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Business is an unlikely hero: a force for good working to solve society's most pressing challenges, while boosting bottom line. This is social purpose at work. And it's a dynamic journey. Purpose 360 is a masterclass in unlocking the power of social purpose to ignite business and social impact. Host Carol Cone brings decades of social impact expertise and a 360-degree view of integrating social purpose into an organization into unfiltered conversations that illuminate today's big challenges and bigger ideas.
Carol Cone:
I'm Carol Cone and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact.
The next series of Purpose 360 episodes were taped in person on site at the One Young World Summit that was held in Montreal this year. For those of you who are not familiar with One Young World, I hope that these conversations will get you very, very excited to follow them online because they are making terrific impact around the globe. At the conference, there were nearly 2,000 changemakers. And you have to apply to get accepted to this amazing event. And some leaders at the conference say, "You know, it's harder to get into this conference than it is to get into Harvard." Wow. The young ambassadors represented 190 countries, and you should think of this like the Olympics for changemaking. Also in attendance were leaders across the board, around the world. Think older individuals like myself, who have worked in the field for so many years helping to make change.
Today I have an extraordinary world leader joining me at the One Young World Summit. So thank you for joining me, Angela Williams. She is the CEO of United Way Worldwide. So welcome to the show, Angela.
Angela F. Williams:
Carol, thank you so much for allowing me to be here with you.
Carol Cone:
Oh, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. So let's start with a little bit of your background, because it's illustrious, to give our listeners the context of your firepower.
Angela F. Williams:
Well, it seems like a very winding road, my professional career, but it started off with me serving as an Air Force Judge Advocate General, which is a lawyer on active duty in the United States Air Force. When I left the Air Force, I became a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the middle district of Florida, then onto the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Then with a man I call my godfather, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and worked on his Senate Judiciary Committee staff. From there, private practice, then Sears. And there is this moment in history that we all remember and that is called Hurricane Katrina.
Carol Cone:
Right.
Angela F. Williams:
And I was appointed by both President Bush and President Clinton to serve on the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund as their faith-based leader to provide grants to rebuild houses of worship because I'm also an ordained Baptist minister.
Carol Cone:
Well, you don't have no time to sleep with that sort of resume. So then how did you get to United Way?
Angela F. Williams:
Well, after finishing my work with the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, I decided to stay in the nonprofit sector I loved it so much, became the general counsel of YMCA of the USA, onto CEO of Easterseals, which is a national disability...
Carol Cone:
Of course. Yes.
Angela F. Williams:
... organization. And now here at United Way Worldwide operating 1,100 local United Ways in 37 countries.
Carol Cone:
Oh, you really don't sleep, but you look fabulous. So that's great. So I want to go right to why are you here at the One Young World Summit. United Way and youth. I know about Live United, which is that campaign still going?
Angela F. Williams:
We are launching a brand new...
Carol Cone:
A new one.
Angela F. Williams:
Brand next month.
Carol Cone:
Oh, well, I'd love Live United, so I'm sure it's going to be even better.
Angela F. Williams:
It is.
Carol Cone:
So that's great. So maybe you can give a little bit of a foreshadow on that. But why are you here in Montreal?
Angela F. Williams:
What I am so incredibly thankful for is one of my board members, Michelle Palmieri with Deloitte, insisted that I meet with Kate Robertson, who is the co-founder of One Young World. That happened last year. Kate said, "Angela, the young people at One Young World must hear your voice. I want you to come." And I showed up last year in Belfast, Northern Ireland, my first experience with One Young World, and today here in Montreal Canada is my second time. I am so absolutely thrilled to be engaged with thousands of young professionals from around the world. So much so that I brought 10 United Way...
Carol Cone:
Oh, fabulous.
Angela F. Williams:
... colleagues and staff from around the world as delegates.
Carol Cone:
I think that's really wonderful because so many of us, a little bit of the older types know about United Way as very much, okay, it's this giving campaign at work and then the money is distributed and I'm not quite sure where. But United Way has changed so much, and I'm sure part of that is because of your leadership. And I heard you said you might have a new campaign coming. So let's talk about the change and the evolution and why it's so important to engage young people as changemakers.
Angela F. Williams:
Carol, you and I know that when people talk about the future, they think it's maybe three, five, seven years out. I say the future is now. And we have to empower changemakers now. What I am so thrilled about with United Way, we are a 137-year-old organization, and as you noted, a lot of our fundraising has been through employee giving campaigns. We have wonderful, thousands of global corporate partners that allow their employees to give of their time, their talent, and their treasure in partnership with United Way.
What's also very special though is that the funds that we raise annually, we raise several billion a year, we actually distribute to 29,000 other nonprofits. So if people were to ask what happens if United Way were to disappear, there is a ripple effect. Partners like the YMCA or Easterseals or other smaller nonprofits that receive some funding from us locally would lose valuable resources.
What I'm excited though now about in 2024 is that we are embarking upon a transformation of our organization. The world is changing rapidly, and those of us in the nonprofit sector, because we are so close to communities and we are so in touch with the needs of individuals and families, we must become more agile, flexible, responsive, but not always just responsive, but having the future foresight to recognize how AI or technology or the expansion or contraction of the economy will affect communities so that we can be there to help people and to have the creative solutions to ensure that every person in every community can thrive.
Carol Cone:
Very well stated. So you talk about the future is today, so I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit, which is there are so many social and environmental issues that are impacting in so many different ways around the globe. How do you select... You talked about 29,000 I think it was not-for-profits. How do you select where the funds are going?
Angela F. Williams:
Well, we operate within four pillars, United Way. It's about healthy communities, financial sustainability, youth opportunity, and community resilience. We are an organization because we cover every congressional district in the U.S. and we are, as I said, in 37 countries able to be widespread, but to go deep and customize the work that we provide support to based on a community's particular needs.
Now, I do want to back up for a minute because I want to tie your previous question to what you just asked in that climate and environmental changes as we are experiencing today have the attention of so many young people across the country, I mean, across the globe. And if you read reports, a lot of them say that they're concerned that the planet is not in a sustainable place and it's not going to be able to provide for them or their children or their grandchildren. So one of the things that I'm excited to do on tomorrow is to issue a call to action to the delegates that are attending this One Young World conference. And a big preview, we have an app that people can download from the App Store and the app is thrHIVEr by United Way.
Carol Cone:
Nice.
Angela F. Williams:
And thrHIVEr is spelled a little bit differently. T-H-R-H-I-V-E-R. Well, this app, the United Way Worldwide app is a call to action for young professionals to join a community of global leaders that want to make a difference in their communities.
Carol Cone:
Nice.
Angela F. Williams:
They can upload a solution that they're working on and see if young people in other countries have done something similar or can give them feedback. And we are asking them in this next year to commit to doing something. It doesn't have to be huge, it can be very small, but then to come back and share how they made a difference. They can upload photos, videos, et cetera.
Carol Cone:
Nice. It sounds like a kind of a match.com for community engagement around the globe in a way so they can learn from others.
Angela F. Williams:
I would say it's a community of practice and community learning and social innovation at scale.
Carol Cone:
Oh, social innovation at scale. Well, that's what we do expect from United Way Worldwide, so it's thrilling to see the evolution. So that's great. So how long did it take you to really... You were looking at your brand and your engagement, how long did it take to develop this?
Angela F. Williams:
Well, thrHIVEr is really a small subset of the big brand play because the big brand play includes a vibrant logo that's very similar, but, as we say, the logo is now going to be out of the box.
Carol Cone:
Oh, okay.
Angela F. Williams:
And I can't spoil it because my chief marketing officer would have my head, but people will see soon a newly invigorated United Way logo with even an understanding of what our taglines will be. We are going to have various campaigns as part of our logo that are coming out next year and some incredible PSAs.
Carol Cone:
So Angela, what advice do you have for young leaders to truly, one, find their purpose and then, two, activate their purpose?
Angela F. Williams:
What I would say to young leaders is open up your mind and expand your mind to new things. I think reading is essential. Making friends with people that don't look like you or even speak your language. Be open to new ideas. If you can, get out and see the rest of the world. And most importantly, build relationships that are meaningful and allow others to speak into your life in a way that motivates you, that holds you accountable, and that cheers you on.
Carol Cone:
That's lovely. Now, I want to ask the other question, which is that especially in the U.S. with the ESG controversy and DE&I and leaders going backwards with their commitments, what advice do you have for leaders today? Anybody in the C-suite, whether it's strategy, whether it's HR, whether it's finance, tech, what do you have to say to them about helping the world evolve to be workable for all of us?
Angela F. Williams:
One of the things that I think is most important is all of us must start from this grounding, difference doesn't mean deficiency. And so when we understand that we are all human beings with hope and purpose and possibility, our vision at United Way is to create a world in which every person in every community can thrive. And I say C-suite leaders, you want a company that has a culture that allows all employees to feel safe and to be able to thrive. And so in allowing employees of all backgrounds, experiences, and mindsets to have opportunities for growth and to engage in the company and to feel as if they are valued and heard is most important.
And I would encourage people to stop getting caught up in the rhetoric of this term or this phrase because I go back to my initial point. We are all human, we all have a right to be here, and we all should be free to engage in a meaningful way that makes us go home from the workplace and feel good or live in a community where we feel safe and welcome and can thrive.
Carol Cone:
So you're here at the summit. Now, there are so many social issues. And I know if you're a parent, which you probably are, you never say I love one child versus another, but you're allowed to say they're different. So if you had two or three social issues that are really important, how about to you personally, because United Way has to be very neutral, but how about to yourself?
Angela F. Williams:
For me personally, I am concerned about education opportunities for young people, having access, because education is really the key to opening up one's mind and to opportunities. The second thing that's important to me is for especially young girls to be able to be educated. We see in some of the African countries and in India where once young girls start their menstrual cycle, if there's not a clean bathroom, they don't go to school. And we see it also in South and Central America. So we are ending up as a global population losing out on the talent of young girls because we have not properly cared for them and facilitated a way for them to learn.
Carol Cone:
Sure. Period poverty is a really big issue that is all around the globe. Is there a third focus that you really feel very strongly in your heart?
Angela F. Williams:
For people to feel safe in their communities and by safety, not only physical safety but mental safety as well.
Carol Cone:
A lot happening in mental health. It was fascinating to see that I saw Gen Z concerned about social media impacting their mental health.
Angela F. Williams:
Yes.
Carol Cone:
Not just their parents saying it's a problem, but they're recognizing the amount of hours that they're getting sucked in, four to seven hours a day. And also the comparisons especially to young girls and then the impact on suicide.
Angela F. Williams:
Yes, it's horrible. It's the undue pressure and it's the fakeness. It's not even the authenticity of people relating to each other.
Carol Cone:
Absolutely, thank you. So in five years, I'm going to invite you back, but probably sooner than that. And I know that you are such an accomplished professional. What do you want to achieve in five years as the leader of United Way Worldwide?
Angela F. Williams:
I want United Way Worldwide to be that nonprofit sector leader that trains the next generation of leaders. And we have recently launched the Next Gen Leaders program where we are training young professionals within our network within about three to five years in their roles to be future-forward thinkers. We're partnering with the Institute for the Future to train them about being futurists.
I also then want to, as I said, bring more delegates from our worldwide system to One Young World and learn from being in this collective of global changemakers that are young and invigorated and excited and social entrepreneurs and dreamers and hopeful so that our folks can be a part of making the world a better place.
And lastly, because United Way plays this unique role as a ecosystem with corporate partners, with nonprofit partners, with relationships, with government leaders at the federal or national levels of countries and on down to municipal level, to be that organization that invigorates communities, ensures that communities are resilient, and that we do so alongside everyone.
Carol Cone:
Beautifully stated. I'm going to ask you one other question. What is the role of purpose in an AI-driven world?
Angela F. Williams:
What is the role of purpose in an AI-driven world? That is a very philosophical question, and I do believe it's something we all need to wrestle with. I will say that I do have the privilege to begin wrestling with that because I was invited by John Hope Bryant, the head of Operation Hope, to join the Open AI Ethics Council that he is co-chairing with Sam Altman. And as we begin to think about the ethics of AI and how it impacts humanity, those are some of the questions we will be wrestling with. Do I think AI is bad or technology is bad? Absolutely not. There is a use for it, and it's incredible that we as human beings have the level of ingenuity, innovation, and creativity to imagine this new technology. The question is how do we work with it, use it, allow it to work with us and for us in a way that doesn't harm humanity, but enhances humanity.
Carol Cone:
That's fantastic. So I always love to give the last word to my guest and it can be anything that you'd like. So what would you like to share to the listeners of Purpose 360, which is a global podcast?
Angela F. Williams:
I'm going to rip off of your name, Purpose 360. And the last word is this. All of us on this earth have a responsibility to live a life of purpose. So I encourage everyone to take the time to reflect and identify their purpose in life because there are only two dates that we will see on our tombstone, the date we were born, the date we died, and that dash in between is the purpose dash. So live a life of purpose.
Carol Cone:
Super. Thank you, Angela. It's been a wonderful conversation and enjoy the summit.
Angela F. Williams:
Thank you.
Carol Cone:
This podcast was brought to you by some amazing people and I'd love to thank them. Anne Hundertmark and Kristin Kenney at Carol Cone ON PURPOSE. Pete Wright and Andy Nelson, our Krack production team at TruStory FM. And you, our listener. Please rate and rank us because we really want to be as high as possible as one of the top business podcasts available so that we can continue exploring together the importance and the activation of authentic purpose. Thanks so much for listening.
This transcript was exported on Nov 15, 2024 - view latest version here.
p360_190 RAW (Completed 11/15/24)
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