Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Haverford Trust and Hank Smith are nationally recognized investment leaders committed to informing and inspiring people to build better financial futures for their families. In his chats with authors, influencers and industry experts, Hank helps bring a sense of clarity and calm to the complexity and stress of personal finance. Topics range from quality investing, retirement resilience, market trends and behavioral psychology.
Maxine Cuffe 00:05
You're listening to Speaking of Quality: Wealth Management Insights with Hank Smith, a podcast by the Haverford Trust Company. On Speaking of Quality, Hank chats with authors, influencers, and wealth management experts to bring a sense of clarity and calm to the complexity and stress of personal finance. And now here's your host, Hank Smith
Hank Smith 00:26
Hello and welcome to another episode of Speaking of Quality: Wealth Management Insights. I'm your host, Hank Smith, Director and Head of Investment Strategy at the Haverford Trust Company. On this podcast, we explore topics ranging from quality investing, retirement resilience, stock market trends, estate planning, small business ownership, behavioral psychology, and more. Today, I'm pleased to welcome Lauren Cristella, President and CEO of Committee of 70. For those not familiar with Committee of 70, it's a civic leadership organization that advances representative ethical and effective government in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania through citizen engagement and public policy advocacy. Thank you so much for joining us today, Lauren.
Lauren Cristella 01:16
Thank you so much for having me, Hank.
Hank Smith 01:17
Well, I'm going to be very honest. I never have heard of Committee of 70, and I'm going to take a guess that most of our listeners have not either based on an informal survey of our office of 140 colleagues and not one person had heard this. So why don't you start out and tell us a little bit about Committee of 70.
Lauren Cristella 01:40
The committee of 70 is a 120-year-old, nonpartisan nonprofit with bipartisan support dedicated to helping every eligible voter cast their ballot, be informed when they cast their ballot, and vote with confidence. And then also we advance good government through policy advocacy. So, things like open primaries or campaign finance reform, the rules of the game. Those are really the issues of the Committee of 70. We have about 250,000 people who hit our website around election time, so I'm disappointed that none of them are at Haverford, but we can change that for sure.
Hank Smith 02:22
Well, I guess that would be one of your goals as a relatively new CEO is getting the name out and the mission because it is a very important mission.
Lauren Cristella 02:33
Absolutely. One of the things that irks me the most is when people call us the best kept secret. We don't want to be a secret. We want people to use our resources. The people who do know us trust us very deeply, and we've got a good reputation for being nonpartisan and kind of above the political fray and a place for trusted information.
Hank Smith 02:54
So, how are you getting your name out, your mission out, and really teaching civics is what this is really all about?.
Lauren Cristella 03:04
We've taken a really comprehensive approach over the last few years. I mean obviously some attention comes to us just because the eyes of the nation are on Philadelphia, you know, seemingly every two years and those even number election years and certainly in years like this with the presidential election. We start young. We have programs that reach kindergarteners all the way through college students really teaching the importance of citizenship and how to be a member of a community. Starting with our littlest residents of Pennsylvania and then going up through how to have productive dialogue. We're not the civility police. We're not yelling at people to mind their peap’s and q’ueues, but really how to engage in conversation with people who don't agree with you. To advance society, really just goals in general. It's a skill that's really been lost and we're focused on teaching that certainly to high school and college students. And then we do voter education across the Commonwealth. We started in Philadelphia in 1904, part of that pProgressive Eera of government, small P progressive. And we have counterparts in Chicago and New York. Similarities being that there were big machine towns in the early 1900s, and the business community got together and said, you know, all of this corruption is bad for business. We have to clean up our government so that everyone - business and the citizens - can thrive. So that's really where we had our origin. That's what we do today. We stay true to that. So the voter education we do. We have a fantastic program called ‘We Vote’ where we partner with businesses and nonprofits and universities. We're up to 175 partners where we provide nonpartisan resources. So many businesses are feeling the pressure from their employees, certainly younger employees about being civically active. Or taking a stance, things like that, and businesses are in a tough spot. That's not really their expertise. They don't want to tell people who to vote for most of the time. So, we step in to provide that information. All the deadlines, everything you would need to be able to successfully cast your vote. A voter guide so you can do your own research about the candidates and pick the person who aligns with your values. That's just some of the work that we're doing to foster our mission across the Commonwealth.
Hank Smith 05:34
In Pennsylvania, and you're really only in the state and not nationally, what is the percentage of registered voters when it comes to a presidential election year? Are we average? Above average?
Lauren Cristella 05:49
We're in the top third, I would say so. That's in large part due to the attention and the get out the vote efforts that come to Pennsylvania because we've been a swing state and kind of an essential piece to that Electoral College puzzle and presidential election years. But a rule of thumb had been previously 20/40/60. You would get 20% turn out in municipal elections, 40 in kind of state governors’ races, midterm elections and then 60% in presidential. That number has bumped up. So we're seeing over 70%, 72% in presidential election years and we just hit 31% in the most recent municipal election that elected Mayor Parker.
Hank Smith 06:32
It amazes me in the last several presidential cycles how it really has come down to a handful of counties that are making the difference and presidential candidates really don't even have to visit most of the states. They really need to concentrate in Pennsylvania. I think it's five counties that they really have to concentrate on.
Lauren Cristella 06:56
That's absolutely right. The Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs and Allegany County certainly represent the vast majority of votes to be had in the state.
Hank Smith 07:05
Is that a healthy development or just is what it is?
Lauren Cristella 07:10
This is certainly the way it is with an Electoral College. There's a national movement to be rid of the Electoral College, called the national popular vote, where the results of the national elections are that way. Every state would have an equal say. Every voter's vote would count equally because right now it feels like votes in Philadelphia count way more or are weighted way more than votes from other places.
Hank Smith 07:34
Right. And do you think that movement has much of a chance?
Lauren Cristella 07:38
I think increasingly. I mean, if I've seen two elections in in my lifetime and I'm 41, right, so that the winner of the national popular vote has not won the Presidency and that just feels very unfair, right? There's a visceral element to that. And I think if it happens - if it were to happen again - I think you would see a large number of people, certainly people under you know, 35, who might push for that kind of change.
Hank Smith 08:06
Right. Prior to Committee of 70, you served as President of the League of Women's Voters of Philadelphia and played a pivotal role in revitalizing the organization. Can you talk about some of the challenges you faced and how they've helped you today in your current role?
Lauren Cristella 08:24
That was a volunteer gig I had while I was still at the Committee of 70, but it took the president role. The Philly chapter of the league had basically been defunct, and it just seems that that wasn't good for Philadelphia or good for our politics nationally. So I was asked to step into the President role and rebuild the organization here, and I tapped a lot of my former colleagues from the Fels Institute of Government. I was very fortunate to know a lot of passionate, capable women who care about public service and the state of democracy. It really was starting from the ground up, we had to revisit our bylaws and rebuild partnerships and connections. And that's all serving me well, certainly at the Committee of 70 as well as we try to get the name out and expand and grow that ability to bring good people into the work and build partnerships and a certain amount of trust is really essential to this work I feel.
Hank Smith 09:20
I went on your website again not knowing anything about your organization and it is a fascinating website with so many different and very interesting avenues that you can go down. Talk a little bit about that and the development of the website and are you getting a lot of traffic on that website?
Lauren Cristella 09:44
Yes. It is certainly picking up and it always spikes twice a year every year. People come to us for election information. We're kind of synonymous with that in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. That was one of my projects in 2021. We revamped the website knowing that we were a hub of much needed information for lots of different voters. I think one of the most popular pieces of the website is the find your elected officials tool. I can't tell you how many politicians have told me their constituent services offices use it every single day to direct people to the appropriate elected official to address their concerns, things like that. We really do try to explain how your government works at every level, and certainly demystifying Philadelphia government, our state government because that hasn't really been taught in schools for over 30 years. So, a lot of people need that information and don't know where to start. We’re very fortunate to be in a position where we can break it down, explain it, provide infographics and videos, things that make it very easy to access.
Hank Smith 10:52
I was a bit surprised when you talked about being involved in education, really from kindergarten through college, because I thought they'd given up teaching civics a long time ago. And in fact, our entire education has changed. Maybe not for the better, but it is really refreshing that you have such a presence in school, both a young age and a young adult.
Lauren Cristella 11:20
Yeah. In Pennsylvania in 2019, Act 35 was passed, mandating that students between 8th grade and their senior year of high school be tested on their civic knowledge. Of course, it was an unfunded mandate, and it didn't really give too many parameters. So together with a bunch of leading civic education organizations from across the state and the former members of Congress Association, we've created the PA Civics Coalition trying to help teachers meet this requirement that is mandated by law and making sure that it's meaningful. So some teachers just give the citizenship test when you're senior, you don't even have to pass it and they take you take it and that's it. We want to make it meaningful, right, an opportunity to practice the habits of active citizenship. So that's the mock election. Learning about how our elections work. Serving as a poll worker. 17-year-olds in Pennsylvania can serve as poll workers. So, we partner with all of these other groups to do that civic education outside of elections. Honestly, it runs the whole spectrum of civic education, and we really are trying to bring that to every corner of the Commonwealth. I think today we've received a grant to do that work in the counties that border West Virginia. So really getting into areas that we haven't typically or historically been.
Hank Smith 12:43
There's a link to a couple different components of your website that talk about getting real news because it seems to me so much of the news that we received today is influenced by partisan views and depending on whether you're listening to one of the NBC's, or you're listening to Fox, it's almost like you're getting a whole different per view purview of the world or the U.S. and I would think that's very important.
Lauren Cristella 13:18
We encourage people to choose their news wisely, making sure that their media diet is balanced. Taking some time to reflect personally. It's not always about what the other side is listening to or that misinformation out there. It's really about your personal choices and what you're consuming and really doing those occasional checks to see if you're in a bubble alongside with learning those critical thinking skills from a young age. We think that that's really necessary to a healthy democracy.
Hank Smith 13:52
We have an expression at the Haverford Trust Company. We have a list of the rules of investing and right near the top of that is don't let politics get in the way of your investing. It just doesn't work that way and it’s really quite remarkable what a minimal impact on the markets who wins a presidential election. It really doesn't affect the markets. And yet if you listen to either side, you'd think the country is going come to an end if the opponent gets elected.
Lauren Cristella 14:24
I would also guess that you're telling people to diversify where they're investing their money too. They don't put all of their eggs in one basket, and we think that's the same with the media diet as well, right? You shouldn't just be relying on one news source for all of your information.
Hank Smith 14:39
Yes, we are in the money management wealth management business, but education is a big part of that because if you're not educating your clients, you really are going to have trouble keeping them as long clients. So, it's very similar to what you're doing.
Lauren Cristella 14:56
Absolutely. One, I think institutions are seeing that they aren't as trusted as they maybe they once were. People are kind of skeptical of large institutions, whether that's government or business or you name it. But giving people the tools to be informed and then to make their own judgments based on their values and their life experience is everything. I think that's so important, whether that's on my side of the shop or yours.
Hank Smith 15:27
Let's talk about a subject that gets a lot of attention and is probably greatly, if not entirely, exaggerated and that's voter fraud. There really isn't a whole bunch of voter fraud from election cycle to election cycle. And yet, depending on where you're coming from, you would think it's just rampant.
Lauren Cristella 15:51
Absolutely right. And I'm never one to say trust blindly. I can tell people to trust the process and that our elections do have integrity because we watch. We work closely with our city Commissioners and serve as a watchdog for Philadelphia's elections, for sure, but also the election administration that's happening statewide. So, I think trust but verify is always good, but you have to believe the facts when you're presented with facts. That's where we're seeing some disagreement where people are just refusing to accept the facts. I don’t know how else to say it.
Hank Smith 16:34
Yeah. Accept the results.
Lauren Cristella 16:38
They accept the results when they win. Maybe not as much when they lose.
Hank Smith 16:44
Is your organization growing? Do you have plans on expanding outside of the state or are you going to continue just concentrating on Pennsylvania?
Lauren Cristella 16:56
One of the first things I did when I became CEO was to start a strategic planning process to think about what the next 5 to 10 years looks like for us, and we are growing. One of the first things I did was hired three people to do my old job here at the Committee of 70. The staff is growing, our partners are growing. Like I mentioned, those 175 partners we have, we want to get to 250 by the end of the year. It’s going well. When people know us, they appreciate what we do and they trust our resources. That expansion is essential. We're 120 now. At the end of a five-year plan we’ll be 125 and hopefully have a lot to celebrate. We're also gearing up for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. America's birthday is going to be here in Philadelphia, and it's a big one. We want to be prepared for that. Planning a national democracy summit, bringing together high, high-profile people to talk about the future of democracy in America. I don't think the Committee of 70 will ever expand our work beyond Pennsylvania. I don't see us having satellite offices or franchising necessarily, but I think we can serve as a model. I had the opportunity to meet some colleagues from other parts of the country, and they loved our ‘We Vote’ program. Now, they're calling it something else, but they’re doing the same thing to engage the business community and provide those trusted resources to get the word out and get voters informed across their states. I think there's more opportunities for that. If I see the future of Committee of 70, it's continuing to perfect our resources and then offering them as models in other places.
Hank Smith 18:42
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you do not get any government funding? It is all private funding?
Lauren Cristella 18:51
Yes. We're completely independent of the government.
Hank Smith 18:54
And that is the 250 board members that are all businesses?
Lauren Cristella 19:01
We have 70 - a few over 70 right now. We try to have 70 board members at any given time. Voting members of our board. They do represent all the major businesses, law firms, nonprofits and universities in the area. It’s more or less greater Philadelphia representation on the board.
Hank Smith 19:19
But you're still trying to reach out to more businesses for funding?
Lauren Cristella 19:25
Yes. Always. Always happy to take sponsorship dollars. The WeVote program is free. No one has to pay us for that. We receive grant funding from phenomenal organizations like the William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia Foundation, things like that to be able to provide those resources for free across the state. We have supporters in Pittsburgh as well.
Hank Smith 19:46
It's just fascinating work, and I'm sure that you're going to get a lot of hits from our listeners to your website just based on this conversation. It's so important and it's so timely given the political environment we find ourselves in. It really isn’t different than previous periods in our country. Go back to the 1800s and it was equally as divisive between parties as it is today.
Lauren Cristella 20:19
If I could go back in time, I'd try to figure out what Abraham Lincoln would do with social media and that level of misinformation. We have some unique challenges ahead of us. There have been times of strife and division that we've overcome and that's some of the work that we're doing and certainly that investment in early childhood education about what is it, what do you owe the community and what does the community owe you? How do you be a responsible citizen. If we start that work early and keep it consistently throughout their educations, I think we'll be hopefully looking at a much different democracy in 15 to 20 years.
Hank Smith 21:00
It's more than just voting that is important. It amazes me the people that don't vote because I was brought up that it's your civic responsibility, whether you like either candidate or candidates. But it's more than that. It's really being educated.
Lauren Cristella 21:20
And understanding all the different ways to affect change. I think voting is necessary to any kind of change, but it is absolutely not sufficient. There's all kinds of other things we do. We need to know how our government works, right. There was a recent poll that said 45% of Philadelphians didn't know the name of their council person. If you don't know the name of your City Council person, you've probably never asked them for the resources your community needs, or, you know, you felt helpless when the potholes got out of control in your neighborhood, whatever that might be. That's your contact. That's your person elected to fix those problems for your community. We're really doing the work about how government works and then all the different ways to influence decisions. We're in budget season. Your vote is one bite at the apple. That budget is the second one. Getting people to pay attention to how those budget hearings are going and expressing their priorities to their Council members is also very important.
Hank Smith 22:19
Speaking of potholes – I had a client who lives in Boston, who is a equity analyst for us and his parents are still here and he came back last week and he said, what is it with the roads around here? Not just Philadelphia, but the suburbs. These are some of the wealthiest counties in the country and you would think you're driving in a third world country with all the potholes.
Lauren Cristella 22:50
I drive my son to school in Media from South Philly every day and I can agree. It's not great.
Hank Smith 23:01
I joked that our governor missed a great opportunity during the initial phase of the lockdown when no one was driving in late March, April, May of 2020. He could have had all these roads paved. It was outdoor work. But we had no idea what to do during COVID because we there was no playbook for it. I suppose if we have another one of those types of situations, we'd be much more prepared. This has been a fascinating and very educational podcast for me and a very important one. I love to ask my guests about their favorite books that they've read recently, or books that have had a big impact on their careers. Can you share a couple with us?
Lauren Cristella 23:56
Yes. I love listening to audiobooks and reading. I always have a few books going. I try to hit around 50 books a year. I just finished The Right Call by Sally Jenkins. She's a sports reporter who took 30 years of interviews and distilled leadership lessons from athletes. I keep finding myself thinking about it, so it really has stuck with me a bit. I'm reading Tommy Orange’s new book called Wandering Stars. His previous book, There There, was one of my absolute favorite books of all time. I just decided that 2024 is the year that I was going to conquer Robert Caro's The Power Broker. This is a book we assigned to all of the students at the Fels Institute of Government, and I somehow escaped reading this tome of a book. It is a 64-hour audio book and it just hit it just in time. The 99% invisible is doing a read along this year, so it felt serendipitous that this was my time to conquer this book about the reform era in New York and Robert Moses and everything he built coming in the 1900s.
Hank Smith 25:08
Lauren, I have to ask this. If there were not books on tape, how many books do you think you could actually read during the year?
Lauren Cristella 25:18
Probably 25. Probably half. In the middle of the night, if I can't sleep, I go to my Kindle. I do get a lot of time. Insomnia gives me lots of opportunities. The audio book is definitely commuting and washing the dishes, all of those types of activities. That's when I have the audiobooks running.
Hank Smith 25:40
Lauren, thank you so much for joining us on Speaking of Quality. It's been such an interesting conversation. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to chat today. To our listeners, if you're interested in learning more about Lauren, you can visit www dot 70 dot org. And for all of our female listeners, Laura is joining an exciting lineup of speakers at our Speaker Series for Women in May. To learn more about the event and to register head to www dot haverfordquality dot com.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Speaking of Quality Wealth: Management Insights. Our next episode will be released shortly. In the meantime, please send suggestions or questions for me or the Haverford Trust team to marketing@haverfordquality.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast until next time. I'm Hank Smith. Stay bullish.
Maxine Cuffe 26:39
Thanks for listening to this episode of Speaking of Quality Wealth Management Insights with Hank Smith. To hear future episodes of Speaking of Quality, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To learn more about the Haverford Trust Company, please visit www.haverfordquality.com.
This podcast is provided as general commentary and market overview and should not be relied upon as research, a forecast or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt an investment strategy. Any opinions expressed are as of the date this podcast was recorded and may change at anytime and are the opinions of that commentator not Haverford’s. Any opinion or information provided are believed by Haverford to be reliable at the time of this podcast recording, but are not necessarily all inclusive or guaranteed for accuracy. Before making any financial decisions, please consult with an investment professional.