Episode 71: Isis Krause

Join Lori and her guest, Isis Krause, as they discuss how baking bread could translate into making change happen. Isis talks about her journey from starting from entering culinary school and ending up deep in social impact work. Stay tuned!

About Isis:

Isis Krause is the founder and chief strategist at Knead Partners, working alongside a collective of independent impact strategists, experienced designers, and facilitators. 

Isis has designed and facilitated more than 150 strategy workshops and large-scale convenings and provided strategic guidance and program design for multiple collective impact and network-driven initiatives. Previously she was the co-founder of First Seating, alongside Carolyn Sams, helping organizations bring life back into the workplace through creative, food-driven, team retreats; and was a strategist at GOODcorps, leading award-winning client engagements with Fortune 500 brands and national foundations and nonprofits with a focus on equal parts impact and audience engagement.

Connect with Isis!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isiskrause/ 

Philanthropy Together: https://philanthropytogether.org/

Knead Partners: https://www.kneadpartners.com/ 

Connect with Lori Kranczer!

Website: https://www.linkphilanthropic.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorikranczer/

Episode Transcript

You're listening to the positive impact philanthropy podcast where we share the journeys of everyday philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into their lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey and through the stories we will share here. We hope that's arc something in you and how we can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host Lori Kranczer attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy giving strategist together for God to explore what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist and make a positive impact in the world. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode posted on Wednesdays. Today we have ISIS Krause. She's the founder of need partners and Chief Strategy Officer of philanthropy together. Welcome.

Thanks for having me. Lori, happy to be here.

I am so excited to finally get the chance to talk with you. We have had one of your colleagues on the podcast and this has just been a continuation of talking about giving circles and philanthropy together. So why don't you share who you are and what you do.

Great, Laurie? Yes, happy to share more. So I'm the founder of need partners, which is an impact strategy firm rooted in the concept of CO design. And we are called the partners because of this metaphor of bringing many many disparate ideas together, almost like you're baking a bread I went to culinary school, before college and so baking and the concept of meeting is really central to who I am as a person. And so this concept in the social impact space is how do you get together the many, many voices that need to come together in order to form something happening in the world. How do you bring the eggs and the sugar and the flowers together as the way to make change happen? So I've been really excited and happy to be working on many, many different social change initiatives over the last decade through my work at new partners and one of those was philanthropy together. And that CO design process involves more than 100 voices from across the giving circle ecosystem coming together to design what would eventually become philanthropy together and I helped from the back end facilitation and impact strategy design work to enable that to happen.

Yeah, that's it's incredible. And I've seen the evolution of that one and actually launch it as it was happening because I know a lot of key partners that were were involved in that process. So let's go back to culinary school though, because that just really struck me as something very interesting. I don't hear that a lot on this podcast. So can you share more about what inspired you to go to culinary school and then how you made the transition?

Definitely. So really, my roots in terms of giving and generosity have really been from my parents growing up from my father. I always learned not the value of money but the value of time and how I could really lean into the things that I love the most and how I can sort of be the owner of my own time. What inspired me to be an entrepreneur at a young age and have my own consulting firm doing this work and he really inspired me to go to culinary school baking is something that I've always loved. I have a long history and lineage of Baking From My mother and grandmother in her mother before that. And so he inspired me at a young age to just try it and see what would happen if I went to culinary school. Thought I might pursue that as a career path and what I realized in doing so I had an internship at Claridges which is one of the premier restaurants and hotels in London where I went to culinary school and I was cracking my 1000 bag and just realized that this is not what I actually wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was beautiful work and I learned so much about work ethic and service and serving other people but I also really always had had a passion for social impact and change work. And so went back with UCLA studied geography really wanted to get into sort of the how humans and our planet how we work together. toward making making change and ended up at a people the firm focused on mobile point pollution. The fourth is from truck like a very so different than going to culinary school. And then after that ended up at a social impact strategy consultancy called good in Los Angeles. And that was my first experience really, routing this work in the Philippines often and how you can move rooms of people toward the axon, though is very different than the culinary full route, but I have always throughout my life tried to weave together the threads of cooking and baking and serving others and making the beautiful and delicious while also have the youth be rooted in impact and change and wanting to make the world a better place and really have pride my whole career to merge those two efforts together.

That I just love to hear this journey that you've had. It's so interesting. We've had a few people on the podcast that share very interesting backgrounds before they got into some sort of philanthropic effort, whether it was professional or else in their life and this one I almost said takes the cake though or bake begging but I love that so um so share a little bit more for our audience that what that means that the kind of work that you're doing now what does that look like?

Where Yeah, can youth philanthropy together and that origin story as an example. So that work started it was a room full of about 50 folks across the giving circle ecosystem. And we came together in a convening setting there was unfortunately no cake if I had had more control advocates out there. There would have been eight there too. And we just brainstorm and it was the entire group coming up with what this ecosystem of getting circles used to really thrive and we came up with a ton of different ideas and I was the facilitator trying to hold all of that work together. And at the end we decided we do need something but we don't actually specifically know what and so we embarked on a whole year long co design process that included voices from five different giving circles, network leaders all across a very diverse group of folks getting Fergal network inside by Jewish values represented Latino Community Foundation, representing black neck voices. We had a leader from the Asian American when giving circle. We had the women's giving circle network represented and then we had a one from the Community Investment Network, which was a network serving isn't network serving people of color and so all of the voices came together over the course of the year and we co divide what would it look like to actually build something that was sort of getting circles and the collective didn't ecosystem and that's how I plan to be together before and so the work is a lot of facilitation and turning sort of the chaos of everything into really simple ways for you forward but everyone has been involved with and understand and having a really tight strategy at the center.

It's really interesting because it definitely it feels seamless, but it probably was a bit messy I would think trying to figure out you know the the code design process. Where was it? What, who was it what inspired that first indication that there was a problem like there was something that needed to get solved by and then gathering everyone together to solve and or to find a solution which became philanthropy together.

Great question. I think we see this all across with movements organizing from the ground up. Once you talk to one person and another person and another person in that same ecosystem. As soon as you hear that same refrain two or three or four times oh, you're looking for something you're looking for something you want more connection you want community and you realize that no one is there to play that role and fill that gap. That's really how to start it just from conversation of folks coming together and not not seeing anything else out there. And so philanthropy together now is really embarking on a whole new journey to support collaborative in the same way that we're supporting, giving circles as a broader definition of what collective giving looks like it means like, and the same thing is happening. We've talked to dozens of collaborative funds all across the field, and the same thing, they're raising their hands and saying, Wow, I would love some place to build community and be together. There is no other home for this right now. I'm so excited to be able to work together and so we're looking forward, to be together to figuring out how to move in that direction as well and sort of all the different many beautiful ways that collective giving unfolds, whether the giving circle or giving project or flow fund or fundraising for cooler a community led collaborative.

It's incredible. So you're obviously working with lots of movements. Are you also working with individual programs or projects?

Great often Yes, but through my work at need partners, I've really found a niche working with network, the network of networks. And I think that goes to the large scale change metaphor. And there's so much work happening within individuals and then at the organizational level. But there's also so much happening in this concept of an impact network. How many many different organizations are coming together, have the same similar mission and goal for what the world and the vision for the world should look like? And how can we come together to make bigger change and we could individually so I've done work, for example with a group called 100k and Ken that was over 300 Different organizations working in the STEM education field, how can they all come together and train a new generation of STEM teachers all around the country? I've worked with a group called a more perfect union, which is more than 100 Different organizations in the democracy space that also happened to be Jewish. How can they come together? And they commitment toward saving our democracy here in the US from a Jewish lens, though, there's so many ways that we can have more impact through that power of networks and so that I've been really fortunate to be able to work with many, many of those networks.

Oh, wonderful. So I wonder where this all comes from. I'm trying to think of, you know, you mentioned a few things about growing up and where or how you were inspired to give and I wonder if you could think back to who was part of your journey as you were growing up. I know you mentioned your family a bit and again, more into detail about giving back and we always say that it didn't start in a vacuum right. So it didn't all of a sudden start at some point something inspired as a we had a some sort of background or experience with our family or witnessing something that helped us form those values. So I'd love for you to look back and see if you can tap into whatever you could think of that inspired you

definitely I have always been a very deeply empathetic person. I remember I was a young girl right when the the war in Afghanistan that was starting or sort of a teenager and I I remember this story or overheard this story of a young girl who was also my age, getting her butt cut off. And that was such a visceral memory for me that a MIDI across the world, other side of the world with going through an experience, so unlike anything that I would ever have to deal with, and that I just need a resolve at that moment that I could also do something about it even as you know, even as a young girl and so I think that really set me off on a path of never considering anything else but doing social impact work. And even when I was considering, you know, becoming a trained pastry chef that was always from the lens of how can you feed others and make the world a more beautiful place. And what does that How can you merge those pieces together? And so yeah, I think for my I shared about my dad, but for my mom, I always learned how much sort of a heart of service is so important and how much you can sort of lead in the very quiet ways from behind.

And I wonder since you did take such an interesting turn in your journey in your professional career. Any tips for people that feel like they have this sense of wanting to get involved and want to do something to make the world a better place, whatever that means for them? How they can do that when maybe they're not doing that professionally?

That's a great question. But I think you know, this concept of a giving circle is such a beautiful one because anyone can be a changemaker. in their own backyard or the end. I think too much of our sector in philanthropy and nonprofits sort of puts up a wall between folks who are working in the sector and everyday people and I think our world will be much better off if we can take down those barriers and really figure out how how everyone can see themselves as a change maker in whatever they have to give and I think too much of our focus and that being on the financial contribution, and instead, how can folks look at all of the five or six P's your time your talent, your testimony, your tie, the truth that you hold and inside the trust that you can give to others with your with your dollars. So that's always been something that I have shared with others that you don't have to join a board or you know, necessarily start your own nonprofit or do that but how do you join a giving circle or start a giving circle or be part of a way of making change in their own backyard? Yes,

please don't start your own nonprofit.

Please don't. I don't know exactly right.

Yes. I can almost guarantee there is something out there that is doing what you want to do. And so with a little research you can join in and partner with an organization is already doing that wonderful work or join a giving circle. For those that are not really familiar with giving circles can you give a bit of a background about it?

War for the proof of concept really rooted in generation millennia of history collective giving as a way that communities around the world really starting in with Africa, but it has roots and countries around the globe have come together to be to be their own force for communal support and change in the last 30 ish years. This concept has really sort of added been a part of the philanthropic landscape where a group of people come together who have shared values, pull their funding together and decide together where to then give that funding. And there's been so much innovation and pushing on this there are giving project which is a way of doing this work that brings together a cross race cross class group of people and you really dig into your own money story and how your own privilege and bias are part of what that looks like. There's been getting circles operating with the flow fund process where you know, the donors come together but then they completely feed control and, and give other groups on the ground or leader of on the ground, the sort of agency to decide where that funding should go. So it's been really beautiful to see how much giving for goals have changed and they've grown massively. There's 1000s and 1000s of them all around the world and you can find one your own backyard or start your own that

aligns with your values. Yeah, how can people find out more information if they want to find a giving circle that's already exist before potentially starting their own?

Yeah, so philanthropy together in partnership with grapevine, which is the technology platform and support organization for giving circles, we have a directory that we built that showcases the 1000s of giving circles out there so you can find that on our website, philanthropy together.org backslash directory, and we're doing a global research and in the coming months to see how much the field has grown and so for any given struggles out there, we'd love for you to be part of that to really make your voice heard and show institutional philanthropy how much change making is happening on the ground by everyday individual.

Yeah, it's a really it's a growing area. And it's really where people can have an impact. And it's not about the amount that you're giving, though. It really is a collaborative effort. I think it's an incredible thing for people to be part of it tends to be more women than men my right

yes, it's very much female women driven but that's also changing is becoming more diverse on every friend as though this is really a space for everyone to make their voice heard.

That's great. It's good to hear. So okay, we are nearing the end. This has been so incredible and I think your story about culinary school is going to stay with me for a very long time sharing that. And so I said so tell me what do you consider your legacy to be?

And that's a great question. I've done a lot of work in the purpose faith one of my projects is called the genuine and it's all about how to how to really align and find your own purpose in life. And this is not a navel gazing thing. I think everybody in the world deserve the feeling of purpose. And for me when I was doing a lot of that internal thinking, I've defined that for my own life as somebody who transformed chaos into beauty. That is my purpose when I'm baking a loaf of bread or when I'm doing a co design process with hundreds of people and 1000s of post it notes. And so I hope that my legacy is one where that is shown and I leave a mark on every single project that I do that it is at the end more beautiful and more bold and more aligned with values and more rooted in community decision making than if I hadn't been involved and I hope that those projects and processes become bolder as I continue my career and and I hope that I hope that I leave the world a more joyful base and that anyone that has an interaction with me, leave with a smile and maybe a piece of cake on their plate.

You have to throw in the cake there right though All right, well, thank you so much. This has been really just incredible to get to know you better and to understand your journey and how others also can see themselves in your experience. as well. So where can people find out more information about you?

Sure, you feel philanthropy together. You happy to have anyone join into our programming. We have tons of offerings there you can read that that since we've been together got bored, and I think all our social handles and handlers minds will be together. as well. And then personally, I am not a social media person. So you can find me on LinkedIn but I am not on any other social platform. Again, I really value my time and analog ways of being with each other unity so I hope to meet some of you live

Wonderful. So thank you again for joining us and sharing your philanthropic journey. Everyone else I hope that you got a lot of information and inspiration from this interview today. And again, you can tune in every Wednesday to get new episodes and feel free to leave a comment and a rating about what you liked and what you'd like to hear more about. So till next time. Thank you for joining us. I hope we provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in every week.