The numbers tell a powerful story about America and its future. Today, 64 million Latinos, those with multi-generational roots and newcomers, call the United States home. While they are vital contributors to our economy, culture, and civil rights legacy, they are grossly underrepresented (just 2%) in elected office. Latino Victory is the trailblazing nonprofit that is changing the trajectory of Latino electoral power, and it is winning. On this episode of Power Station, Sindy Benavides, Presiden...
May 06, 2024•43 min•Ep. 318
If you have lived through housing insecurity and homelessness or worked in a nonprofit as a shelter provider, tenant organizer, nonprofit housing developer or policy advocate you know that having a home is fundamental to thriving, losing a home is traumatizing and fining people experiencing homelessness is unproductive and shameful. The progress that the nonprofit housing sector has generated over several decades is irrefutable, from persuading policymakers to increase funding for housing vouche...
Apr 29, 2024•34 min•Ep. 317
It often begins with a knock at the door in the middle of the night. A child, or multiple children, need immediate care. Their parents have been deployed, incarcerated, are sidelined by substance abuse or mental illness. This is when grandparents, other relatives and family friends step up at a critical moment. These adults, who take on caregiving for conservatively, 2.5 million children in America, have no legal standing. They are not legal guardians or adopters. And there is no single entity t...
Apr 22, 2024•30 min•Ep. 316
What compels men and women to leave their home countries behind to migrate to the United States? Oscar Chacon, executive director of Alianza Americas, has made it his mission to answer this question for our elected leaders whose policies determine the quality of life for some 22 million Latin American and the Caribbean immigrants, the largest segment of America’s foreign born population who now reside in the U.S. As Oscar shares on this episode of Power Station, until America’s leaders understan...
Apr 15, 2024•36 min•Ep. 315
Consider the implications of undertaking a 10-year strategic plan during a global pandemic. The Greater Washington Community Foundation did just that, bringing its intentionally diverse constituency of civic, business, nonprofit and community leaders together to inform the process and vision. In the Washington DC region, the pandemic exposed the thin economic margins, structural racism, and lack of access to resources that Black and other communities of color have grappled with in and around our...
Apr 01, 2024•35 min•Ep. 314
In 1996, a small group of Asian American civil rights leaders in Washington, DC stepped up to launch a new and inclusive organization, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. The vision was to create a home for, and combine the forces of, a diverse constituency that includes South Asians, East Asians, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders and more to ensure that their voices and expertise were heard and included at public policy making tables. NCAPA is now where 40+ national AAPI nonprofits...
Mar 25, 2024•35 min•Ep. 313
In 1996, a small group of Asian American civil rights leaders in Washington DC stepped up to launch a new and inclusive organization, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. The vision was to create a home for, and combine the forces of, a diverse constituency that includes South Asians, East Asians, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders and more to ensure that their voices and expertise were heard and included at public policy making tables. NCAPA is now where 40+ national AANHPI nonprofit...
Mar 25, 2024•35 min•Ep. 312
The story of Mothers Outreach Network is about what happens when women stand up for other women who live in poverty and are entangled in the child welfare system. It is about being a Black mother in Washington DC where 13% of families live under the federal poverty guidelines and face a loss of benefits when they get a job or their income increases. It is about moms who lack the basic resources, including strollers, needed to navigate their daily lives. Melody Webb, a Harvard trained public inte...
Mar 18, 2024•39 min•Ep. 311
The most powerful advocacy begins at home. This is the case for Staci Lofton, who loved growing up in Queens, New York but realized as she got older that her family and neighbors had to leave their community to buy groceries, find a doctor and connect to the many resources needed to maintain their lives. As Staci explains on this episode of Power Station, her experience is shared by countless other underinvested Black and Brown communities that lack what research has determined is necessary to t...
Mar 11, 2024•35 min•Ep. 310
There is power that comes from privilege and position and there is power that communities who have been excluded from decision making tables, claim. It is built over time with a commitment to meeting needs, creating personal bonds, and deepening community connections. This is the origin story of MANA, the oldest and largest Hispanic Women’s nonprofit organization in the nation. Amy Hinojosa, MANA’s dynamic, and inspiring CEO knows that her influence in the halls of Congress and in the White Hous...
Mar 04, 2024•43 min•Ep. 309
Let’s be real: If you work for a nonprofit with a social change mission you are probably not averse to taking on challenges. Whether a nonprofit’s charge is tackling hunger, homelessness, or access to healthcare you must be prepared to help people in crisis, provide resources, build community power and advocate for policy solutions. The truth is that nonprofits exist to take on deep-rooted problems that the private market will not solve. But where corporations are capitalized at levels needed to...
Feb 26, 2024•38 min•Ep. 308
America’s housing affordability crisis is a well-documented reality not just in gentrifying cities but in virtually every corner of this nation. The persistence of the problem is particularly frustrating because we have proven policy solutions in hand, largely generated by nonprofits and community leaders. What is lacking is full-on political will at the federal level to break through barriers and make housing an accessible and affordable resource. Community Land Trusts, which have deep roots ac...
Feb 19, 2024•38 min•Ep. 307
America’s progressive movement is a big tent of organizations and leaders whose passion for democracy runs deep. Imagine a Venn diagram with one circle representing these organizations and the issues they tackle, from choice, the environment, healthcare and housing to LGBTQ rights, labor rights, and immigration. A parallel circle would display the legislation and public investments needed to protect people and the earth. What is in the intersecting circle? As Daria Dawson, executive director of ...
Feb 12, 2024•39 min•Ep. 306
We want to believe that all children in America, from birth through high school, are equally positioned to learn, dream, and thrive. The reality, which is well-documented through unassailable data collected by Kids Count, a national initiative funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is starkly different. As Kimberly Perry, executive director of DC Action says on this episode of Power Station, the input into our children isn’t equal so the outcome isn’t going to be equal. A failure to invest in ...
Feb 05, 2024•44 min•Ep. 305
The data tells the story: In the United States, 44 million people, including 1 in 5 children are food insecure, lacking the food and nutrition needed to thrive. This population includes not only individuals and families living in poverty and experiencing homelessness; it also extends to our employed neighbors, family members and the co-worker in the next cubicle. Until our national leaders fully invest in policy solutions that lift families out of poverty and make our transportation, health, and...
Jan 29, 2024•39 min•Ep. 304
Facts matter. Data eclipses narratives steeped in bias, providing the foundation for policy solutions to economic inequities. At the Brookings Institution, a preeminent global think tank, scholars conduct research, generate data, and share knowledge for the purpose of improving policy and governance in America and around the world. That includes Senior Fellow Dr. Andre M. Perry whose research focuses on the value of assets, from homes to businesses and infrastructure, in American Black majority ...
Jan 22, 2024•42 min•Ep. 303
When Darryl Maxwell explains, on this episode of Power Station, that I in 7 Washingtonians are lawyers, I am taken aback. Yes, the federal government is our largest employer and many law firms are headquartered here but the abundance of expertise does not make access to justice equitable for all. The DC Bar Pro Bono Center exists to galvanize the legal community, from law firms to the Department of Justice, as volunteers, providing civil legal services to low-income people facing eviction, immig...
Jan 15, 2024•37 min•Ep. 302
Every person has a story to tell and the same is true for organizations founded by local leaders to tackle inequities in their communities. In Power Station’s first episode of 2024, the remarkable Lynn French shares both her own origin story and that of Hope and a Home, the changemaking nonprofit she leads. Her personal journey started in segregated Washington, DC where she grew up in a family of educators and civil rights activists who embraced the ethos of standing up for what is right. During...
Jan 08, 2024•34 min•Ep. 301
On this 300th episode of Power Station, I am joined by my friend and colleague John Holdsclaw. Over the twenty plus years I have known John he has excelled as an organizer, public policy advocate, and leader in financial services that deepen racial and economic equity in under-resourced Black, Latino, Indigenous and AAPI communities. John launched Rochdale Capital, an emerging CDFI, with its strategic partner, National Cooperative Bank, to provide capital to enterprises, from affordable housing ...
Dec 26, 2023•40 min•Ep. 300
At a time when even faith is politicized it is essential to our nation that the national nonprofit Faith in Public Life persists. It is a safe space for leaders from diverse faith traditions to find common ground and speak out in support of a more just democracy. For almost 20 years FIPL has spoken up for equity and inclusion as champions of LGBTQ equality, immigration rights and strategies for reducing gun violence. Its focus now is on safeguarding voters and election administrators and all who...
Dec 18, 2023•33 min•Ep. 299
If you were to construct an organization with the capability to move bold public policy forward it would have to look like the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). It starts with a critical mission, to ensure decent and affordable housing for lowest income renters. The fact that 7.3 million Americans experience extremely low incomes, or put another way, that this nation has available and affordable housing for only 33 of every 100 extremely low income households has challenged NLIHC to...
Dec 11, 2023•53 min•Ep. 298
A conversation with Steve Storkan is an education in the potential of employee ownership to build community, family, and intergenerational wealth. His passion for building a better future for workers was shaped by seeing his own father work multiple jobs to cover a mortgage. He knew that a strong work ethic is not a substitute for the assets needed to ensure a secure life and a viable retirement. When Steve became a certified financial planner, he introduced business owners whose families were n...
Dec 04, 2023•44 min•Ep. 297
There’s more to Capitol Hill than elbow jabs between elected officials and performative press conferences. Every day, members of Congress who take public service seriously take on our most consequential social and economic challenges. Pull the curtain back further and you will see nonprofit leaders who bring shared values, expertise, policy solutions to these decision makers. On this episode of Power Station, Eric Mitchell, President of the Alliance to End Hunger, shares his organizational strat...
Nov 20, 2023•48 min•Ep. 296
We are in a moment of conflicting expectations about the workplace. Blurred lines between work and personal time, toxic behaviors, including discrimination have long been pervasive in the workplace. The pandemic made working from home possible for a segment of the population and many are resisting a return to the physical workplace. The question of what makes a workplace desirable, however, goes far deeper than the work from home debate. In this episode of Power Station, Mo Edjlali shares his jo...
Nov 13, 2023•37 min•Ep. 295
It takes exceptional people and organizations to solve our nation’s purportedly intractable problems. In this episode of Power Station, Marta Urquilla, who has led social justice initiatives in community groups and the White House, shares how the pioneering organization she leads, the Centri Tech Foundation takes a housing centered approach to bridging our nation’s digital divide, the deep gulf between those with access to the internet and those without. The need for digital access spans from ur...
Nov 06, 2023•42 min•Ep. 294
This may sound unconvincing coming from someone who speaks into a microphone every week, but I don’t love talking about myself. What I do love is speaking with and amplifying the voices of those who confront and generate solutions to injustice in America. They are leaders of nonprofit organizations who use their values, know-how and expertise to bring capital to under-resourced communities, compel Congress to fund housing for lowest-income renters, educate the children of farmworkers; the list o...
Oct 30, 2023•33 min•Ep. 293
When Liz O’Donnell, a first-grade teacher in Washington DC, arrived at the hospital to give birth she could not have imagined that she would leave without baby Aaliyah or the resources she needed to recover. She had experienced a change in fetal movements a few weeks before and did not realize, after an easy pregnancy, the urgency of her situation. The nurse could not detect a fetal heartbeat and Liz delivered her daughter, a stillbirth. In this episode of Power Station, Liz shares how she found...
Oct 23, 2023•39 min•Ep. 292
Rajiv Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, is testing a hypothesis. He wants to know whether the right interventions, from mentorship to education and opportunities for putting ideas into action will yield effective citizens, young people with the will and capacity to strengthen our embattled democracy. The Institute’s recent survey of 18-24 year old’s reveals an alarming lack of understanding about civics and also that they are not particularly ideologically driven o...
Oct 16, 2023•40 min•Ep. 291
Small community based nonprofits are some of the most powerful change agents in America. They solve for inequities in education, childcare, mental health, and other needs in communities that have been marginalized by racism, discrimination, and poverty. These nonprofits are underestimated by national foundations and their accomplishments are underreported by the media. In this episode of Power Station, Gretchen Van der Veer explains how Fair Chance, the organization she leads, partners with smal...
Oct 09, 2023•40 min•Ep. 290
This is a story about civic engagement and political power that should be headline news. In 2020, EMGAGE, a national nonprofit, was instrumental in motivating over one million registered Muslim American voters to cast a ballot in one of our nation’s most consequential elections. This milestone is particularly meaningful because Muslim Americans have been marginalized, underrepresented and subject to hate crimes and government persecution since the shared national tragedy of 9-11. EMGAGE energize...
Oct 02, 2023•37 min•Ep. 289
