Episode Notes
In this episode, guest host Angela Maldonado, a partner at Bridgespan, welcomes Tarik Ward, director of global strategic operations and US programs at ELMA Philanthropies. As the manager of digital and physical infrastructure for ELMA Philanthropy Services, Tarik oversees their operations in New York, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Kampala. He also directs US programming for the ELMA Music Foundation, ELMA US Foundation, and ELMA Caribbean Foundation. Tarik's innovative approach has significantly expanded the reach and impact of the ELMA Music Foundation both in the US and South Africa. His collaborations with organizations using music for youth development are transforming lives and creating brighter futures.
Join us as we dive into Tarik's journey, explore his insights on the educational potential of music, and discover how his work is having global impact.
Episode Transcript
Darren Isom:
Welcome to Dreaming in Color, where we sit down with social change leaders of color to learn how their unique life experiences have prepared them to lead and drive the impact we all seek. I'm your host, Darren Isom. And this season I'm lucky to have a few of my Bridgespan colleagues dropping in to join me as guest hosts. Together we'll be celebrating the genius of leaders who live and do the work every day. This is Dreaming in Color. Our lovely host for this episode is Angela Maldonado, a Bridgespan partner working out of the New York office, Angela very proudly calls Philly home. Angela's impressive work focuses on nonprofit strategy development and strengthening organizational operating models, making her a vital contributor to all of the great work that we do. With her deep expertise and commitment to educational equity and organizational excellence, Angela is an exceptional guest host for today's episode. Angela, it's a true delight to welcome you to Dreaming in Color.
Angela Maldonado:
Thanks, Darren. My name is Angela Maldonado, and today I'm sitting down with Tarik Ward, director of global strategic operations and US programs at the ELMA Philanthropy Services. In this role, Tarik has spearheaded the expansion of the ELMA Music Foundation, collaborating with organizations across the globe to utilize music for youth development. Tarik's brilliance has resulted in a fascinating career journey that is truly out of this world, spanning the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. His previous roles include flight controller at NASA, strategy management consultant, and the chief operating officer of the Commit Partnership, a Dallas-based education nonprofit. His passion for education, youth, and music are truly remarkable, and I am so happy to be speaking with him today.
Hi, Tarik. Thank you so much for joining me today. I am very much looking forward to today's conversation, and as you know, we do like to open up these conversations with an invocation. So what invocation have you brought for us today?
Tarik Ward:
You caught me at a very interesting time. Yesterday was my mother's birthday. She's no longer with us, but it's one of those things that she said to us all the time: "Whatever that hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might." And she would say that to us all the time. And it's one of those things that sticks with me, especially as I've kind of moved through different phases of my life, doing different things, learning new things and realizing, "Okay, I'm not going to going to necessarily be good at this at the very beginning, but I have to put my all into this no matter what I'm doing." So big or small, I have to really put myself all the way into it. So I always hear her voice when I'm looking to quit something or looking to give up on something, I hear that voice, and those are the words that repeat in my head.
Angela Maldonado:
Moms are so special. Thank you for sharing her guidance with us. Tarik, we met last summer at a gathering of BIPOC nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, and it was such a beautiful space with really brilliant, beautiful people of color, dreaming about the possibility that exists within philanthropy. And from the perspective of big questions, of what would it really look like to co-create a more equitable approach to promoting equity and justice across the sector. And I remember being struck by how grounded and convicted you were in the possibility that existed in a future where we are not just centering communities, but we are really elevating community perspective by being in deep relationship with communities, and rooting that relationship in a shared vision for the future. And in your bio, you describe yourself as “relentless in pursuit of a world where demography does not determine destiny.” Where does that come from? What drives this orientation to your work?
Tarik Ward:
So it's interesting. I mean, I think a lot of that is also family related. In this world, we often have this myth, it's particularly in America, about these self-made people and these folks that kind of pull themselves up by their bootstraps. And we tend to ignore all of the other things around us. And me, being the engineer that I am, initial conditions matter, right? And I think oftentimes they matter too much, particularly where we are. So we often get told the story, from birth we get fed these ideas about where we're supposed to be, and how we're supposed to move through the world, and what we're supposed to grow up to be, and what we're supposed to accomplish. And oftentimes those are just lies, right? They're just things to kind of keep us in the box and keep us obedient. And for a lot of our young people and a lot of the young people that I get to interact with, they don't get to dream, and they certainly don't necessarily get the opportunity to fulfill those dreams.
And the idea that you get to start from zero and dream as big as you want and get as close to the sun as you can get, for me, is the biggest dream in the world. For folks to be able to have no limitations on what they think they can do and what they want to do and what they hope to do, let alone what they're able to do. I think just being able to have that permission to dream and not have these limitations and these labels put on us from birth that we don't choose. I think those are the pieces that tend to weigh us down the most. And if we can shed ourselves of some of that and ensure that we are able to move through different spaces and spaces that don't look like where we started, and spaces that don't look like where our grandparents started. That, to me, is really where the magic is, is being able to move through the world and not be weighted down by what somebody else thinks you ought to be doing.
Angela Maldonado:
You talked about the permission to dream and in particular the permission to dream in terms of getting close to the sun, not having limitations. And I think that's a really interesting frame, particularly when I think about your background. And your background is fascinating in terms of what you have done, the diversity of experience that exists. You have been an aerospace engineer for NASA, you have done management consulting, you've done nonprofit and now philanthropic leadership. And so I describe your background as fascinating, but it really probably is an understatement because clearly what that background outlines is someone who is truly brilliant. But I would love to hear more about how this brilliance has shown up in your professional work and led to the life choices that you've made as you've navigated this career.
Tarik Ward:
It's been an interesting journey. I mean, it's not one that I would have mapped out, even though I opened this with a quote from the Bible. I'm not a particularly religious man, but I still stand by this idea that man plans and God laughs. So it's this idea that the world is going to take you in a lot of different places if you let it, but you do get to choose what your hand does. You do get to have these choices, and you get to dream. And for all the things that my parents and my family have done for me, they've let me dream. So even as a young boy when in fact, my first life was as a musician, so I learned to read music right around the time I learned to read words.
So my feet were hanging off the piano bench, and I was learning a new language, and it would become one of the tools that I would use to solve problems, whether that be when I found my father's tools, fixing things around the house. Or I don't quite have the words to express this, but I do have a song, and finding a way to do that. So running on these kind of two parallel tracks, using very different parts of myself and moving through the world, and sort of using that to fulfill my inherited love language from my father, which is active service. So I really love to give those gifts, whether it be fixing something or being able to express something that I couldn't find the words for, or maybe you couldn't find the words for it. And so my first job was, I was a trumpet teacher. I taught lessons around the neighborhood, strap my horn to my back and ride around the neighborhood for $20 a lesson.
Those two things were always kind of hand in hand. And being a musician all the way through high school, but still having some of that technical acumen, eventually I kind of had to make a choice. It turned out I was a much better engineer than I was a trumpet player. And particularly having had the opportunity to learn underneath a lot of really extraordinary musicians, really kind of opened up my eyes to the world of possibilities, even beyond being a musician. And really understanding what that meant and what it means to be able to embody that kind of authenticity, that voice making. So eventually I ended up at MIT, again, because I was a better engineer than I was a trumpet player, but I still played the trumpet at MIT. And from there, it was really kind of a confluence of events that I don't know that I could have predicted at all. I literally kind of stumbled into an internship at a NASA contractor.
And by accidentally, I mean I was supposed to go somewhere else. I got an email from United Space Alliance and they said, "Hey, come on down and be here in two weeks." I hadn't spoken to a person, I'd never been to Houston in my life, so I kind of just packed two bags and went on a bit of an adventure. And that adventure turned into a 10-year career, almost, flying spaceships. And I got to do a few things. One, I got to do something really hard, and I got to be an expert at it. And that was an important experience, that idea of really learning something and mastering it. That idea of mastering and that experience of mastery was a huge, huge influence on me. And then I think simultaneously I managed to minor in education at MIT, was not interested in being a mediocre teacher. But I get a lot of career days, as one does, when you work for NASA, particularly if you are a Black man that works for NASA, you are high on everybody's list to come to their classrooms.
Angela Maldonado:
There's not many of them.
Tarik Ward:
No. So you walk into a classroom, particularly ones full of Black and brown babies, and they go, "This is Mr. Ward, he's a rocket scientist." And the record stops. They go, "Wait a minute now, I've never met a rocket scientist before, but this is not it. You're going to have to explain. He's got Jordans on and jeans, I don't know. None of this is computing." So you end up having to have a very different kind of conversation about what it means to have traveled and walked this path. And they ask you things like, "Oh, was it hard?" And you get to say, "Yes, kind of, but I don't really have much to compare it to. This is my first job out of college really." And they don't really have a concept of any of that. But going through that and having that conversation with all those young people, you realize that you can't unring that bell.
So even if you're in that room and you say, "Hey, listen, you guys don't have to become rocket scientist. It's not my job to come in here and convince you that you got to go into aerospace, but now that you know it's a possibility, it's part of the solution set. So your world is a little bigger now that we've met." And that to me was the big piece. And we'll talk a little bit about the vision for the world, but one of the things that I always say to them is that success is optionality. This idea that you get to choose what you do, the idea that when you wake up in the morning, you make one decision and that's it. Everything else rolls from there. And in my mind, success is when you get to choose the answer to that, when somebody else doesn't choose for you. And that's when we start to talk about education and what that means and what it can afford you. And that's when the conversation can veer.
So I had been doing that for a really long time and then eventually I was like, "Man, I really want to spend more time in this world." How do I pour more of myself into young people? How do I make this world a little better for them? Sure, I love flying spaceships, but what else could I do? And that's really where that first big diversion came up. And then as the universe would have it, when I was having that thought, I met my wife, and she at the time was a third-grade teacher. And she had just gotten into Stanford, and somewhere in her she decided, "Well, you know what? You're going to go to Stanford, too." And through some not so gentle cajoling, she set me up and the setup was real. I went to visit her and she's like, "Yeah, I'm going to go to class." And I said, "Oh, we'll wait. I'll be here when you get back." She goes, "Oh, that's adorable. Here's the reading. We sit in the front row, don't embarrass us."
At which point I both knew, "Okay, she might be the one." And that was really scary. So the case study happened to be, it was a case study about the space shuttle Challenger, if you can believe it. So it was just a stone-cold setup. So I'm sitting here in this Stanford classroom and they're like, "Well, does anybody have anything else to add?" And I go, "I might have some insight to this. I know some of these people." And they're like, "Wait a minute, what?" And that was kind of all she wrote. And I ended up at Stanford and got an MBA and a master's in education, and really in an effort to try to, how do I put more language and a new vocabulary to what I'm feeling? This idea of wanting to contribute, this idea of wanting to help make this space a little better than I found it, and how do I find a way to talk about what I know and what I can do?
And that's really kind of what started the first big diversion and ended up, I did my obligatory couple years at Deloitte as a management consultant, took all their pro bono dollars. I was a very expensive consultant. And then signed my way into the nonprofit world and started doing consulting for United Way and Urban League, and then got recruited up to a nonprofit in Dallas. It was a startup at the time. They were only about a year and some change old, and they were doing relative impact work all over north Texas. And it was one of those spaces where, again, it's a startup, you wear a lot of hats. So I was the CFO, the CTO, I was chief development officer, I was doing all sorts of stuff and probably too much of it, because I don't know if I was doing any of it excellently, but I was doing it. And one of them was raising money and did not enjoy it, boy, I did not enjoy it.
And I said to myself, "you know what? We could be a better funder than these guys." There's lots of ways that I would change the way I thought about delivering capital and allocating that. Boy, if only. And then of course, the universe called my bluff again and said, "Okay, we're going to see how that goes." And at the time I ran into one of my classmates whose family foundation I worked for now, was starting up this music foundation, and it had been in kind of an organic state for a little while. And we were talking on the phone just catching up after her wedding. I went to her wedding and he's describing it to me and I said, "Wait, stop. Those are programs I was in. I'm those kids. I know those kids. I've met those kids. I hung out with those kids. I know exactly what you're talking about. Say less. I have to do this."
So that was really kind of where this journey kind of started. And all of that really shapes the way I show up. So when you're going on a site visit, you're able to walk in, first the Black man walking in, and it's a funder and they're like, "Wait a minute. I didn’t know they came like that, say more." And then when they're like, "Wait a minute, you know this song?" And I'm like, "Actually, not only do I know that song, I know where that song came from, so let's actually sit down and have a conversation about the Isley Brothers." So then you have a very different kind of rapport, and it changes the relationship, the whole dynamic of being able to show up that way with all these experiences in tow and all these different perspectives. So it's been fun learning again, this new world, this new set of opportunities, and then being able to make an impact.
Angela Maldonado:
What is fascinating to me in so many of these conversations with other people of color, myself included, is just the way that you described your path really being a confluence of events and feeling accidental in some ways. I feel that for myself. But I would love to pick up on where you left off in terms of the real diversity of experiences that you are bringing with you to being a leader for a philanthropic institution. And I would love to hear more about the ways in which those experiences really shape your approach to your work, and not just to your work, but your understanding of what unity-centered change is. How do these experiences show up and shape the way in which you engage and do the work that you do?
Tarik Ward:
I mean, there's a lot of ways. I mean, we already talked about a little bit of how you're going to show up to young people, trusting young people to tell you the truth about what's happening in here. So that's like you show up on a site visit and you say, "Hey, where are the snacks? How'd you get here? How are you getting home?" So some of the real basic stuff, they will tell you the truth. So when we go on site visits, for instance, don't have an event, make me show up on a Tuesday on a regular day, because I want to see who greets the kids when they come in. Who's the first person that talks to them? Do they know this space? Does the space belong to them? So it's all these little things and being there and having the wherewithal and honestly the courage, because honestly, kids can sometimes be mean, but having the courage to sit down and talk to them, say, "Hey, listen, what's going on here? What could be happening here?"
And being able to open up to them and enlist them in the process is one, different for them because oftentimes people talk about them, they don't speak with them, they don't engage young people. So there's that element of it, and the fact that at this stage, there was a long stretch of time where I could walk into a good number of my grantees and I would recognize young people, and young people would recognize me, right? And that matters, right? That matters to me because it changes the way they talk about them. It changes the way I read. It changes the way that I tell their story. And that to me is really important, to be able to have that kind of connection. And then that then gets leveled up, that gets amplified when you start talking about the leaders. And particularly when we start talking about leaders of color in that space, because they too tend to be marginalized and oftentimes come from the same places both physically and emotionally that their young people are coming from, right?
So they're solving problems that they know and they understand. So being able to talk to a leader like a person and say, "Hey, listen, I don't really come from this philanthropic world. I don't bear the burden of tradition when it comes to this kind of work, so I'm just going to talk to you like a person. So you can put the PowerPoint away and we can speak." And we can talk about what moves you. We can talk about what keeps you awake, talk about what gets you up in the morning. I want to learn about, how can I help. And when you pose that question to a leader, particularly one that has been schooled and seasoned in the nonprofit industrial complex, their eyes go bug. They go like, "What do you mean, how can you help?" And I'm like, "Just that. What can I do for you?" And you tend to have a very different brand of conversation, and one that elicits views of partnership rather than seems of fiduciary.
And when you're able to say to leaders that, "Hey, listen, I've done this proposal thing before. I've been in your seat, we're not going to do it that way. Let's talk about what needs to be in here and what doesn't need to be in there, and let's talk about what this relationship is. Because at this stage, you are not writing a proposal to convince me that this is a good idea. Our job right now is to make me the best evangelist on your behalf as possible." And that's a very different kind of writing assignment than writing a persuasive proposal. No, now you're going to tell me what's working and what's not, so that I can tell you a story to somebody that's never going to read a word you're ever going to put on paper. And when you can be that kind of transparent and that kind of open with a leader, you can see the weight lifted off their shoulders.
Even if we get to a space where there might not be any money at the end of that rainbow, I now have somebody that I can call, and they have somebody that they can call. And if it's not me, I know somebody else that can. And we can have that conversation because we formed a relationship. I wasn't on the hunt for something to put in my portfolio. I was on the lookout for a leader that I could support and a community that I could pour into. Being able to shift the dynamic from that perspective, knowing that, one, I too used to be one of these kids coming in here trying to make some music. And I two, was your development director trying to get these proposals out the door and try to keep the lights on. So being able to bring that kind of empathy to both quadrants of this equation, it makes a difference. Because now we can talk and you can have a conversation with me that you might not be able to have with a more traditional funder.
Angela Maldonado:
It’s really interesting to hear you describe the type of relationship that you are aiming to cultivate with folks that you might be a funder of, or a current funder of, and really describing through the perspective of what it looks like to be a partner and not just a fiduciary relationship. And I do want to talk a bit about that. And you are currently the director of US programs and global operations for ELMA Philanthropies. And so I do you want to hear a bit about your perspective on the state of philanthropy? I think we often talk about the challenges that exist in philanthropy and what needs to be fixed, but there are some things that really feel like there is momentum happening for the better.
I mean, for me, I think about this next generation of philanthropic leadership that we are seeing, often young Black, Latinx leaders who are expanding how we really think about what success is in this sector and really pushing to go beyond traditional measures. And I would include you in this group of folks that I am describing within this sector. You spoke a bit about how you approach the work, and how that is different than how traditional philanthropy approaches the work. And I would love to hear more about how have you seen the landscape of philanthropy change over the years and what excites you the most about what these changes are and have the potential to be?
Tarik Ward:
I think we saw a particular acceleration of this through the pandemic, and that is the who. I think there was at the beginning of an extraordinary sea change in terms of participation and leadership within this sphere. I see a lot of vision 2020 strategic plans got blown out of the water when 2020 finally got here. But then you saw a lot of folks that were in this game for a long time who saw that and said, "This is not what I signed up for necessarily." And I think for obviously a number of reasons, we saw a wave of new leadership come in. And I think you're seeing a lot more, and I think that's on both ends, both on the philanthropic side and on the nonprofit side. You're seeing a lot more younger leaders, a broader set of perspectives come into leadership seats. And that's heartening, particularly when those folks are, again, coming with community perspectives in tow.
These are not people coming in trying to learn about the communities that they're trying to serve. These are people coming from the communities that they're trying to serve and have been serving, frankly, for decades and generations, and are now just finding new avenues and new platforms from which to serve them. While the people have changed, the models are still playing catch up. We're still writing proposals in mostly the same way in a lot of ways. So I think that's the piece that I think has to catch up. We talk about trust-based philanthropy, but it's who's trusting who, right? And that trust has got to go both ways. And I don't think we're there yet, in large part because we're not talking to each other as much as we should. I don't think we're having the very basic conversations. I still sometimes feel a distance and it takes work to break down some of those barriers and really eschew some of those traditions like, "All right, hey, look, let's actually talk about what this is."
And particularly when it comes to some of the more technical bits, when we start talking about data, you're like, "Who is this for?" And one of the commitments that we made and we talk about with our grantees is, don't have a single piece of data that's only for us, because if we're the only ones asking for it, we're the ones that are wrong. We're off base, and let's talk about what is actually going to help your practice. And when we could start to get people to think about their work as practice and transforming what may have started as a passion into a full-blown practice that is part of an enterprise and not just some nonprofit, this is an enterprise. And when you can start to reframe these endeavors and efforts as big as they are and give people that space to grow, and then fund them in ways that they can use to win, when you start to ask folks, "Hey, what does winning look like? What does it look like when you’ve succeeded, and how do we get there?"
And that's a whole different conversation. So I think when we started to break into those kinds of conversations, when we're talking about what does winning look like, and what does this look like, not just in three years or five years, but in 20 years, what does this look like? How do we get you there? I think that to me is heartening. We're not having enough of it, obviously, and I think we need to move. But when you start, I think when some of the bigger players in this space start to figure out that some of the tethers that they've attached… and they starting to figure it out that, "All right, maybe we don't need that, or maybe we don't need this report, or maybe we can let go of that." And we saw a lot of that in COVID, and the world didn't stop turning. They're like, "Wait a minute, we didn't get that report, and everything's okay? Well, it turns out that we might not need that, so let's rethink what this looks like."
And you start thinking, "Was this worth it? And whose energy did we suck to get this six page report that we're going to whittle down to three paragraphs anyway?" So then you start to think about your own practices and say, "Okay, well how are we contributing to this? And how can we be an additive force? How can we be something that is productive addition to their ecosystem?" And then start connecting folks. I think the other thing that I think we saw a lot of during COVID was actually strengthening of some of these informal communities, these spaces where it's like, "Hey, do you guys have a leader or anybody that solves this problem?" "Actually, yeah, we got six of them. Come to my space, let's talk about that." And then when folks start to talk to each other and they start to get off of their islands, some of them feel stuck. They're like, "Nobody else in the world is understanding what I'm going through right now." But then when you're able to say, "Actually, we got folks."
And you can get them in the same room to say, "Oh my God, you had that too. How did you fix it?" And just that relief of being seen and being heard has been amazing because, again, leadership is lonely. And it's even lonelier when you're wearing all the hats trying to keep the lights on, and you're trying to hold a community together, an organization together, and a family together from your kitchen table on a laptop, how's that supposed to work? So being able to help folks through that space mattered a lot. And I think we learned a lot about how we could be truly helpful and get out of the way, and sometimes add things to the pot that we didn't think were particularly useful. Like, "Oh yeah, we do have all these other folks. Do they really want to talk to each other?" "Yeah, they do." So being able to facilitate that kind of connection and that kind of community among folks who are otherwise isolated was huge. All of these bits are happening. Folks are thinking differently about how they fund and to whom they fund and to what end.
I think all of those are really important questions that we started to answer, and we're getting there. And I think that we can continue to support this new generation of leaders that are coming up and give them the space that they need to grow. And the space that they need to make the kind of hard choices for their communities and not have to make them with their own lifeblood sacrifice, watching folks work themselves into the ground. Those are the kinds of things that I think we're more conscious of now. And I hope we can continue down that pathway to really just make this make more sense in how we conduct our day-to-day and really keep them as the primary focus. Like, "Okay, well, but how are the babies?" If that's not the question that we're asking, then what are we doing here? So I think being able to center that and have that be the focal point of our conversation has gotten easier.
Angela Maldonado:
There are two things there that you said that I want to pick up on. The one is just the ways in which COVID really forced us to re-examine our practices, and really ask these questions of “the why.” And all of a sudden, we don't need big grant applications. We can all of a sudden write that check a lot faster than before. And your point about, it really forced us to think about what does winning look like, not just in three years, but in five years and 20 years from now, this longer term view on what are the goals that we're trying to get to? And one thing that happened during COVID, unfortunately, was the George Floyd movement, and that also pushed the sector to operate in totally new ways and to move more quickly towards ways in which they were considering.
And so it feels like there are so many lessons coming out of COVID, out of the George Floyd movement, that were really supposed to galvanize and move the sector in big ways. And they didn't all fully materialize in the ways that we maybe had hoped that they would. And I know you have a global perspective, thinking about the work that your organization does around the world, particularly in Africa and South Africa. And there are so many lessons, I think both from George Floyd but also broader civil rights movement lessons when we think longer term. And so I would love to hear more about, how do we continue to live into the lessons coming out of the George Floyd movement. And what are the other lessons from civil rights movements broadly that you would like to see become more normalized in philanthropy?
Tarik Ward:
Well, I mean, I think you hit part of it is that we didn't really learn the lessons. They weren't permanent. It was a moment, I'm a bit of a cynic in that regard, in that it revealed what most of us already knew in terms of how angry and how mistreated folks already felt. It was framed in such a way or set up in such a way where folks could no longer ignore it the way that they would normally. And could not wait to get back to. "I do not want to think about this in front of my face." One of the big things coming out of that is looking at the young people. And I think about even just from the logistical perspective, the fact that they were home, they were not with their people, and having to absorb these messages and these ideas and now have to find ways to move through it.
We have all these protests happening. This is that energy sort of reborn and may manifest again. Because you think about these college students, they were in high school, they were in middle school or ending middle school when this was going on. So they were at the front lines really understanding and absorbing this new world and understanding that, "Oh, by the way, my voice really does have power. I can move this thing here if we do this right." And that for me is probably one of the bigger lessons, right? It's not institutional, it's not really looking at the field, it's looking at the way young people have responded. I think this is right on that same thread, what we're seeing right now. But I do think that one of the things that it did reveal was the need for urgency.
This idea that, "Okay, we don't necessarily have to wait. We could do a thing right now. We could do this thing right now. It does not have to wait. The conditions don't have to be perfect, but we can move in this direction." And again, we saw that may manifest in different ways. So yeah, cut the check. We don't need the report, just do it. And oh yeah, the world didn't stop and there was no risk capital. So all those pieces, I think when you start to put them together, "Oh, actually of the world is just slightly different, and we've got a different perspective on it." And now what I'm excited for is those same young people now finding their ways into my organization, into the huge philanthropic achievements that are here. And bringing those perspectives with them, bringing their way into these new nonprofits and thinking about them differently because, hey, listen, I was there.
I was sitting at home with COVID, couldn't talk to my friends, and the world was on fire, and I needed to find an outlet. And it has changed my worldview. I am elated to see that worldview sort of made and married with power and agency and really get to see, "Okay, well what does that look like when we think about that?" And then I think when we zoom out, it's interesting how I think when I looked at a lot of the work that we're doing on the continent, it's interesting for me how little of some of that civil unrest, a few of those ripples have made it to other places because they said, "Well, look, I'm still working on the very basic problems that have not changed, in fact have maybe gotten even worse, because of the infrastructure that has changed."
So that also helps me put it in perspective and think to say, "Okay, I look at this through a very American lens, but there are all sorts of ways to think about this and consider that, "Hey, there's other stuff that folks are dealing with and need support on." So I also think it helped with that to say, "All right, I need also to step outside of myself and take a look at, all right, there's other things going on in the world." And I think COVID helped that because it gave us the opportunity to ponder and to think outside of ourselves and look across the world, and look at places and consider places and people that we hadn't before. So I think that is part of the legacy, is now I can have a much deeper conversation about newborn and maternal health in Uganda.
Because now I have exercised that lens of looking elsewhere, outside of my community, to really consider, "Okay, well what's happening somewhere else?" So I think all of those pieces kind of lead to just these shifts. And I think when you think about all these things happening at that scale, it doesn't take a lot. You can nudge things and move it in a certain direction and really get a different perspective on what's going on in the world. So my hope is that the ripple continues, that we continue to sort of understand what that was. And we resist the urge, because I still think there's a bit of a reversion to the mean. I think we moved away and the pendulum wanted desperately to swing back, but I do think that we're seeing... and actually, it might not actually go back to the way it was. And we're going to have to be okay with that and understand that there's a way for us to move forward.
Angela Maldonado:
Our good friend Darren Isom, and I say “our” in the broadest sense, meaning you me, anyone listening who has listened to the podcast previously… but Darren has previously described philanthropy as pale, male, and stale, and as a result, ineffective. I hear this often in the back of my head just because, one, true, but also two, funny. And I wonder the extent to which this perspective of what philanthropy is or has been, to what extent was that an impetus for your own desire to create your own donor-advised fund following George Floyd? And I know you have described that fund as a way to invest wisely in Black lives and offer a community solution to a community problem. And so I would love just to hear a bit more about, what does philanthropy look like when we are centering people who are more proximate to the issues, and what are all the ways in which people might contribute, whether it's capital or even beyond capital?
Tarik Ward:
You mentioned that one word, that proximate, if you've ever gotten a chance to see Brian Stevenson speak, he talks a lot about that proximity and getting close to people, getting close to places that are important. And only then can you truly start to understand it. And I think during that period in the pandemic, it lit a fire in a lot of people in that they wanted to do something. But a lot of times that energy didn't necessarily have a good outlet. I don't know where this is like, I have this desire, but to what end? What I do with this energy? And a big part of that now is figuring out, "All right, how can we help them? How can we help direct this energy in ways that we know are productive?" Because in a lot of ways, these are our communities that we're talking about, that we're trying to uplift.
So it was through that and we were dealing with, and it was mostly, it was in the context of my alumni community with Stanford. So the Stanford GSB, we had been working directly with the administration because they were struggling, trying to figure out, "Okay, what do we do with this? How do we respond? What do we say?" And they wisely sought input. And it was a group of us, shout out to Alalu, she was our ringleader and our fearless ringleader, but really put them to task and say, "Okay, here are the things that we need to talk about." And then when we were sort of turning that energy back towards our alumni, we got that desire. I mean, folks were calling and saying, "I would love to donate. How? Where? Tell me where, and I'll cut the check." And at the time, it was sort of an interesting confluence of events because right at the end of 2019, we started a grant partnership with who was then the Brooklyn Community Foundation, but now Br,ooklyn.org.
And we had been working with them sort of serendipitously to direct funds to local nonprofits, small local nonprofits that we would not have known, that we would not have met, if not for the relationship that they had with this community foundation. So we had started that up. Our first meeting was in January of 2020, so that was where the whole thing blew up. But because of the relationship and the bond that we had formed, I think I went back to them and said, "Well, could I start my own donor advisory fund?" They're like, "Yeah." And I said, "Could I do it with a bunch of people?" They're like, "Yeah." So it started to kind of research that and put it together. And then we created this fund for folks to contribute. And at the same time we, shout out to Jamal, he was our intern at the time.
He put together the most comprehensive database of Black-led and Black-serving nonprofits I'd ever seen, he went to work, but we shared that with folk. And then eventually, I think we had collected probably around $33,000 over a couple years. And then we ended up dispersing it to three different organizations. And it's interesting how we ended up choosing them because most of them were actually made through connections I made with leaders, actually going out into the world and talking to folks. So we made a contribution to Barbership Books. So this is an organization, and if you look them up, you'll see Alvin, who is their leader. He's been on CNN Heroes, but it's an amazing organization and they distribute reading material for young boys to read in barbershops. So it's really, really amazing work, started here in New York. So that was sort of like the local piece.
Then we did the International Youth Leadership Institute. It was actually run by a young woman, and we sat down. I remember we ran into each other somewhere at an event years and years ago. And this organization basically sets up young people for service trips after high school. So they're able to go all around the world and really experience a new sensation of being in a new location and really get a sense of what does the world look like. And then the last was the Advancement Project. I kind of think about this as the Black ACLU, so really thinking about the large infrastructure work that they're doing. So really thinking about it on a couple of different levels and being able to distribute those dollars meant a lot.
But it also meant that we were able to take that energy that people had and that angst and that, "Oh my God, I want to do something, but I don't necessarily know how, and I'm not necessarily proximate to these communities." And then make them proximate, right? Because now we're making these connections to organizations and groups that we know, and leaders that we know and that we've met, and that we understand their mission. So that was a really kind of cool moment because even when you work in philanthropy, you're not necessarily a philanthropist. So that subtle shift, it felt a little different, actually signing the check. So it was really good, but now knowing that you can create that outlet for folks and give them that opportunity to start to get proximate was really cool. I enjoyed that.
Angela Maldonado:
Well, on this season of Dreaming in Color, we are highlighting mentors who have paved the way for us as leaders and truly impacted our lives for the better. And I know I have several that come to mind immediately, but I would love for you to call out a mentor or a mentee, should you feel so moved, who you've been really impacted by either in your life, your career, or both.
Tarik Ward:
When I was in college, I lived in a living group called Chocolate City at MIT. And our resident, Larry Sass, he raised us, and he really, I think taught us to think about ourselves through the lens of power and agency, that we were not just cogs kind of just moving through this world, but we had the ability to shape the world around us. And it was going to require some work. It was going to require some things from you, both in the sense that you were going to have to work to get the stuff that you wanted, and you were going to have to work to get the relationships that you needed to make that happen. I think he was one of the first people that really, I think for me, contextualized that idea of “you're not going to do this by yourself.” Believe that.
And the folks that are going to come with you and the folks that are going to help you along that way are not going to come just because, they're not going to come for free. And that you have to actually contribute to those relationships and really understand what it means. And I'll never forget when I was leaving campus for the last time, he looked at me and he said, "Thank you." I said, "Thank me?" And he said, "No, thank you for listening. Thank you for believing me." And I really appreciated his humility and his perspective on how he took this rambunctious group of... we were a ragtag group, but really kind of helped us step into ourselves and step into our place into the world. So I really appreciated Larry for that.
Angela Maldonado:
What does freedom look like to you?
Tarik Ward:
Choice, it's options. It's optionality. I think the freedom to wake up and decide how I'm going to go through today, who am I going to help? How am I going to contribute? How am I going to direct my energy and where? I think the ability to have that choice and that freedom, it means the world to us all. I think a lot of the resentment and angst that many of us feel is because we don't get a chance to choose. It's chosen for us. We talk about that destiny, that demography morphing into destiny and then not being able to choose. Being able to choose, that optionality for me is key. When you have that, you truly have control over whatever arc you're going to take in this world.
Angela Maldonado:
If you had to choose any song to walk up to on stage, what would it be?
Tarik Ward:
It's actually a reggae rhythm called “Stalag Riddim.” And one of the original recordings is the Stalag 17, It’s just timeless, and it is one of those grooves that's just in the pocket the whole time from start to finish. And I could listen to it for hours and not change. It also happens to be one of the songs that I got astronauts to play for me from the International Space Station on one of my ships. So I walked in and I put my headset on at the start my shift, and I heard that song playing and I said, "Okay, we home now. We're going to make this happen." So yeah, Stalag 17, “Stalag riddim.” That is easily one of my favorites.
Angela Maldonado:
I love that as a way to close out. I said this at the beginning, but you are brilliant, and I feel like the thing that I'm taking with me is just this theme around choice and optionality and dreaming, and what that means and looks like. And so, thank you for being humble, for being fun, for leading from a place of love and for helping us think about what dreaming looks like a bit differently.
Tarik Ward:
Well, no, I appreciate you. You've been an excellent listener and pushed me in some important ways, so I appreciate you for that.
Angela Maldonado:
Thanks, Tarik. I am sitting with Tarik's reflection on how important it is for young people to dream and not just dream, but to dream big, and to use his particularly fitting words, get as close to the sun as possible. And I can't help but think about dreaming without reflecting on where and how I learned to dream, which always brings me to my grandmother's. My siblings and I spent a wonderful, glorious summer with my paternal grandmother, my abuela. Though she was just under five feet tall, and she walked everywhere, there was no distance that was too great. She was an absolute force. That summer, my grandmother took us to church every day, but not for mass. And since we weren't sitting through a service, it felt like an adventure. The church pews became our playground. It was a quiet one because it was still a church, and we knew better.
We did puzzles, where we read, which was all my type of fun, and not just because I was a bookworm, but because I could enjoy it under the cool vaulted cathedral ceilings, which made it feel like a vacation, since my grandmother did not have air conditioning. It was truly wonderful. But after a week of this, I started to pay closer attention, and I started asking, why are we here? What are we doing? And I realized that my grandmother and a very small group of probably no more than five other adults had formed a study group to learn and practice English. And this realization was mind blowing, and not just because it left me in awe of my grandmother, but it solidified this notion that you can do anything whenever, however, wherever, it doesn't take a master plan to just do. And she made it look so easy. Now, I can recognize all the ways in which it certainly could not have been easy. She was navigating a foreign place without the language, a place that isn't always welcoming to those who are considered “other.”
She had never attended formal schooling, and she actually only learned to read much later in life. And even then, that was so she could read the Bible. But at eight years old, none of this occurred to me, and not just because I was eight, but because she made it look effortless. After more than 20 years of living in a place, she decided that she wanted to learn English, and so she did. My grandmother is no longer with us, but if she were, I would love to hug her and to ask for bendiciones, or blessings. Asking elders for blessings is a Puerto Rican practice that is deeply rooted in both religion and culture, and it's also a way of showing respect and community. And in many ways, it's a way of passing hope because in asking for bendiciones, you also receive it back from the elder. May we all continue to hope. Dream as big as we want, and fly as close to the sun as we can possibly get.
Darren Isom:
This season, we're putting some music with the magic and have collected the theme songs from all of our guests and collaborators to create a Spotify playlist for our listeners to enjoy. Find it on Spotify under “Dreaming in Color: The Playlist.” Thanks for listening to Dreaming in Color. A special shout out to all the folks who make this magic happen. From StudioPod Media, our wonderful producer, Denise Savas, audio engineer, Teresa Buchanan, and graphic designer, Diana Jimenez. And from Reel Works, our video production team, Jenny Liu and Stephen Czaja. A huge shout-out to our ever brilliant Bridgespan production team, Cora Daniels, Christian Celeste Tate, Christina Pistorius, Ryan Wenzel, and this season's guest hosts, Jasmine Reliford, Nithin Iyengar and Angela Maldonado. And of course, our fabulous creative director, Ami Diané. What a squad, y'all. Be sure to rate, subscribe, and review wherever you list to podcasts. Catch you next time.
