A New Way Forward: The Kappa Foundation details its new direction to strengthen its influence and impact in communities of color

In 1981 Dr. Oliver S. Gumbs, the 23rd Grand Polemarch, conceived the idea of establishing a philanthropic arm to Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. His rationale was a sound one: To assist the undergraduate and alumni chapters in need of philanthropic support of its after school programs, scholarships and community-based projects and to give Kappa’s membership and corporations an incentive, through tax deductible donations, to fund the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation, Inc., and thus the Fraternity’s initiatives. Since that time the foundation has continued to evolve under the leadership of many great board presidents, including William Croom and Adolphus Pruitt, to where it stands now in 2016. As one considers the current landscape of Kappa Alpha Psi and communities of color 35 years later, what is known is that the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation is needed among the leaders of the African American philanthropic sector more than ever. On January 9, 2016, during the foundation Board meeting in Mobile, Alabama a New Way Forward was presented by incoming President Michael DuBose, vice president of Corporate and Major Accounts for Grainger, Inc., to place the foundation on a course to fulfill this mission.

A significant moment occurred when the leadership felt that it was time for the foundation to “grow up” and become a more self-supported nonprofit entity that would be able to fund undergraduate and alumni chapter charitable programs as well as worthy community-based initiatives. To do so meant the foundation needed to build the financial, organizational and operational capacity to maintain a strong endowment. As stated by the 33rd Grand Polemarch, Thomas L. Battles, Jr., Kappa Alpha Psi needed to build its foundation to lessen its need to look at applying for grants and requesting funding from corporations or other philanthropic organizations whose mission and goals did not align with the ideals of Kappa Alpha Psi. It is, in effect, time for Kappa to set its own table.

The first critical step was putting in place a board of high level executives who had a great depth of knowledge about the non-profit sector and the financial capacity to raise funds. Joining the foundation board as new members are: Vice President Rod Adkins, former Senior Vice President of IBM; Donald Bland, former President and CEO of Wal-Mart Argentina; Kinnis Wilkins, CEO of Wilkins Insurance, and Cain Hayes, President of Aetna’s Mid America region. Other members include: the 33rd Grand Polemarch, Thomas L. Battles, Jr.; Senior Grand Vice Polemarch, Reuben A. Shelton III, Esq.; Junior Grand Vice Polemarch, Chastin Gammage; National Silhouette President, Jacquelene Sharp-Massey; Treasurer, A. Ronald Berryman; Secretary, Michael Atkinson, Chester Leakes and Linnes Finney, Jr., Esq.

The second critical step was the hiring of an executive director for the foundation. Similar to having a board who understood the nature of the non-profit sector, the executive director needed to be someone who had a firm grasp on the current state and trends in philanthropy. This led to the hiring of current National Guide Right Chairman and former Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation board member, L-Mani S. Viney. Viney’s primary role will be to lead the day-today operations of the foundation.

Third, was appointing William Donan, current CEO of My Time, to lead the K-100 committee and grow number of corporate executives that shall provide their time, talent, expertise and access to capital to build the capacity of the foundation.

Once these actions were completed, President DuBose turned his attention to the most important challenge for the foundation: building the funding capacity and organizational infrastructure to effectively develop significant funding support to Kappa’s undergraduate and alumni programs and maximize the foundation’s philanthropic impact on the social sector. Like any nonprofit organization, its strength and sustainability lies in the power of its infrastructure and capacity to handle major projects. For Kappa this would be new territory but it is critical for it to thrive in the philanthropic sector. Thus the board has put in place an ambitious action plan to get it to this level.

To start, the foundation has set a goal of raising at least $1 million by June 2017 to support programs of the foundation. To initiate this direction, the executive director will focus on three critical areas of the foundation: organization, programming and operations. There will be a 45-day evaluation and assessment of all aspects of the foundation and its relationship with the Fraternity. Foundation leadership will address the establishment of board committees, fundraising innovations such as crowd-sourcing, improvements in technology and usage of social media, including a total revamp of the foundation website.

Understanding the importance of building a strong member-donor base, a national survey will be issued to the entire membership of Kappa Alpha Psi to best understand what is important to the membership for the foundation to support.

In addition, a challenging question the foundation must answer is how to build a strong coalition among all of the local chapter foundations to strategically leverage greater access to capital for all. All of this information will be gathered for the purpose of enacting an aggressive three-year strategic plan for the foundation to be completed by no later than July of 2016.

Though completion of the strategic plan will not be for the next several months, members can expect to see increased activity and visibility from the foundation immediately as it is currently managing several programs and grants including the $150,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation for Guide Right, the American Psychological Association grant, supporting Undergraduate Leadership Institute, IKARE and Kappa Kamp.

When Grand Polemarch Dr. Gumbs conceived of the foundation, he did so knowing it needed to meet the needs of the fraternity. As we have seen, Kappa Alpha Psi continues to have sustained relevance to the future of communities of color through its programming. It is imperative that the foundation be able to meet the needs of the fraternity and the community today. DuBose echoes these sentiments as well, stating:

“Our foundation was formed several years ago to support our focus on the mentorship of young men through our Guide Right program, scholarship support for our undergraduate Fraternity members and to protect various assets of the Fraternity. Over the years, we have tried to broaden our reach and perspective about our role, and how we can do so much more to impact our communities around the country. While we cannot solve all problems faced today in our society, we can focus more on key issues that affect our community, and thus the need to broaden our relationships not only with our members who are our primary contributor, but also with strategic partners and foundations that share our commitment to focus on what matters most. Clarifying our focus on the most critical topics to support that will have the most impact, and pushes us to align with funding sources to help us evolve into a more stronger philanthropic entity. We can do much more.”