Robin King on the Navy SEAL Foundation (Podcast)

a tremendous history. When we were talking about some of his charitable foundations and various board works that he does, he mentioned the Navy Seal Foundation, and I have to tell you I was quite intrigued, not only because over the course of my career, I've been lucky enough to work with a number of military vets. I started on a trading desk and the guy on my right was a Marine Jungle combat instructor and the guy on my

left was an Army ranger. So I felt when we went out after trading for the day, I felt I could basically do anything. I was completely invulnerable to any sort of trouble. And now today I have a number of military veterans working in my firm, both as our CFO is one person and our CTO is another person, and I call those guys our secret weapon. So the opportunity to speak with Robin King, who is the CEO of the Navy Seals Foundation, was just too good to

pass up. She's been a military spouse for many years. She has spent time both within the community of military families as well as a person who is helping to take care of those families post service in a variety of ways, both financial and organizational, helping them deal with sometimes trying circumstances, on rare occasion, tragic circumstances. And I think it's a wonderful organization that does great work. Could

imagine a better guest for July four. So, with no further ado my conversation with Robin King, this is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio. My special guest for the July four holiday weekend is Robin King. She is the chief executive Officer for the Navy Seal Foundation, which provides critical support and assistance to the Naval Special Warfare community and its families. They are based out of Coronado, California, where Naval Special Warfare Command is located, as well as

where the Seal Qualification training takes place. She is the recipient, amongst other honorifics, of the US Special Operation Commands Outstanding Civilian Service Medal. Robin King, Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you, thanks for having it this morning. So I think the role of military families is one of those things where there is a lot of sacrifice given and very little praise or fanfare recognized. Families have to endure long separations

from the military spouse. Families often get moved around from place to place. Tell us about your experience as a military spouse. Yeah, you know, it's a very different life, but it's not one that I, uh, I didn't marry a feal My wonderful husband determined after we were married for a couple of years, if this is something you wanted to do, so um. You know, people jokingly in this community always say, well, you knew what you were

marrying into, but I absolutely didn't. It's a unique life in that you learn how important community is, whether that's your neighbors, the Naval special worker community, your friends, your family. You have to learn to become really independent, and that is not really independent of your husban them, but it's

being able to be independent with and without your husband. So, you know, the incredible amount of time that they're gone can really bring out some amazing things, and you know, the spouse and the families, You learn what you can handle,

you learn where you need to lean on people. You developed some incredible strengths, and uh, I don't know any spouses who wish they didn't go through this amazingly enough, as tough as it can be, I think we're all really proud to be part of this community and part of this life and to do this for our country. You mentioned you didn't marry a seal. Your husband was a photographer, right, Like, I couldn't imagine anything more polar opposite than when I what I think of when I

think of a Navy seal. How did he come to the decision to change his career path and what was your reaction to that? Yeah, you know seals probably have one of them, those diverse sets of backgrounds and all these guys, you know, we have everything from you know, guys who have their pH ds, you know, guys who are photography dooming. His degree was in fine art photography.

My husband's much older half brother was a Vietnam A seal, and he had taken a trip down to San Diego to visit him one weekend when he was I had traveled across the country to visit an old Vietnam era buddy, and my husband said, I'm going to go down and visit Mikey. I'm like, great, go have a bathulous weekend. You know, see when you get back. And at this time, we were living in Pasadena, we had a house, we had our little life. And he came back and looked at me and said, I want to be a seal.

I've always wanted to be a seal. And I think I probably cried for about a week. And I just didn't you know, I didn't know anything about military life. I didn't know what that would be, but I knew it was going to be a dramatic change. But it was really apparent that this was something that he just had to do. It was a calling and not you know, I've never experienced anything like that. You know, I don't have anything that just called spoke to me so strongly

that I just had to do it. And um, you know, he actually went in on the older end. He was twenty six when he started this journey, and god, you know, he he loves his job. Every day. We were sitting around the other evening with my daughters and everybody's talking about work, and he just chuckled and said, I love my job, you know. So you know, a lot of people have a lot of complaints, but he does not. He loves it with everything he has. So that's fun

to be around. Huh. I can imagine. So. So one of the things about the military brats I know and the stories I've heard, is how often their families had to move from assignment to assignment, based to base, and for the spouse, very often they're working in careers like teachers and nurses and other things like that where there's a state certification required and then suddenly you pick up and moved to a new state and you have to

start all over. How do you deal with that? Do states cross honor other licensing or is this still a problem today? Yeah, that's a great question. There has been a lot of movement in ensuring that military spouses have much more portable careers. So there's a two thousand eighteen National Defense Authorization Act which allows the spouses to get

reimbursed for licensure costs. There is a lot of states that are implementing or in the process of implementing portability measures for spouses of their organizations like the Navy Seal Foundation that provides scholarships to help with funding if you you know, it's above the reimbursement that's allowed by the

military branches. And you know, it's really heartening to see that the government is taking this seriously and they understand these challenges by the spouses, and the states are really working hard at ensuring that these spouses aren't leaving behind their their law career, their nursing career, their teaching career, and um, you know, I was at a meeting recently in a spouse who's an attorney that she just got her license renewed from Virginia to California, and she was

very excited that she was able to make that happen. I was going to talk to another attorney in the room on how she did that without retaking the bar, which I can't even imagine doing. There's a lot of good things going on in that space. That's great. So, So, you've been with the Navy Seals Foundation since its inception in two thousand. How did the foundation come about and

what was your involvement from from the beginning. Sure, the Navy Seals Foundation grew out of a fraternal Order of Navy Seals called the dt Seal Association, and that still exists. It's been around since the sixties. And the DCCAL Association had a small scholarship program where they awarded scholarships to the dependent children of seals and that was about fourteen thousand dollars a year that was being awarded at that time. And this was in two thousand when I started working

with them. We had a donor come to us and say, hey, I want to give to the scholarship program. I want to get a hundred thousand dollars, but you have to be a five and one C three, which the association was not. It was a paternal order, so it fell unto a different tax code. And a hundred thousand dollars is a significant amount of money. And so we were like, absolutely, you know, we can do that. Let's form a five and one C three and we you know, the original

thoughts were, we're going to expand our scholarship program. This is fabulous, and so we did that, got the great donation, and you know, fast forward just a little bit of time and we're at nine eleven and you know, obviously the world changed, and you know, my husband actually left in November of that same year, and we lost our first seal in Afghanistan in March two thousand two, and we lost our second seal also in March two thousand two in Afghanistan, and we kind of looked at each other.

It was just a couple of us and we said, you know, things have changed. And the first deal we lost in Afghana stand with Neil Roberts, and he wrote an incredible letter for in his records. It was one of those you know, if you're reading this letter about how much he loved what he did and you know, died doing what he was supposed to be doing. And that got picked up by the press and we started

receiving donations from that. People were just looking for a place to give and support his family, and we understood that we had a responsibility with these donations to do

something for those families. And so over time, you know, just like what happened with Neil and the families and the community and the stresses and the operational tempo, the foundation just began to evolve and by creating great programs, you know, we've got more donations and we supported more families in a in a bigger, better way, which spawned, you know, more great programs and more great donations. You know.

So it was really just this organic development um that ended up being this, this great organization that provides incredible support today. And uh, you know, the guys I was there when it started, I wouldn't say I was much more than that. The guys that started this were retired Seals. I don't think we have any of them still on our board today, but they're still always happy to attend things and active and talk very positively in support the

foundation in big, big ways. It was. It was a great group of guys, and I was just lucky to be at the right place at the right time. Let's talk a little bit about your backgrounds in finance. You were both CFO and now you're CEO of the Seal Foundation. How did your prior career help you get ready for this role. Yeah, that's an interesting question that I don't

think I've really had to think about before. You know, out of school, I went to work from McDonald Douglas, which is now part of Boeing, and I worked as a financial analyst on military special projects, and from there I ended up with the Walt Disney company working as an auditor for the Disney Channel back when the Disney Channel was a paid channel, before it became part of you know, Basic not Basic cable, but you know, more of a standard package. And I guess Disney now has

its paid channel as well. You know. So there's a lot of my previous career history that focused on you know, planning, budgeting, paying attention to the details. And I remember when you know, people first started asking me there's the difference between for profit and nonprofit, and I remember thinking, I don't really view them all that differently, other than there are a

few rules you have to follow for nonprofits. So I think I kind of came at the Navy Field Foundation with more of a for profit mindset, and I understood the importance, like you know, anybody would, the importance of really ensuring that the donors know how well we take care of their dollars and how much we try to squeeze out of every dollar, and that that needs to be transparent. They always need to be very comfortable that

they are making the right decision. I mean, they're getting us a gift, right and we have to know what we're doing with it, why we're doing that, that our programs make sense, that they have a philosophy that aligns with our customer base, which is you know, naval special warfare and feel community. And I think we've we've done a really good job at that. You know, we we know exactly why we do everything we do, and that's

really important. And you know, we sit around we have some pretty interesting conversations when we're making decisions about new programs or program growth or if you we scale something back. You know, we don't take any of that lightly. So so let's talk about both of those things that you mentioned, because it's really very very interesting. I want to get into some of the programs that you guys run a little later, but let's talk about the donor base. I

understand you have a broad group of donors. Tell us what the range of people who give to the Navy Seal Foundation looks like. Who's the typical donor that you count on and obviously not by name, but what sort of person chooses the Navy Seal Foundation as their favorite charity. You know, we have such a broad base of donors, everybody from you know, members of the Seal community themselves,

their friends, their families. We've developed great relationships with people and businesses and business leaders across the country, you know, and then we just have our you know, great American patriots who may not even know that much about the military, but are just you know, honored to support our military in some way. And you know, we're lucky enough that

they've chosen the Navy Seal Foundation. You know, we've done a lot of work connecting with donors through you know, major events, um but we've continue to expand with partnerships with companies like you know, reebok is A is a great partner of and we try to incorporate you know, our donors and our partners into really connecting with this community and understanding, you know, what makes feels different and

what makes feel special and why the needs exists. I mean, this is a very proud community who you know, you certainly aren't going to hear or say, you know, we need your help. And that's where the Foundation comes in, looking at you know what it is these families have to deal with and and discussing it with the donors who have always been just been so incredibly thoughtful and respectful of the privacy of this community, and you know what it is that they deal with on a daily basis.

So you know, I don't know if I could say, you know, one type of donor because it really is incredibly varied. But I can tell you across the country where we've had, you know, major events, and we have just some really incredible major donors that have been so pleased with the Navy Steal Foundation and what we do

that they leverage their networks. You know, they're connecting us with their friends, um, which says a lot, you know, to us, it says a lot because that's hard to do, right, you know, to go ask your friends to participate in something because you think it matters. You know, you're going

to really believe in it if you're doing that. And we've been extremely lucky on the relationships we've built and how these people feel about the Navy Steal Foundation, and we just we hope we can continue to make them feel a part of this team, because we do view it as a team. Every donor, every supporter, everybody who puts on a small race or you know, sells their own T shirts for us, or we've had kids who do lemonade stamps. Those are all part of this team.

And every one of those dollars matters to us being able to provide incredible support to this community. So how do you balance the needs of the community that you're serving when there are obviously some very current short term needs, but on the same time, you have to think long term about the financial health of the organization and your mission is perpetual. How do you balance between what you want to do right now and what you want the

organization to be able to do one, five, ten years out. Yeah, it is a balance, and we worked hard to support that immediate need, was always keeping an eye on that long term objective. You know, we have camps for these kids. We want the kids to go to camp this year, and we want ten years from now kids still go to camp. Right We can't look up and say, oh, sorry, we didn't plan well enough. So you know, your younger children don't get to go to camp. We really understand

when we roll out new programs. Every time we do that, we make sure that it's going to be sustainable long term. So you know, every year we are budgeting and forecasting processes is really intensive. We work with the staff, we work with committees of the board. Uh, we leverage our board members and their expertise, and we bring forward what we think we want to spend the following year and what those programs entail. And you know, with that there's

always a buffer. We like a buffered budget because we want to take that buffered money, assuming the day, you know, the year goes right, and put that towards our long term needs. You know. So over time, we've built up a reserve, you know, an emergency contingency reserve. We're working towards building an endowment, and all of those things help ensure that we're able to continue on and provide every

program that we've promised well into the future. And with this virus right now, and you know, we're really stepping into the first layer of what catastrophe can be like and its catastrophes. You know, the wrong word here, but you know, how do you deal when your whole funders and dynamics had to change and you know what the impact is that going to be? Energy's still going to stain your programs and the Foundation hasn't misked the beat.

And on top of that, we've helped support a couple of other foundations that have struggled in other ways, and they provide programs that we feel are important enough that we want to reach across and say, hey, we're gonna help you through this this rough period. So I'm really proud of how we have planned so that we are able to continue to Pride programs. I don't want to miss giving a mom of flowers on Memorial Day. I don't want to not recognize, you know, the birthday of

a fallen you know, a warrior to his spouse. And you know, those things may seem little, but to be able to do everything that we've we've established that we're going to do and continue to do that, it's just hugely important to us. And I really am so proud of how we have planned long term. And you know, I think sometimes nonprofits get get dingmed for you know,

you have money in the bank. We have money in the bank for a reason, and that is to sustain these programs forever, you know, and nobody is more important to us. And gold Star and Surviving Families are veterans, you know, these children who serve, you know, and they didn't choose to serve, and we need these programs for them. And you know, I think we're really really good at it. Let's talk a little bit Robin about some of the

programs that the foundation runs. What do you do for the families of Navy seals in general, and what do you do, as you mentioned, for the families of fallen warriors. So the foundation operates under five main areas of support Warrior and family support, educational opportunities, tragedy assistance and survivor support, Warrior transition and veteran support. And then you know, we

also have a legacy preservation area. You know, our goal Star families are surviving families are you know, have have been through the unimaginable and they are one of our first areas of expansion. And we've really learned over time by working with these incredible family members. You know, what their needs are. We support them with everything from all

of that immediate tragedy assistance. You know, we really like to remove as much stress as we can in those early days, and that is you know, could be handling memorial reception items, it could be you know, ensuring that they are not worried about their mortgage. You know, we've seen people in the past make decisions too early on and a lot of our programs are designed to say, hey, right now, you can just breathe. You know, we've got you.

You don't have to make a decision about if you're staying in that house, if you're moving back somewhere, so we're gonna pay your mortgage for a while, and you cannot think about that because so many times we hear from these families that you know, they were in a fog for so long and it's really not the best time to make decisions. You know, we have Discovery grants for their gold Star and Surviving children, and these grants are designed so that the kids can pursue something maybe

that was unique to them and their dad. You know, maybe their dad was into music and he was sharing that with his son or daughter and that's not an area that mom maybe is proficient in. So if they want to go pursue that, we want them to be able to do those things. Grief counseling, financial counseling, tax preparation, resiliency gatherings. You know, what we've learned over these last twenty years is that what these families do for each

other is more than anybody can do for them. You know, when you bring them together and they lean on each other and they share what they've been through and you can see how the spouses who have been um survivors for a good number of years, you know, how they help these newer spouses and it's really incredible to watch and to to just be a part of it. A lot of times we just kind of back up and let them do their do their thing. You know, go ahead. I'm sorry to interrupt now, just you know, it goes

on and on. I mean, we really just try to listen to them, and we've learned over the years. We have about twelve unique programs for just our goal storre and sprouting spouses and families. So so you kind of put an idea in my head that I was trying to reconcile, and you just touched on it. The concept that having a spouse that is a warrior forces you to be independent, but at the same time becomes part

of a larger community. And it it's a little bit of Yin and yang tell us about how those two work together, how you're both part of a larger community but at the same time forced to become resilient and independent. Yeah, you know, the Stale Foundation creates programs that bring people together as part of a community, and we work with Naval Special Warfare and they've got some incredible staff members

who who focus on the same thing. We always want people to know that they are part of a community. There are people that you can call. Um. You know, back years and years ago, everybody leaned on their neighbors, right everybody the neighborhoods were tight, or you were close to your family. Well, you know, you've been removed from your family. You may have been placed into a neighborhood

where you don't know anybody, and that takes time. So there are a lot of great programs within the Foundation and within Naval Special For itself to bring these spouses together and bring kids together and help them create this community. But you do have to learn as well, um you know, how to how to do some of these things on

your own. I mean it's inevitable, uh, the moment your husband walks out the door, the car breaks down, or the washing machine you know, floods the whole kitchen, or you have a hurricane because they always take them out during hurricanes and it's like, hey, honey, I'm I'm leaving you and your home with you know, toddlers and a hurricane bearing down on you in Virginia Beach and um, you know, it's it's really fascinating what you have to

to learn to deal with. And I think through that community connection and the sharing of stories and and everybody's sitting around laughing about the time that this broke and this flooded and how you dealt with it, and you know, traumas and tragedies, you really understand what what you're capable of, and what you know everybody in this community is capable of, and who you can lean on. But you know, you really have to get used to, you know, your own

I don't know triggers. I guess you know, when my kids were little and my husband was deployed, there were times when I would look around the house and like, I'm just not going to do that today. I'm just not going to clean that stuff today because I feel like I'm kind of at my at my tipping point on this day. It'll still be there tomorrow, It'll still be fine tomorrow. The car that broke down in the

driveway will still be there tomorrow. I can handle it when I can mentally hand And sometimes you let that car set there for two weeks until you felt, you know, strong enough again. To handle it because you no longer have the sick child and you know the the toilet that's backing up in your first floor. I swear we should write a book of spouses stories when your when your husband leaves, because it is like clockwork that the

worst things that ever happened happened. They're never home for potty training, they're never home for you know, that hurricane. It's it's pretty funny, but it's like a badge of honor, you know, when you talk to these spouses and what they've done, Um, it's pretty incredible. And I think we do a really good job of of leaning on each other and still standing on our own. So let me ask you this, because you're you're alluding to something but not coming right out and saying it. And I've been

thinking about it while I hear you speak. The spouse deploys, they're obviously going in harm's way dangerous situations. Hey, if they could just send in a regular group of either police or military to deal with it, it would have been done that way. So these are not only special missions, but unusually dangerous missions. How do you manage the stress of knowing the risk that your spouses is going through and knowing that there's a possibility that there could be

a bad outcome. Well, for me, it was always you know, there with the best of the best. You know, they love the guys they work with, They have you know, incredible trust for everybody that just pours out of them, and that gives me a lot of comfort. Always gave me a lot of comfort knowing that everybody that my husband was working with is doing everything they can in the situation to ensure that they're all are going to come home and they're going to accomplish our mission. You

just can't sit around and focus on it. You know, there are no better trained guys in the world, and you assume it's all gonna come out just fine. Most time it does. We've had we've suffered some some big losses, some you know, mass casualties that were incredibly hard on this community, and you know, unfortunately those are going to happen. Those one off, lucky or unlucky shots, I guess you know, are going to happen. You just can't live in that space.

You have to assume that they've got their back. And when my husband talked about it and any of these guys that I talked to about it. You know, they just look so confident, they feel so confident that they just it creeps into everything else and you feel it too.

Let's talk about that issue. Many public institutions have been falling in approval ratings, whether you're talking about Congress or the police or all these different institutions have seen their reputations dinged, and yet the military is the one exception to that still ranked amongst the most trustworthy and highest approval ratings from the public. Why do you think that

might be? You know, that's a tough thing to answer. Um. You know, I certainly don't have an unbiased view on this, being someone who works for a nonprofit that supports them and being a spouse the military. I just think that connection between the military and the American people is so incredibly strong, and it goes back to the beginning of our roots. They feel that the military is, you know,

doing this for them. I mean they ask we all ask these guys to go out and do this hard job, and we ask them over and over and over again, and they keep going, and they keep going out there, and they keep fighting for us every time without hesitation. You don't really hear that from many other people, right,

and they're proud to do it. I mean, I remember sitting with my daughters watching the Olympics and the year that the first Afghanistan woman was running, and we sat there and talked about how she was running in the Olympics because of what these guys did. You know, we didn't go over there for that purpose. You know, we went there after nine eleven, but the results for that country, at least for a time being, we're pretty incredible. And you know, women getting to go to school and being

in the Olympics and that kind of thing. I mean, those stories and the pride that you know, America has in the difference we've made in the world, I think is um incredible. And I think just Americans are proud of what these guys do, and they do it for the right reasons. Now they do it for all of

us that we're safe here at home. Quite quite interesting. So, so it wasn't always the case that there was strong support for either military action, and that very much translated into allow to support for the military in the sixties and Vietnam era. Things have obviously changed and now people are much more comfortable saying thank you for your service. What else should the public be thinking about as a way to support the military, and and what should the

military as a service be doing to continue earning their support. Yeah, you know, I think the American public is doing a great job from what I see in terms of thinking our our service members. You know, corporations, businesses all over the country and just individuals make it a point to recognize, you know, the sacrifices of these men and these families, and that goes a long way. You know, our team guys tend to get embarrassed by it, and I hear a lot of them like, oh gosh, don't thank me.

They love what they do, so you know, it's always a little awkward for them. And as far as what the military can continue to do, I think that's just keep doing your job and doing it well, and doing it for the right reasons. You know, honor your ethos, you know, respect your command, and do do the right

thing for the right reasons. I mean, they get put in a lot of situations that are tough, and you know, respect your training and and follow what you're supposed to do, and take good care of everybody with you, and pay a lot of attention to you know the countries that you're in and be respectful of those, and I think they'll continue to do an amazing job for all of us and will continue to be very proud to be

associated with the American military. So one of the things I've heard vets complain about is um and this is not a recent thing. This goes back decades and decades veterans administration and the sort of medical care that's available. On the one hand, a lot of it is cutting edge and as good as it gets anywhere in the world.

On the other hand, the bureaucracy can be very problematic for run of the mill ordinary medical needs that people have as as a result of their their service, especially if they've been in overseas engagements and wars and what have you. What can we as a country due to to make sure we're providing all of the adequate care and support for our veterans when they return from from

military service. Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. There's some incredible work coming out of the v A and they have, you know, some of the best doctors and surgeons and mental health professionals that exist anywhere. And you know, we are lucky to be associated with some some great people at the v A and our community, you know, hopefully through groups like the Navy Steal Foundation and others, has

the ability to get to care they need. I think we need to not work around the v A. You know, I think they, like you said, they have incredible programs. We need to work through them. We've got to demand that they get staffed the way they should be. And I think every time we let them um, every time we just go around them through a different solution set, we're not forcing the government and the v A to do what it needs to be doing and to fulfill

its promises. So you know, I'm a I'm a fan of putting pressure on and work in the system as hard as we absolutely can to help it correct itself and to you know, leverage Congressman or whoever. We need to shake some of this stuff out of the system. I mean, some great things have come about in terms of if you're not close enough, you're allowed to go outside the system. You know, those things didn't used to exist.

But it's really disheartening when you hear a VA hospital in one particular location in the country is you know, so inferior to you know, some of the others. You know, that's heartbreaking to think about someone not getting the proper care they need and in a timely way. I think it's something we should continue to pay attention to and really put the pressure on and use three resource we can to shake out those problems and push people through a faster rate. So so I'm veering close with that

question too. The world of politics and the political process. You're a five oh one three C I believe, so you're that's kind of off limits. So I'm trying to find a way to ask a broader question, which is really so we're in a very divisive age. Politics is off limits for you. But obviously everything that's been going on both with the military and a number of generals, how does your organization deal with that? How do you

sidestep questions that often are on everybody's lips. Well, you know, honestly, we don't get to ask a lot of those questions, and because people know who we support and why we support them, and you know, we support of Naval Special Warfare community, which is our seals are Swick, which your special workfare, combating craft crewmen, all of the supporting people that go with Naples Special Warfare you know, and our stealing switch veterans, So we're not having to make any

decisions based on anything that's going on in the news right now because we know who we support and if your part of Naples Special Warfare, you're part of the Navy Seal Foundation. If you're stealer swie, you're part of the Navy Seal Foundation. So our lines are very clean. It makes it very easy, but it's it's tough right now, and you know, a lot of groupure are struggling, and I just hope that you know, we see the light soon.

I think there's a lot of things that are are a lot of goods happening as well, and we just need to focus on that and we're gonna keep doing what we're doing it as the Navy steal Foundation and supporting these families to the best of our ability. So so let's stick with that topic then, because it's easier to come head on with that given all the programs

that you folks run. What is the bigger restraint? Is it your capital limitations or is it the number of uh, let's just call it worthy targets that you can potentially assist. What what are the constraints you're dealing with. So by worthy targets you mean like, uh, constituents, people we helped. Yes, you know, I don't. I don't feel constrained by either. If our program growth, it's happening because we're reaching more people, that's fabulous. We've built up reserves, contingency reserves to be

able to handle that growth. If if something were to sneak up on us, if we you know, tapped into a pocket of veterans that we hadn't reached previously, that's a great thing for us, right And we do over in a constant effort to expand our veteran outreach. Our planning and budgeting and such, our program development is such that we just haven't been a position to where we we've felt constraint by money. We're not avoiding a program, We're not not launching a program because of reach worst issues.

You know. We really feel like we've developed a robust set of programs and identifying a gap is really hard, um, which is a great thing, right um. And there are also a lot of other organizations that do things and and the found Navy Still Foundation has been focused on not duplicating effort. If you know, some of our great partner organizations, you know, have narrower missions and they're very good at what they do. We're gonna let them do what they do. We don't need to come take that over.

We want to support that, we want to respect that. And so that's developed, you know, clean lines for us to continue our program growth and development in the areas that we've chosen. So luckily we don't feel constrained at all. And who are some of these other organizations that you work with? Is there an organization for Army Rangers or marines or anything like that that performs a similar function.

Who else do you work with? Yeah? Absolutely, you know there's there are foundations for you know, all usoff and that's fabulous that they get that unique support. I mean, Green Berets, Army Rangers, Marine Raiders. You know. One of the organizations organizations that we have worked closely with since the beginning of our development is the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which supports all SAW, all Special Operations Forces, Goal Star

and surviving families. And you know, they were kind of a big brother to us when we were getting started and helped us navigate in the nonprofit world. And you know, we work closely with them still today and they're they're a great group and they provide scholarships and educational benefits to our Goal Star children and spouses. So that's the

area that we don't do. We are there in case there's a gap, you know, if a child has exhausted you know, all of their the resources, or if they're doing a specialized program that may not fall under a different organization's umbrella, then we're there to pick that up for Navals Special Warfare families. But you know, a lot

of these organizations work well together. We've worked with a Third Option Foundation which supports our State Department people and some of those guys left the seal community, you know, retired from the seal community and go work for the State Department. So we always work close down the crossover if we lose you know, one of those guys in

a diplomatic mission. A lot of great organizations out there, and um, I think Natal Special Warfare is really lucky and all of thoft is really lucky to have these organizations that work well together and learn from each other. And we're always happy to work with any other organization to ensure that they have you know, all the great knowledge base that we've do all over these twenty years.

And if people want to reach out to the Navy Seal Foundation, either for more information or to make a donation, where's the best place to do that. Yeah. Absolutely. Our website is Navy Seal Foundation dot org, all spelled out. People can always email me. My email is r K I n G for Robin King at Navy feel Foundation dot org. And you know their phone numbers on the website as well, So we welcome at all fantastic Robin.

What are you streaming these days? Tell us what you're watching on Netflix or if you're listening to any podcast. What what are you doing to stay entertained during lockdown? Well? I just been used watching a great Netflix documentary, How to Fix a Drug Scandal? Really interesting. I am kind of obsessed right now with the criminal justice system. So there's a podcast third season serial on the Ohio criminal justice system that I found just unbelievable. Um, learned a

lot of great stuff there. And then my guilty pleasure is Billions. I've been watching Billions and enjoy the heck out of that show. Yeah, that is a fun one. Tell us a little bit about who your mentors were who helped shape your career, both in the world of finance and on the foundation side. Yeah. Well, I I grew up in a house where my dad ran his own business, and my mom and dad worked together together for years, so I learned a lot about running an

organization by talking to him. He was incredible. I've had some great board members who really helped me understand how to do this job. Well. I wouldn't be where I was without their advice. I don't know if you want names or not, but yeah, my first vice chairman was d. J. Haley. He works in New York, is an incredible guy and always easy to talk to. And then M. Jack Daley another board member who um is incredibly successful himself and

always willing to share, you know, his wisdom. And you know, both these guys would have the hard talk with you and the great talk with you, and I think that's really important. Quite interesting. What are you reading these days? Tell us some of your favorite books and what is keeping you, uh, your mind occupied? Yeah, right now I'm reading The Right of a Lifetime by Bob I. Disney. You know I worked for for a while, so I

find that really interesting. He also was an honorary or l a Gal a couple of years back, so it's kind of fun. An interesting book called A Woman of No Importance by Sonya Purnell. It's it's a biography of a woman named Virginia Hall, who was an American spy and War War two story. I didn't know, and I'm really enjoying that. I'd setose that to anybody who's into history. I enjoy history. I wouldn't say I'm history buff, but

I really like historical biographies quite interesting. What what sort of advice might you give a recent college graduate who was thinking about a career, either on the charity public service side or in the military. I think, you know, you gotta understand why you want to do it. You know, if you think you want to join the military to you know, go shoot back guys, that's not the right reason. You know, You've got to understand that there's so much more to it. You know, it's it's a calling. It

has to be something that comes from your heart. A lot of people can do the physical part and really thinking about seals, but it's what's between your ears and what's in your heart that are going to make you successful in the military when it comes to nonprofits kind of the same thing. You know, why do you want to do this? There are sacrifices that go with being in a nonprofit and they worked for me. You know,

I have an incredible staff. Every one of them could be working somewhere else, probably making a good amount more money, but they love what they do and they want to be part of this organization. But you've you've got to find that right fit. And I think college students today are really looking for that, to really exploring cultures so much more than I know I did when I was

twenty So I think that's great for them. And our final question, what do you know about the world of foundations, endowments, UH and raising money for a specific cause today that perhaps you wish your new twenty years ago when the Navy Seals Foundation was first launched. I think, you know the relationships. I think it's really important to connect, you know, these fabulous people with with the foundation in a way that they can really get to know and understand this

community and making them part of the team. That we've done so well in the last few years. I don't think we did that necessarily. Early on, we didn't understand our responsibility to the donors in those in those first years and today we we know that they're what allows us to live and breathe, and they are hugely important, and we want to make sure that they understand what

they give us the ability to do. And we hope they feel the pride of being connected to such an incredible community and what I hope they think is an incredible organization in the Navy Seal Foundation. Wow, perfect answers. Thank you so much, Robin for being so generous with your time. We have been speaking with Robin King. She is the CEO of the Navy Seals Foundation. If you enjoy this conversation, well check out all of our previous

three and something podcasts over the past six years. You can find that at iTunes, Spotify, Google podcast, Overcast, Stitcher, wherever finer podcasts are sold. We love your comments, feedback and suggestions. You can write to us at m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. Be sure to give us a review on Apple iTunes. Check out my weekly column. You can find that on Bloomberg dot com slash Opinion. Follow me on Twitter at Rid Halts. Sign up for

our daily reading list at Rid Halts dot com. I would be remiss if I did not thank the Cracks staff that helps with this conversation together each week. Maroof All is my audio engineer. Michael Boyle is my producer. Mike bat Nick is my head of research. Attica val Brunn is our project manager. I'm Barry Riholts. You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.