with disabilities would be if, as children, their circle of support including educators, the medical community, clinicians, encouraged aspirational thinking? Encouraged them to dream? To strive to achieve what others called impossible? How different would their lives be if we helped their families also believe in all that was possible? If, instead of limiting expectations we fed them? If instead of hinting at no, we shouted an unequivocal yes!
Every day we at The Fedcap Group are working to change the long-term outcomes for people with disabilities. Our work is founded on the following principles:
Every day, I have the opportunity to interact with people with a diverse array of abilities. I see the contributions and I hear story after story of how diversity of skills and abilities in the workplace increases productivity, perspective, creativity, and innovation.
I believe that we are better when we surround ourselves with people who had their eye on a dream, had to work hard to get where they are and are seeing their dream become a reality. I find this inspirational and it motivates me to keep striving.
Let’s be the one who paves the way, not the one who creates the road blocks.
Ten years ago, The Fedcap Group launched our first Solution Series—dedicated to addressing issues important to Business in the 21st Century. These sessions have brought together over 2000 representatives from business, academia, foundations, government and advocates.
On Tuesday morning, March 26, from 8-9:30 a.m. at the Westin NY Grand Central Madison Ballroom, The Fedcap Group will be hosting what I believe will be one of our most compelling and topical Solution Series to date: Socially Responsible Investing: The Moral Case for Impact Investing.
As a society, it is clear we can no longer ignore the pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges that threaten the future of our generation and those to come. In my own lifetime, the world’s population has grown by billions; our climate has grown warmer and is subject to unpredictable disasters; poverty, starvation, and economic inequity are plagues that affect many more communities than just a short generation ago.
As business leaders, as investors, and as stewards of public funding, it is in our collective best interests to mobilize our capital for the long term public good. This investment approach—known as Socially Responsible Investing—or Impact Investing—provides a vehicle to make a sound and tangible difference.
One socially responsible investment framework that is gaining momentum as a system and as a structure integrates Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations into institutional and private investing. ESG evaluates and measures the impact of how a company manages its various resources and the relative risks inherent in business operations—including environmental factors such as water, energy, and air quality, social factors such as diversity and human capital, and governance issues around ethics and integrity.
More and more businesses are investing in socially responsible ventures with favorable returns. Google, for example, invested recently $1billion in renewable energy products. Coca-Cola in investing $1 billion in help support and develop business skills in women and minority-owned suppliers.
On March 26, we will be hearing more about the case for Socially Responsible Investing from three nationally recognized experts at the forefront of this investment framework. I invite you to register for this free forum that will lay out the foundation for the moral, the practical, and the profitable case for Socially Responsible Investing.
Click here to register now.
I look forward to seeing you there.
In this compilation of visual and written works by girls in the juvenile justice system, The Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and Rights4Girls provides a place for girls to share their stories from their perspective.
Mistakes are the portals of discovery. –James Joyce
Most people fear making mistakes at work. They worry they will be seen and judged as incompetent or unintelligent or they worry they may lose their job. This fear keeps people from experimenting and trying new, bold things. In contrast, as a leader, one of the things I count on from the people who work with me is that they make mistakes. And, I count on them to make really good mistakes, not bad ones.
Surrounding myself by people who are bold, who take action, and who learn from their mistakes means the organization never stagnates—we never accept status quo.
Bad mistakes are ones that are the result of lazy or sloppy thinking. They reflect poor critical thinking, inattention to detail or simply lack of caring. Bad mistakes are the ones people should be very concerned about making. They are avoidable, and they can indeed cost people their job.
Key to transforming mistakes into good learning is the willingness to admit the mistake. This is essential to differentiating good and bad mistakes. When an individual is willing to admit their mistake and grow from it, it betters the team and the entire organization.
As a leader, I invite my staff to share their mistakes, as certainly, they hear mine all the time.
What do you do with your mistakes? How do you handle those of your staff?
Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. –Simon Sinek
There is no question that the individuals who work in the companies of The Fedcap Group are motivated. Embedded in their desire to work is a drive to serve the mission by creating opportunities for those we serve to achieve their dreams.
The challenge for those of us who are leaders is to inspire our motivated workforce to greatness.
I believe that inspiration is contagious. When people hear the authentic conviction of their leaders—they trust it and want to emulate it. For me, inspiration comes from a number of sources. I consider plumbing these sources an intentional practice, a deliberate part of every day. In turn, I consider the practice of inspiring others as a critical aspect of my job.
I am inspired by reading, by learning. I am inspired by the experiences of others. I am inspired by intellectually stimulating conversations. I am inspired by stories of grit and determination. I am inspired when I see someone accomplish something they never thought possible.
When inspired, I look for ways to channel this sense of possibility. I challenge staff to think bigger. I invite them to stretch their skill set, their knowledge, and their practices.
Each year I spend time with our Leadership Academy Class in order to inspire them to develop a bold vision for their careers.
We established Wednesday Morning Buzz as a forum to share with every staff member in the agency, articles that I find interesting and inspirational.
We launched Fed Talks as a way to inspire staff to step out of their comfort zones and see risk as an avenue for learning and innovation.
We established a virtual Innovation Garage as a platform for inspirational thinking.
We developed monthly Brown Bag Lunches to share inspirational approaches to our day to day work.
Inspiration is how people stay motivated and strive to realize their best work, build their skills, and innovate new solutions for tough problems.
What inspires you? How do you ensure that you stay inspired? How do you inspire your staff—even those you may not see every day?
As always, I welcome your thoughts.