Compassionate Leadership: The Heart of the Matter

One loving heart sets another on fire.
~Attributed to St. Augustine

Recently, I had the privilege to attend the 2013 Sisters of Charity Health System Leadership Retreat held in Cleveland, Ohio. The leadership retreat is an annual gathering where leaders representing five acute care, Catholic hospitals; three grantmaking foundations, two elder care facilities; and several health and human service outreach organizations, come together for a time of reflection, sharing, and development. This year’s theme for the retreat was, Compassionate Leadership.

While there were many, many powerful “take-aways” from the retreat, for me the most powerful emerged in the form of a very poignant question, "What needs to be in place for commitment to be stronger than circumstances?" 

As I pondered the answer to this question as it relates to my life – both personally and as a leader, the first thought that came to my mind was related to my commitment as a parent. From the day I gave birth to each of my children, my commitment was to parent them to the best of my ability. This commitment was a “for better or for worse” obligation and promise to give parenting my all.

My commitment was not predicated on the fact that there would be situations, issues, difficulties, challenges, disappointments, or problems as a result of parenting. My commitment was not based on unforeseen choices my children might make or unknown paths they might take. Instead, my commitment was based on something much stronger, much deeper, and more powerful than the circumstances my children and I would face – My commitment was based on Compassion.

You might ask, “What does this have to do with leadership?” Well, I’m glad you asked that question.

Leaders in today’s marketplace face various circumstances. Whether strategizing ways in which to navigate the fluctuating economy, revisiting and revamping plans for organizational sustainability or working to maintain strong and vibrant teams – leaders face mountainous circumstances. Oftentimes in the midst of the situations, issues, difficulties, challenges, disappointments, or problems associate with leading, the temptation to lose heart can be great. However, instead of losing heart, these are the moments that call us to lead with heart. And at the heart of this form of leadership is…Compassion.

Consider this:

Compassion is characterized by displaying a profound sense of interconnectedness by:

•    responding to needs, pains and sufferings of others with concern, empathy and support
•    treating all persons with dignity
•    exhibiting an attitude of acceptance and forgiveness
•    listening with empathy and attention
•    serving as a catalyst for change, especially for the disenfranchised

Therefore, I ask you, “What needs to be in place for your leadership commitment to be stronger than your leadership circumstances?  Whatever your answer, I do hope it brings you to the heart of the matter.

Katrina Spigner, Senior Program Director

A Funders View of Medicaid Extension

Since our inception in 1996, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina has invested more than $46 million in direct grants, supporting programs to help poor and underserved communities. In the past 10 years, foundations across the state collectively have invested more than $1.2 billion in philanthropic dollars to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities struggling to overcome impoverished conditions.

As private funders, our work has taught us many lessons about the poor. Generational poverty is not a personal choice but a set of complex challenges that cannot be fixed instantly. Several factors have pushed many middle-class South Carolinians below the poverty line, including unanticipated job losses and a struggling economy. South Carolina’s No. 1 contributor to health disparities is poverty, and it has been for a long time. Individuals and families living in poor communities often lack a health-care provider, which can result in overlooking chronic health problems until they become acute, and then patients must make critical health choices without the necessary resources.

It is not unusual for a poor family to have to choose between buying food, paying the electric bill or purchasing medicine. I remember one woman I met whose family spiraled into homelessness because both of her children had chronic health conditions. The mother was not eligible for Medicaid. Because of the demands of taking care of her children’s medical needs, she lost her job, and as a result she lost her home and quickly fell into poverty.

S.C. politicians, health-care professionals, hospital representatives, businesses and individuals are debating whether our state should expand the Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. Had that expanded health coverage been available, that family would have been eligible for Medicaid. That mother would have remained an employed, taxpaying member of our society. That family would not have lost everything.

South Carolina’s philanthropic and nonprofit sector is doing its best to improve the health of the poor in all 46 counties. Our mutual goal is to care for the most vulnerable members of our communities and to promote and defend human dignity.

It is a sad reality that the voices of most people who will be affected by Medicaid expansion are not being heard in this debate. They simply listen to others with more power and influence voice their opinions. Many others who ultimately will benefit from Medicaid expansion are gainfully employed and contributing members of society; they just don’t have the health coverage they desperately need.

Foundations across South Carolina have invested millions of dollars in programs to provide opportunities for children to reach health-care providers, developed much-needed oral-health programs, supported free medical clinics, promoted healthier eating habits and helped families learn how to deal with and prevent illnesses. These efforts are important but pale in comparison to what Medicaid expansion could do for hundreds of thousands of people in the state.

Without an expansion of Medicaid, we will see a new coverage gap. We can argue forever about financial responsibility and the federal government’s role vs. the state’s responsibility. It is the belief of most of us working in philanthropy that there is not a policy decision that has more potential to improve health access and to also improve the health status of our state than extending Medicaid coverage. We have a moral obligation to help the many uninsured families across the state to ensure their voice is heard.

Everyone Has a Story: A Reflection on 2012 Listening Sessions

Sometimes we meet people whose expressions and face momentarily stop us in our tracks, but we ignore the quiet invitation in their eyes to empathetically listen to their story. In the nonprofit and philanthropic world, this can too often be the case. Our tireless push to meet endless need, pressing deadlines and other urgent tasks which enable us to serve can pull our attention away from giving the person in front of us our undivided attention. Unfortunately, many people who experience poverty every day face marginalization within the various systems they encounter. Not only can this make them feel “invisible” when their voices are missing or intentionally overlooked, the organization loses out on important insights that can strengthen the effectiveness of their work. A recent Stanford Social Innovation Review Spring 2013 article Listening to Those Who Matter Most, the Beneficiaries states, “The views and experiences of the people who benefit from social programs are often overlooked and underappreciated, even though they are an invaluable source of insight into a program’s effectiveness” (p. 41).

Since 2010, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina has listened directly to the voices of individuals and families through Listening Sessions. Our Listening Sessions engage families experiencing poverty by listening directly to their stories in the supportive presence of community stakeholders that walk alongside them each day. Structured differently than a grantee site visit, Listening Sessions create a collective space to engage individuals served with the primary focus on their perspectives. In 2012, three Listening Sessions were strategically designed to uplift the stories of individuals served by current Foundation grantees. The first Listening Session held in April 2012 in partnership with Helping and Lending Outreach Support (HALOS) in Charleston provided an opportunity to listen to the stories of kinship caregivers who live each day as the Unsung Heroes in the lives of children they care for. The second Listening Session in collaboration with the Puentes Project/PASOS in Columbia gave us the opportunity to hear from the Puentes Community Ambassadors who are compassionately leading as Bridges of Light in their communities. The third Listening Session held jointly with GRACE Ministries in Georgetown brought us face-to-face with home-bound and chronically ill senior citizens whose lives are Touched by Grace by the volunteers that serve them.

We listened deeply and empathetically to these statewide issues at a local level through the perspectives of individuals served, applying Grantmakers for Effective Organization’s (GEO) Widespread Empathy definition of empathy to our work. GEO defines empathy as “the ability to reach outside ourselves and connect in a deeper way with other people – to understand their experiences, to get where they are coming from, to feel what they feel” (p. 4). What we heard surprised us; and at times even moved us to tears as we listened to their struggles, hopes, and fears. We walked away reminded that everyone has a story. When we stop to listen empathetically to the experiences of those we serve, their stories can illuminate and inform the ways grantmakers and nonprofit organizations strategically respond to the remaining unmet need.

Read the 2012 Listening Session Summary, Everyone Has a Story.

Written By: Stephanie Cooper-Lewter, Ph.D., Senior Research Director

Latino Immigrant Families in South Carolina

Although South Carolina is a relatively new settlement area for Latino immigrants compared to other regions of the country, the State has experienced unprecedented growth in the Latino population over the past few decades. The most recent U.S. Census data show from 2000 to 2010, the South Carolina Hispanic population increased 148%. Between 2008 and 2010 in South Carolina, 88% of Latino children were citizens by birth, 65% lived in immigrant families, and 33% lived in linguistically isolated households. The Foundation hosted several Listening Sessions, site visits and meetings to inform our understanding of the impact of this trend, listening directly to the experiences of foreign-born and native-born Latinos from across the State.

Research shows Latino immigrant families in South Carolina often face economic hardship, educational challenges, and difficulty in accessing health care. In 2010, the median annual personal earnings for Hispanics in South Carolina was $18,000. During 2008-2010, 40% of South Carolina’s Latino families experienced poverty at the 100% poverty level, and 70% experienced poverty at the 200% poverty level. Of the more than 725,000 students enrolled during the 2010-2011 school year across South Carolina’s K-12 public schools, 6% were Latino. Although education is one of the greatest predictors for moving above the poverty line, Latino students across the State lag behind their white peers educationally, mirroring national trends in the majority of other states. 46% of Latinos are without health insurance in South Carolina; and nearly one out of every four Latino children go without adequate health care.

Our Foundation is committed to sharing knowledge on a range of issues that families experiencing poverty in South Carolina face. Our recently released Research Brief, Latino Immigrant Families in South Carolina, explores the above demographic changes and highlights eight themes that emerged through our research conversations with Latinos. These themes include motivation to migrate, making the journey, acculturation processes, shifting family expectations, multi-status families, economic hardships, educational challenges and health concerns. Building upon cultural strengths, increased family support services are needed to improve outcomes of Latino families across the State. Strategies employed to foster family resilience and strengthen Latino families should be implemented in culturally responsive and appropriate ways.

Continuing in the tradition of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, our Foundation remains invested in the future of South Carolina to ensure all families have the resources to live out of poverty. We apply our core values of compassion, courage, respect, justice and collaboration as we continue to work with our community partners to address multiple obstacles faced by Latino families across the state. We will continue to work towards solutions in partnership with the Latino community to reduce the barriers Latino families face in order to promote family economic well-being and improve the socioeconomic status of all South Carolina’s residents.

To read the Research Brief, Latino Immigrant Children in South Carolina, including citations for the above statistics, please go to: Sisters of Charity Foundation Research Brief

Written by: Stephanie Cooper-Lewter, Ph.D., Senior Director of Research

"Catalytic" Philanthropy

I want to update you on the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina's grantmaking implementation plan for 2013 which is the next phase of the Catalytic Philanthropy strategy.

The term “Catalytic” philanthropy refers to the opportunity for Foundation grants to become more intentional and more focused thereby having greater impact in our communities around the state. With great excitement, we have begun the next phase of our Catalytic philanthropy implementation strategy.

After 16 years of grantmaking, in 2011 the Foundation transitioned from Responsive Grantmaking to Strategic Grantmaking with the support of the Foundation’s Grants Committee. This transition was made to insure that going forward, the Foundation would have greater impact with the grant dollars we are investing.

Over time, we have learned that with limited resources for grants, it is extremely difficult and often unproductive to take too broad of an approach in awarding grants. In essence, we cannot be “all things to all people” and also have substantive impact. Looking back over the old responsive program, we were rejecting more than 80% of the applicants because they either did not meet our mission/focus or their programs/applications were too weak. This further justified the importance of the Carolina Academy and capacity building emphasis. The 2012 strategic grants were different. Our review team and the Grants Committee looked not only for good programs but for programs that have broader community impact, a strategy for partnerships, a viable sustainability plan, and have the ability to affect long term change.

In 2013, it is clear that the Foundation will have to be more focused than ever before. With limited dollars we will be better served to focus our efforts on current and/or past grantees that have demonstrated measurable success already. By investing more deeply and for a longer period of time on this identified pool of grantees that align with the Foundation's strategic direction, we can build on the investments we have already made. Doing so would allow the Foundation to make impactful strides in meeting goal three of our strategic plan: To sharpen the focus of our grantmaking to organizations that create opportunities for families to live out of poverty in South Carolina.

This year, our pool for consideration will be from current and/or past grantees that have demonstrated success through the Foundation’s investment. Following discussion with each of them and a completed organizational summary update, we will bring the best organizations forward for funding. These organizations will be positioned to move their programs to a greater level of measurable success. Moreover, the Foundation's investment will further strengthen the grantees capacity, support their strategic direction, connect them with other potential partners, foster sustainability, and position them for growth and success. The beauty of this change in direction is that the Foundation can be dynamic and flexible while learning valuable lessons that will have significant future benefit. 

This plan, for now, is for 2013 and the Grants Committee will re-visit this Strategic Grants program late next year to assess the process and determine how to proceed going forward.

 Our Caritas Grants will remain open and the Foundation expects to award 50-60 grants in this category next year.

We thank you for your interest in the work of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina. We are excited about another fulfilling year as we continue to meet the Mission of the Sisters.

Thank you.

Tom Keith, President

Merry Christmas from the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina