LINKING NEW LEADERS, BUILDING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
A personal value we affirmed in our strategic evaluation is continued involvement in some of the extraordinary causes where our families have built a legacy. We are a link in our families’ chains. One example is The Aspen Institute. Leonard Lauder, Gary’s father, has been on the board of this great institution since 1978. But this is how we got involved in the Institute, not why.
The “why” developed as a result of our passion for values-based leadership training. Our generation often doesn’t take time to stop and think about the values behind the fast-paced decisions we are making. We found the Institute to be a refreshing, exciting, and enlightening opportunity to do just that.
The Aspen Institute, founded in 1948, is a compelling think-tank inspiring values-based leadership. The Institute provides executives, community leaders, politicians, and academics various opportunities to examine leadership from personal, social, and ethical perspectives. Gary initiated his involvement in high school and was forever hooked.
In 1993, we participated in the Institute’s “Democracy in the Digital Age” seminar, created and moderated by our friend Charlie Firestone. Despite how stimulating and relevant the program was, we felt a glaring gap in its survey of contemporary democracy and civil society. Where was the thinking of the new, young, emerging Silicon Valley community? Where were the younger voices of the people actually creating new technology and filling the internet with content? The younger entrepreneurs conceiving and building dynamic new business and social models weren’t at Aspen Institute. We were passionate that these were key individuals who would benefit greatly from the Institute’s seminars and might be the future leaders of the Institute. And we knew a few of them back home in Palo Alto and Menlo Park.
As young venture philanthropists, we wanted to bring this entrepreneurial energy to the Aspen Institute, and concurrently infuse the Institute’s mission into the leadership of this sector. Drawing from the Jewish value of nurturing young leadership, we wondered how the Aspen Institute could incorporate the next generation. Our idea for The Socrates Society was born.
We offered to invite a group of friends from the Silicon Valley to the Aspen Institute to tackle this new area. When we proposed a weekend seminar on the ethical tensions of democracy and technology exclusively for this group, the Institute leadership balked, “No! Too narrow a group and not enough experience.” They also mentioned there wasn’t much fundraising potential among this 20-30-something crowd. The Institute leadership alternatively suggested we incorporate our “techie” entrepreneurs into existing programs where their voices would join a more “well-rounded” group. Underlying it all, of course, was the fear of a risky new proposition, an aversion most established organizations harbor. We didn’t give up. Two years later, under different leadership, our idea of an exclusive group for younger people was reconsidered.
Finally in 1996, under the leadership of Charlie Firestone, the Institute was willing to test-run our idea. We were offered the Aspen campus on July 4th weekend, when it would be otherwise abandoned for holiday events. We took what we could get.
We sent out an invitation by email in 1996 to everyone we knew in Silicon Valley with an email address. They were the “techiest” 400 people we knew! About 75 responded, and for $350 for the weekend, they were the Socrates pioneers – or guinea pigs.
Challenging the status quo is a significant motivator in the hi-tech community. What lured the participants to the Aspen Institute were the boundaries being broken, along with the unusual but relevant agenda, a diverse, accomplished crowd, and a beautiful, refreshing setting.
Over the next eight years, the Socrates Society blossomed into a powerful and popular program, meeting multiple times a year and generating a national following of 25-45-year old young leaders. At every weekend event, nearly half of the 50-120 people in attendance have been at least once before. A group of ten die-hard groupies have been to every seminar since 1996!
Despite the popularity of the program, it was barely breaking even financially, and it still did not have official standing within the Aspen Institute. It needed official blessing and financial support to ensure its longevity beyond our involvement.
In 2005, incoming Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson heard about this black-sheep program at the Institute. His first day on the job, he attended the July 4th, 2005, The Socrates Society seminars to understand the program’s controversial nature. To our delight, he got it immediately (We suspect Walter’s techie nature at heart had something to do with this.)
He blessed the program, incorporated it into the Institute’s Seminars Department, and it immediately had to endure severe overhead charges of 18% of revenues! (Note to self: Be careful what you wish for…)
In order both to institutionalize the program and to ensure diversity of its participants, Walter then urged us to endow a scholarship fund for the Socrates Society. We needed about $40,000 per year in scholarship funding, so the fund had to be at least $800,000. (Most endowments give 5% of their corpus per year to the operating program. This 5% payout ensures perpetuity of the endowment; anything more than 5% could deplete the corpus over time.)
We suggested a 1:1 matching challenge grant, and we pledged $400,000. Over the next 3 years, we held fundraisers (thank you, Tom Friedman, for your starring role at many of these) and we asked longtime Socrates participants to help support the Scholarship Fund. Today, the Fund stands at more than $1 million.
The Institute took ownership of the Socrates Society once it was a proven success. The Socrates executive director now serves as a vice president of the Institute and fundraises for Socrates from corporations and participants. Nearly 1,000 young leaders have participated in the Socrates Society seminars since 1996. As of 2008, there are five weekends for more than 200 participants annually, and half of all participants return for more (well above the Institute’s overall return rate of 10 to 20 percent.) Passionate alumni created online communities. The Socrates Society has designed specialized programs for other groups of emerging leaders, such as the Young Presidents’ Organization and the professional staff in the U.S. Senate. (Senate staffers can participate due to the extraordinary generosity of Bill Buddinger, an Aspen Institute trustee and great partner and friend of the Socrates Society.)
The Socrates Society is now a core program of the Aspen Institute’s outreach to younger leaders.. This story exemplifies our approach to venture philanthropy:
• Define a gap in services and design a solution.
• Assume the risk a larger organization will not.
• Donate more than just funding. In this case, we contributed social networks to recruit participants; identified moderators; and provided intellectual capital to tailor a program with resonance.
• Identify an exit strategy. In this case, a challenge grant to endow the program.
• Once proven, look to incorporate the program into the organization’s operations.
Two other important factors in the success of this venture were the tenacity to create it and a collaborative attitude. We understood our idea was a radical departure for a venerable institution, yet we saw it as critical to the organization’s relevance in a new era. We didn’t let the resistance we encountered stymie us. We worked around it to convince the institution that the idea was in their best interest. Then, we shouldered the risk that could destabilize the organization by fully funding the pilots and tolerating the unknowns. Once the idea was validated, it was with great satisfaction that we could work with the Institute to hand off ownership of the venture.
