Alex Amouyel (2:57)

Thank you so much for having me. Delighted to be here.

Dr. Rob Harder (2:59)

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm really glad that we could talk about a lot of things that directly impact, of course, the social impact sector that you and I both work in. So let's start with this foundation. It's got great brand recognition, no doubt about it. I mean, I think everyone knows Paul Newman. They, they've heard about this, the brand of lots of products that you'll see that are advertised on the TV all the time with Newman's Own. And now they have the foundation, I think now puts it on the map in a whole different way when it comes to social impact that you're having through the foundation. So maybe let's talk about this. Beyond just the food and drink products the company produces, the foundation is separate from the company. And so let's start by, for my listener's sake, I think give a brief overview of the foundation. How did it get started through Paul, and what is the mission of the Newman's Own Foundation?

Alex Amouyel (3:46)

So Newman's Own Foundation's mission is to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity. And what's pretty unique is, is although we're separate from the food company, is we actually own the food company. We're the sole shareholder that 100% of the profits from this and royalties from the sale of Newman's Own products, so be it. The salad dressing, the pasta, the pizza, the mango salsa, et cetera.

Dr. Rob Harder (4:14)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (4:15)

Goes to the foundation and service of its mission. So it's completely reversed to how most people would think about that.

Dr. Rob Harder (4:23)

Interesting.

Alex Amouyel (4:24)

And that started what's pretty unique is that back in 1982, so 40 something years ago, Paul Newman, who at the time was a very famous actor and a race car driver already doing a lot of good things in terms of activism and philanthropy, decided to create a solid dressing with his friend Hodge, started selling that. They invested $40,000 of their own money to get it started. And after a year, they had turned a profit.

Dr. Rob Harder (4:56)

Wow.

Alex Amouyel (4:56)

About $300,000 and all from the very beginning. And this is from a couple of interviews I've seen. Paul was pretty uncomfortable with the idea of putting his face on a salad dressing bottle. Pretty. Although he was a celebrity, he didn't like sort of that. That idea. And so he said, if I'm going to do that, we're going to give all the money away. And that's. That's how it started. The motto, first motto of Newman's Own was shameless exploitation and pursuit of the common good, which I think it's pretty interesting, that is. And that's been like that ever since. So between Paul and these early days and then Newman's Own foundation, we've given away over $600 million to good causes, which is pretty incredible.

Dr. Rob Harder (5:47)

Think about 600 million you've given away.

Alex Amouyel (5:50)

Yeah. And that was like an initial $40,000 investment.

Dr. Rob Harder (5:53)

So that's incredible.

Alex Amouyel (5:55)

That is huge philanthropic return.

Dr. Rob Harder (5:59)

Yeah. Wow. No. Thanks for sharing. And that's what a fascinating arrangement where the nonprofit, if you will, can owns essentially the brand. Now, talk about how you got involved. Like, what was your entry into this foundation and what Dr. Into this role.

Alex Amouyel (6:14)

So I joined just over two years ago in April 2023. And that's because, first of all, I think of my personal mission around equality of opportunity and ensuring everybody, no matter the zip code of their birth, their gender, their race, their abilities, has the opportunity to realize their full potential.

Dr. Rob Harder (6:34)

Yeah.

Alex Amouyel (6:34)

And I've been doing that for nearly 20 years in different institutions. Save the Children, the Clinton foundation, mit, Sol. But as I was, you know, thinking about the next step, got a email from an executive recruiter about the Newman's Own foundation president and CEO role. And first of all, the mission of the foundation, nourishing and transforming the lives of children who face adversity really works well with my. My personal mission. And it all starts with children and ensuring children have the best Charlotte life. And secondly, I did know about this unique brand and unique mission, partly because I wrote a book when I was in, which came out in 2022, and it's called the Answers you A Guidebook to Creating a Live Pool of Impact. And there's a chapter I talk about how every day, and it's more about how you as an individual can do good in the world through your career, through your job, through volunteering, through giving, through purchasing decisions. You know, how can you use all the different skills and powers you have access to to do good in the world? And in the chapter around how to use your time and money and talking about purchasing I said, there's a lot of greenwashing out there and a lot of brands that claim to do good and this T shirt is going to save the world. And I don't know what other like thing that we don't believe. No one, no one really believes in. But I said, but, you know, one of the brands, you have to sort of read the fine print and, and things like that, but one of the brands that is truly committed to doing good and gives all its money away is Newman's Earth.

Dr. Rob Harder (8:21)

Okay.

Alex Amouyel (8:21)

When the email came into my inbox, I was like, wow, this is a really unique opportunity to work for, you know, both on something that's super aligned to this mission focused on children, but also to really think about how to change the way we do business, change the way we do philanthropy. Really try and think about the different models and how we need more of the Newman zones in the world out there.

Dr. Rob Harder (8:52)

Right. I love that. I always love hearing the story of what brought people to their current position, particularly in the social impact sector. So that's a fascinating story, how that all came to be and here you are leading the organization. Well, there's a couple things I do want to talk about, and then we're going to dive into specific, into leadership questions because this is a leadership podcast and I know for my listeners, they always want to learn how to become a better leader. You have at the Newman's Own foundation, this unique club called the 100% for purpose club. Share more about that. What is that exactly? And how does it align to your foundation's goals?

Alex Amouyel (9:25)

As I mentioned, Paul started Newman's own back in 1982, and there were some other people which were doing really interesting, good work when it came to businesses giving all their money away. There's, you know, there's, there's other models like Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus with Ramin Bank. There's also Ella Bhat in India with the Self Employed Women's Association. So I want to also give credit that, you know, Paul, some people are like, Paul invented this. I was like, there, there are, there are lots of other people who are like, anytime you look into history, you will find some great examples all around the world. But, you know, I think that for the US it was and still is a pretty unique model. And for a long time, I would say the club of people who, of businesses that give 100% of the profits away was small and mighty. The good news is that's starting to change a little bit. You probably, and your listeners have probably followed Patagonia who was already a great business, who after 50 years, the visionary founder Yvonne Schwinard decided to convert his company and essentially create a trust whereby all the profits can go to the trust and then can go towards fighting climate change.

Dr. Rob Harder (10:45)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (10:45)

Which is pretty, that was in September 2022 and that's pretty amazing. And you know, a big, a big deal. But there are also many others also if you look across the world who been doing this for, you know, some for a decade or so, but who are maybe who is just starting to emerge also, you know, on the US side. So for example, Humanitics, which is an event ticketing company, started out of Australia, now also in the US just launched in the UK and they talked about how they knew Paul Newman from the salad dressing when they were growing up and, but they wanted to create a, a tech company that could also sort of follow this model.

Dr. Rob Harder (11:25)

Okay.

Alex Amouyel (11:25)

And there are others who've been doing this for a long time like Cummings Properties and Mozilla and others, but you don't really hear about them. So first, there are more of us than you think or starting to be more of us than you think. And two, we really wanted, so we wanted to, when we were talking with humanitarics, how do we bring together the people already doing this and talk about the shared challenges. How could we make our lives easier, what we need, how can we help each other? But also how can we inspire the next generation of companies to give a hundred percent of their profits away either because it's people starting out new companies and for founders to think about to even know that this is possible.

Dr. Rob Harder (12:08)

Right, exactly.

Alex Amouyel (12:10)

Who's just between business or nonprofit and if they do it, that the choices they could make early on could stop them from doing some of these things. But so even to know that this exists and it's possible, or if you're like Yvonne Schwina, you're a business owner who has an existing company that is doing that is profitable. But. And you still want to pay your employees well, you still, but you want to actually think about philanthropy rather than say selling your business and then creating a foundation out of this, you can donate your business to a foundation slash trap, you know, transition it.

Dr. Rob Harder (12:52)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (12:52)

You know, but continue that amazing legacy you've built through the business, but also expand, you know, your philanthropic legacy. And again, what is stopping, what are the barriers that stop founders when they're thinking of starting a business or a non profit or people who are, you know, who already have a business but want to think about their philanthropy More how can we help them even know it exists, number one, but to exactly help them do it.

Dr. Rob Harder (13:24)

Okay, well, you've already mentioned that the foundation has given out and its whole history over $600 million. Which. That's incredible. That's a lot of money to social impact causes. Could you have one example of somebody you invested in or a group of people or a cause you invested in that's really to me exemplifies what the foundation is all about.

Alex Amouyel (13:46)

Yeah. So I'll give you two as briefly as I can. One is Paul Newman in the mid-80s also created what initially was one summer camp and became then a series of summer camps for kids with serious medical conditions. So cancers, rare blood disorders, hiv, aids, etc. The first one was called Hole in the Wall Gang Camp after Butch Cassidy of Sundance Kids. And that's still operating in Ashford, Connecticut today.

Dr. Rob Harder (14:13)

Okay.

Alex Amouyel (14:15)

The whole network has, that has now emerged is called Serious Fund Children's Network. And that's 30 camps and programs both in the US and across the world. And it's pretty, it's pretty amazing.

Dr. Rob Harder (14:27)

Yeah.

Alex Amouyel (14:28)

And you know, that was a cause that founded first camps and that's a cause we continue to support today because. And we can talk more about sort of impact by the, the impact of summer camps on kids who are often in and out of the hospital, who might be the only kid with their disease or disability or facing this medical condition in their school. You know, being able to go to a summer camp, see other kids that have the same conditions of them and, and the social, emotional learning, marital dignity, teamwork, skills acquired are potentially life transforming. And that's really quite incredible. So that's one. And then a lot of our work, you know, when we say nourishing and transforming the lives of children who face adversity, the nourishing part relates to food justice for kids. And so we have a whole portfolio around indigenous food justice in the US and then also nutrition education, school food. And one of the organizations we support in, in, in this Food for Kids space is called Food Core.

Dr. Rob Harder (15:36)

Okay.

Alex Amouyel (15:37)

And that was founded by. Co founded by somebody called Kurt Ellis. And Paul gave the movie, Kurt was doing a documentary about corn and corn come from. It's called King Corn. It's quite well known.

Dr. Rob Harder (15:53)

Okay.

Alex Amouyel (15:53)

And Paul giving finishing funds to that documentary back in the day.

Dr. Rob Harder (15:58)

Okay.

Alex Amouyel (15:59)

And then from when Kurt, the story goes, when Kurt was going around with his documentary to different schools and different universities, he was thinking how can, how can young people get involved in our food system and in ensuring that kids when they come to school, they get healthy meals and they learn about nutrition and other things. And so that was the seed for CORE that I think was founded. I think it was founded after Paul died, but that then the foundation started supporting afterwards and still continues to support to this day.

Dr. Rob Harder (16:34)

That's great. Two great examples. Well, I'm impressed with the impact you've had and the fact that you again jumping in, you're already very familiar with some of the impact and obviously we're going to talk a bit more about the vision you have for taking the foundation to the next level. Let's talk a bit about leadership, your experience with leadership, what you're learning through this role. Talk about, you know, when it comes to leadership traits, what would you say from your experience and in your current role now, what are those most important leadership traits you think that social impact leaders ought to have or ought to cultivate in their life?

Alex Amouyel (17:07)

I think a few traits or like traits or sort of what you should look out for. Number one, hire the very best people and take your time doing that. And then out of the way. It's the gift that keeps on giving if you hire really incredible people.

Dr. Rob Harder (17:26)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (17:27)

So that's number one. Number two, be honest and direct, especially when you deliver bad news to people.

Dr. Rob Harder (17:36)

Yes.

Alex Amouyel (17:36)

And whether that's your team, your bosses, the stakeholders, for example, the, you know, as a foundation, even if we give away millions of dollars every year, we have to say no to a number of worthy organization courses and.

Dr. Rob Harder (17:55)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (17:56)

Want to be wasting their time. So, you know, saying no fast and clearly sometimes is. Is being kind.

Dr. Rob Harder (18:04)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (18:04)

Number three, I think, you know, for me, how you grow is listening and learning all the time. And there's lots of different ways you can learn from lots of different people. And being really open and cur about that is really, really important.

Dr. Rob Harder (18:22)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (18:22)

And then the fourth piece, which I think all of these resonate, I think whether it's in social impact or not, but is especially important for social impact, is setting an ambitious vision and a clear mission. Because certainly we're trying to change the way business and philanthropy is done, you know, with Newman's own foundation broadly and this 100% purpose club. We're also trying to change the trajectory for kids in the US and their food insecurity and their hunger and their, and their food justice. And that's not easy.

Dr. Rob Harder (19:04)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (19:04)

And it's not done in a quarter by any means. In fact, we'll probably, you know, we can talk more about this, but currently the state of child hunger in this country is going backwards so sometimes this going to take a decade or it's going to take longer for, for, for things to really change the way you want them to change. But everybody being clear about that and ensuring everybody is clear about that, and we're not going for what's happening this quarter, we're going for what's happening a decade, you know, five years, 10 years, 20 years down the line is, is really, really important. I think it's important for anybody, but especially in social impact.

Dr. Rob Harder (19:46)

Right. I think about leadership and I think about. You mentioned a couple examples of how the landscape is changing in the US Context. Specifically. You look at a lot of grant funding got cut overnight, which then directly impacts nonprofits and social impact organizations where they just don't have the grant money they used to have, sometimes as high as 20 to 30%. With all the changing landscape that's around us and the challenges that come with that, do you feel like there's. Do leaders need to change the way they lead or bring on or develop new traits or characteristics of leadership in order to lead in this kind of new context, or is just about applying that leadership that you just mentioned, some of the traits you already mentioned and applying it to new situations and being nimble enough to adjust your leadership to whatever you're facing in a current day or week or month. Talk about that. Like, how is the current landscape impacting your leadership and then what you see with other leaders across the sector.

Alex Amouyel (20:39)

I think these points still hold, no matter the time and place. Because, you know, I do think almost every organization I've joined at Save the Children, one of my first job titles, and maybe my favorite job title ever, was International Change Manager. So I was in charge. Yeah, it's a pretty good title. I was in charge of going to countries like Pakistan and Cambodia and China and Haiti at very, you know, at sometimes very difficult times for these countries. And it was all about internal transformation of Save the Children and merging previously separate country offices. A long story, but there was like a Save the Children US and the Save the Children UK and the Save the Children Sweden operating separately in Pakistan. And then we were like, no, we're going to merge these together and make a one organization. And that was sort of my job to that country. Support the country director and help him recruit or her help him or her recruit a senior management team and help bring all this all. So my whole job was change, sounds like in that. And I think every organization I've been part of has been implementing a new grant management system, going through a major restructuring, be it, the internal or the external context has changed always significantly and sometimes I've been brought in because things were going badly. And you know, part of the, it was clear to me, made clear to me when I was recruited that part of it was transformation. I think that, that you just have to accept that internally or externally things are constantly changing and will continue to constantly change. And you know, everybody is now apart from indeed, you know, what is happening with the state of child hunger. You could also talk about AI you could talk about all these different things again, both internal, external, that, that could. So I think these traits still apply and the knowledge of, I think it's hard because I'm not interested in doing, having another year. We, you know, we, we work in yearly cycles. But if it was like the sec, if next year was okay, we're going to give the sick grants, you know, in the same way with the continuously expecting this change and wanting to do better and improve and learn is paramount and also I think just part of leadership and part of who I am. So.

Dr. Rob Harder (23:29)

We'll be right back. Are you looking for an easy and effective way to boost your nonprofit's donations? Well, look no further than DonorBox, the online fundraising platform that streamlines your fundraising efforts, maximizes donations and simplifies giving for your supporters. With Donorbox, you can create beautiful donation forms, accept digital wallet payments, track donations and send auto receipts. And the best part, there are no setup or monthly fees and no long term contracts required. So what are you waiting for? Visit donorbox.org today to get started. That is www.donorbox.org. so let's talk about trends a little bit. You kind of talked a bit about the fundraising challenges you could face along the way. Are there any, whether it be fundraising or leadership or you know, social impact sector as a whole, what are the trends that you're seeing right now? What from your angle, from your perspective of connections you have, what are the biggest trends that are hitting the social impact sector right now?

Alex Amouyel (24:32)

Well, a trend, I'm not sure, I hope it's not a long term trend, but a trend is indeed sort of the, the amount of change that is going on at the moment due to budget cuts from the federal government, especially around child nutrition, which is the issue. One of the main issues we work on, right. Both in the reconciliation bill and changes to food stamps, which are known as snap, but also even on some other pieces, AmeriCorps got completely cut as far. I'm pretty sure it's completely at this stage. And also a lot of there's a lot of there was some really great money going in for schools to be able to purchase local food from local farmers so that they may serve healthy things such as salad. And that has been massively cut as well outside. And there are more. So that's, and that's obviously the sector I'm looking at, which is, you know, food justice for kids in the US versus obviously looking at global health and you know, say if I was at the Gates foundation, there's many other things to look at. So that's sort of taking. I think everybody's adapting, thinking through this. And even if, say some of our, some of our grantee partners did receive federal money that's now being cut, so they've had to rethink their budgets and adapt their program and in some cases make really tough decisions about staffing and, and more. But then even if some of our grantee partners money hasn't been cut directly because they don't take, let's say, federal money directly, maybe they're working a school around, helping a school work with farmers for this sort of farm to school programs. And because the school has less money, then it makes their job like they're still all that much harder and they have to do more. So there's still other things. So that's a big change and adaptation. I hope it's not a trend.

Dr. Rob Harder (26:40)

As I think about. A lot of my listeners, I shall say, are on staffs for a nonprofit organization. Many are executive directors, maybe the development director. If you were to give advice to nonprofit leaders that are seeking money from someone like this foundation that you run, the Newman's Own foundation, what would you most want nonprofits to know about how foundations work when it comes to funding their organization? What advice would you pass on?

Alex Amouyel (27:07)

So? Well, first, I would say there's as many foundations as there are unique human beings sometimes, unfortunately, there's not a one size fit for recipe for Newman's Own Foundation. We want to do things openly and transparently. So we do post on our website when there are open grant cycles, either through us directly, when we did this Food justice for Kids prize, for example, last year, or when we do it with and through partners. So we just closed this Indigenous Tomorrow's Fund and we also just closed this Hunger to Health collaboratory Food Prize. So I think we just closed those. So there might not be any further open. Okay. Right now, but you can check our website to see that. And that that is a primary thing is yes, getting onto our newsletter to know when the grant cycles and then, and then Sort of applying, you know, if it's relevant to you, if it is one of the, the issue areas.

Dr. Rob Harder (28:13)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (28:13)

There are any other foundations that don't advertise their grant cycles openly and there you have to send out a letter of interest or you have to sort of email or something like that. And then there are some who neither have open grant cycles nor do they accept unsolicited applications.

Dr. Rob Harder (28:34)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (28:34)

And then that's a little that I'm sort of against that because I'm like, well, how does you just have to meet someone at a conference or on a golf club? Like I don't know what you know, you know, but there are, there are a number which are like that. And yes, sometimes you either have to be enterprising and finding a contact there or, or not. I would say a lot of people do have. You can look at people's websites, you can download the 990s, you do get still a number of emails which even though we say, you know, look out for the open group, people still email us and they email us about something that is clearly not quite, you know, aligned to, to what we do. And that's okay. And we'll definitely respond and say sign up to our newsletter, find out when we have open grant cycles if it fits what you're doing. But it doesn't seem like what you're doing does truly fit. So. But anyway, I think sometimes a little bit of research on, on that is, is, is certainly helpful obviously if you have a development director.

Dr. Rob Harder (29:47)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (29:48)

That's for sure. You know, to know that. But, but yeah, and then I think good to know. I think some of it is certainly this goes back more to my experience when I was on the fundraising side is right. Is staying keeping the faith that, that if you're doing good work, if you can then tell a good story about the good. You know, the most important at the end of the day is that you do good impactful work and then that you're able to tell the story either through a grant application or because you meet someone at a conference and etc, etc.

Dr. Rob Harder (30:29)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (30:29)

And that if, but start with that and then build on to the. The right story in the right medium, to the right person, as much as you can.

Dr. Rob Harder (30:40)

Okay.

Alex Amouyel (30:41)

And the last piece of advice that somebody told me a long time ago, but I was you're solving a donor's problem, right. And they're. If they're doing their job properly, they're trying to find impactful non profits that are doing good work and that is not easy to do. And they are, you know, again, if they're, if it's not about oh what gala can I attend, et cetera, et cetera. They're, they're trying to do to find the best things and the confidence to say you what is to listen and understand what their, what actually are their problems, what are their pain points.

Dr. Rob Harder (31:27)

Right.

Alex Amouyel (31:28)

As a funder and to, and to listen to how their thinking and the keywords and then to say, to actually say, yes, I understand what your problem is. Like you're looking to do something in education, the intersection of education and technology. So I'm not going to propose to you something on something else. And also what is your, you're not finding enough good candidates or you're really interested in rural areas, then I know what parts you know, staying true to your story. But what parts of my story answer your question, which is the problem you're trying to solve. That works. That works well. So listen first.

Dr. Rob Harder (32:13)

I like that. It's great advice. Listen first. Try to answer a problem or solve a problem that the foundation is having through your organization, ideally or a program that you're providing. Love that. I think it's an excellent idea.

Alex Amouyel (32:24)

And it also gives you a lot more confidence because it reframes it. Sometimes it can feel like you're begging and, and it shouldn't like you're providing excellent, amazing services to the community of serving. And you are, you're solving their problems. The people who you're serving, you're also selling and I think sort of that just will naturally give people more confidence when they're interacting with donors and not feel as much that they're pitching and that they're begging. Please give us money.

Dr. Rob Harder (32:56)

Exactly. Okay. Well, for my listeners, speaking of that, how can they find out about you? How can they connect with the foundation? Where would you send them?

Alex Amouyel (33:05)

Newmanzone.org we just renewed refreshed our website. So check out the grantee map because then you can see where we work and indeed who we fund and the type of people we fund. So newmanzone.org and then for people who are interested in the 100% for purpose club, either because they have an existing business or they're just starting out. 100 for purpose.org and that's spelled 100F O R purpose.org okay, great.

Dr. Rob Harder (33:34)

Well again, Alex, thanks so much. It's been fascinating, so interesting to hear about your own journey, but also about what Newman's Own is doing around the world and how foundations can be a little bit more open maybe to the pitch from a nonprofit knowing if they have a problem that they can solve for the foundation. I think that's a great advice to my listeners. So thanks again for being on the show and sharing your insights.

Alex Amouyel (33:54)

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Rob Harder (33:57)

Hey friends. Well, I wanted you to know that this podcast can be found on itunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google Podcasts and wherever you listen to other podcasts. I also want to encourage you to like subscribe and share this podcast with others. This will actually help us get this great content out to more nonprofit leaders just like you. You can also join the nonprofit leadership Podcast community, find other resources and interviews of past guests, all on my website, nonprofit leadershippodcast.org well, thanks again for listening and until next time, keep making your world better. This podcast is sponsored by Donorbox Donor Box, helping you help others with the best donation forms in the business.