Juan Peña, cofounder and chief innovation officer at CrossPurpose, discusses the connection, community, and care that drives his organization’s work. Will you tell us a little of your story? I’m an immigrant from Colombia. For my dad, when he was 11 years old in...
A letter from Interim Executive Director Brian Peckrill and Board Treasurer Brian McGowan. “As we’ve continued transitioning into a new era at the McGowan Fund, I’ve found myself reflecting on what it is we do and why we do it. There is no one better suited to answer...
We are pleased to announce that Megan McGowan and Patrick McGowan were elected to the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund board in July 2023. These new additions represent the third generation to carry on the legacy begun by William G. McGowan in 1993, something...
A letter from Interim Executive Director Brian Peckrill Dear Friends, Impacting lives today. Creating sustainable change. Empowering future generations to achieve their greatest potential. This is the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund’s vision and the prism in which...
A letter from Chief Executive Officer Diana Spencer Dear Friends, As we continue to strive for excellence in our work, I am proud to say that we are nearing completion of an 18-month strategic planning process, details of which I will be revealing in the coming weeks....
The future of education is already here. Meet Thomas Arnett, a leader in educational research. Thomas Arnett didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming an educational researcher. For a while, he thought he might follow in his father’s footsteps and become an engineer. He...
How do nonprofits safeguard their missions and the integrity of their work? Three leaders speak. Running a nonprofit is a juggling act. It’s two jobs—or more—in one. You must care for the community you’re serving and the organization you’re leading. You...
There’s hope in the attitudes of newly minted leaders. It’s easy to feel discouraged. By one measure, fraud increased 61 percent globally in 2021, and the documentaries about bad leadership and unethical behavior just keep coming. “I have seen firsthand how unethical...
It takes time—and support—to build a sustainable life. When Claudia came to Colorado-based BeyondHome, the odds of becoming self-sufficient looked daunting. She was fleeing abuse. She had a sixth-grade education. Three low-paying jobs. Five kids, three in diapers....
According to McGowan’s Ethical Leader of the Year, ethics are good for both the bottom line and society. Anything but linear. That’s how Prudential’s chairman and CEO Charles F. Lowrey describes his career, an unexpected path from founding an architecture firm to...
What makes a nonprofit grow like a tech startup? The right partners—and more. Turner House, once a small clinic in Wyandotte County, Kansas, knows a bit about growth. In 2017, the clinic served 5,000 patients in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Five years later, the number...
Community foundations often lead projects involving several nonprofits. Here’s what they look for. Every partnership is unique but here’s one thing that they all share: the belief that working together will jump-start success. Partnering, at its core, is a leap of...
Teaching kids to think critically can and should top the education agenda—an interview with William Hughes William Hughes is a leader with a deep background in education and strong beliefs. “I believe in a science of thinking,” is one of them, he says. Others include:...
Trained in principled leadership, our Fellows face plenty of opportunity—and fraud. In 300 BCE, a sea merchant named Hegestratos secretly planned the world’s first fraud. It involved a shipment of corn. When his crew found out, they rebelled, and he drowned trying to...
For single mothers making multiple transfers a day on public transportation, there’s hope. There was a time when Dan Georgopulos led an effort in help single mothers repair their homes, hence the name of the Denver-area organization he founded: Hands of The Carpenter....
A dangerous neighborhood prompts a pre-school program to build something really big. It’s hard to learn in Austin, Chicago’s largest neighborhood. Austin is thick with barriers—poverty, domestic abuse, street violence. In fact, it’s so hard to attend classes and stay...
A McGowan alum finds a professional home in a company that walks the walk For Adam Davis, choosing an MBA program was fairly easy. Not only was Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business one of the top-ranked schools in the country, but also, he says,...
As it reopens to in-person learning, Vertus High School chooses a Word of the Year Vertus High School in Rochester, New York, was never fully remote during the pandemic year. Half the students whose families agreed to a hybrid model had in-person learning Monday and...
A McGowan alumna takes on gender imbalance and tech leadership in stressful times As a kid, Brigid Johnson fell in love with programming. “You change a few lines of code and make what you want to happen happen,” she says, as if writing code is akin to casting a magic...
A tumultuous 2020 yields streamlining, new planning, more collaboration For a nation already mired in problems of poverty, racism, and inequity, 2020 brought fresh storms. With COVID threatening lives and communities, nonprofits staggered under increasing demand,...
