01/18/2022
New Door Board Member Alexa Cortes Culwell shares an insightful take on the disconnects between donors who want to respond to social issues, and the nonprofits that have the most impact at a community level. Alexa unpacks the issue, offers philanthropic expertise on how to bridge the divide, and shares a personal counter-example of transformative giving: her family’s long-time commitment to realizing New Door Ventures’ mission. Edited excerpts here, check out Crazy Good Turns for complete interview:
On donor perspectives: “There is a real disconnect between the way donors and wealthier communities understand community issues and how the nonprofits that serve them are constructed. Donors shouldn’t have a mindset that a nonprofit needs to figure out a revenue model. The revenue model is the donor model.
Advice on giving: “Suspend all your beliefs, and to be willing to kind of consider a different view of how those organizations are working and solving problems. Give without restriction, give multi-year, then ask that nonprofit how you can use all your resources. How can you use your networks, your relationships, your influence, and your money to really invest in them?”
On her family’s experience giving to New Door Ventures: “As a tangible example, my family for the last 25 years has doubled down on a nonprofit in San Francisco called New Door Ventures. It gets kids who are really far from opportunity ready to have their first job, changes the trajectory of their lives. Over the years I’ve served on the board. We invite friends to learn about it, we take them on tours. We think about all the ways that we have influence to help this nonprofit. We’ve done it for 25 years and it’s been extraordinary. We feel like we’re part of the family. We haven’t just said, ‘Oh, you know, they’ll figure it out. We’ll do it for a few years.’ It can be really transformational when you connect to a nonprofit like that, and just show up ready to help.”