Episode 96: Alex Amouyel

Join Lori for an inspiring conversation with Alex Amouyel, President and CEO of Newman's Own Foundation, as they explore how the foundation is dedicated to nourishing and uplifting the lives of children facing adversity. Alex delves into the profound impact of philanthropy and emphasizes the significance of starting small to create meaningful change!

Here are the things to expect in this episode:

• Alex's professional journey before joining Newman's Own Foundation.

• The Newman's Own Foundation's mission and focus areas.

• Alex's advice to those who want to transition from the corporate to the nonprofit sector.

• Resources for the philanthropic journey.

• And much more!

Alex’s Website: https://www.yourimpactlife.com/

Alex’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-amouyel-6a8a1a10/

Newman’s Own Foundation: https://newmansown.org/

Alex’s Book, The Answer is You: A Guidebook to Creating a Life Full of Impact: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-answer-is-you-alex-amouyel/1140772974?ean=9781642507218

The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/594025/the-blue-sweater-by-jacqueline-novogratz/

Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/588996/decolonizing-wealth-second-edition-by-edgar-villanueva/

Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World by Scott Shigeoka: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seek-scott-shigeoka/1143160891?ean=9781538740811.

Episode Transcript

00:10

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 spark something in you and how you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host. Lori Kranczer, attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy giving strategist. Together, we're going 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. So I'm so excited to have guests join us today. This is actually it's a long time coming. We had to reschedule a few times, and I'm just really thrilled that we're able to fit it in on a Friday and first day of November. So welcome Alex. Alex Amouyel is the President and CEO of Newman's own foundation.

01:08

Thank you, Lori, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I love the concept of everyday philanthropy. So delighted to be here, and

01:16

I'm so glad that you're joining us. Your background is so interesting, and so I've, of course, read up on your background, but I'd love for you to share to our listeners now, so tell us more about you.

01:29

So I'm French, British and American. I grew up in Paris, and from a very young age, I wanted to do something good in the world that started with the idea that I was going to become a scientific researcher and rid the world of cancer. And that sort of carried me through my university years, at which point I decided that I really didn't like being in the lab and preparing small quantities of liquids, but really I was, I was, in fact, working on childhood cancer at the time, and so I switched to study international relations with my masters. And no one would hire me to do anything interesting or pay me any amount of money to do, to do anything interesting in human rights. So I joined a management consulting firm, like many of my peers at the time, and after about two and a half years, this was at the Boston Consulting Group, I managed to get staffed on a pro bono project with Save the Children, which was one of the places I really admired and really wanted to work for when I was doing my masters. And thanks to that experience, I managed to then get a job full time there, which I did out of London and also around the world, for a few years, working for Save the Children, almost like an internal consultant. And then I switched. First, I moved to New York and got a job at the Clinton Foundation, working in their program team for the Clinton gold initiative. And after that, joined MIT as an exec, the executive Dao director for MIT soul, which brings me full circle today to Newman zone Foundation. And interestingly, the reason I brought up my sort of initial dream of scientific research and working on childhood cancer is one of the things that we do is support a network of summer camps that Paul Newman founded back in the day, which works with children with serious illnesses, including many young cancer patients. So in the end, things come full circle.

03:59

Well, certainly, and I actually am making notes as you're talking Alex, because I was putting down children cancer philanthropy, Save the Children, a lot of I could see the pattern and and one of the things when I'm working with people trying to figure out what issue areas that they want to fund, you know, it takes some work, but it for you, it sounds like you knew from the start that that is what inspired you to get into something in philanthropy. Is there anything that you could think of in your background that why it was children?

04:36

I usually tell people that my desire to do good in the world. And, and then in general, is, is first that my personal mission is about equality of opportunity and ensuring that everybody has the chance to realize their full potential, and the best investment you can make in that and, and the first place to start is kids like the age of zero to five, or even zero to 18, non determinant in when we talk about hunger, when we talk about education, when we talk about this best chance you have, and there's people like Raj Shetty and a number of people who talk about the importance of their childhood years or equality of opportunities. So I think that that's sort of the right brain reason, if you will, for my desire to work on kids issues or in general. But I think the more less brain reason or the more I don't know emotional reason is, is twofold, is my heritage and my privilege.

05:43

I my my father

05:47

was French and born in Algeria and had to leave Algeria during the War of decolonization, and his family had to leave there. And my maternal grandmother was born in Russia and had to escape Russia during the Soviets, also a lot of anti Jewish sentiment and pogroms, and ended up in Germany and had to escape Germany. Ended up in Palestine during World War Two, and then Marin married a British soldier, so I'm sort of French and British, but I'm not really French and British. And that sense of, you know, and I'm an immigrant to the United States, and a sense of, of, of Yeah, of a family of refugees and immigrants and and of is still, I can remember that, I think, in my my family, and I'm wanting to ensure that people do have the those opportunities, and that they do. And then in terms of my privilege is that I, you know, managed to go to good schools, managed to grow up in Paris and the number due to an accident of birth, and I was born at the right time in the in the right place. And I have the choice with what I do with my waking hours, and I would like to use that choice in the best way possible, and that's therefore using my skills and superpowers to do good in the world and to try and realize my mission. No,

07:27

I love that. That's great any particular people that may have inspired you along the way.

07:37

Many, many people, I would say my parents in terms of encouraging me enough to do that I could do anything I could, although there was a strong bias of I should do science in my family, which is perhaps also why I started as a biochemist. And but also some of my teachers, notably, I'm thinking back when I was doing my master's, somebody called Shavuot Tadge back who was teaching human security at the time, which was a very new concept, and, but I think shaped my thinking about a number of things, and then definitely had wonderful mentors and bosses throughout my life and in many, in many different settings. But one of the one of my former bosses, I'd say the children Thomas hatham was, giving me sort of a mini MBA, course, so I didn't study before an MBA, but he would give me different exercises. And one of the things I remember was he made me watch 12 Angry Men, which is a great movie. None of you have seen that you should but it was, he was saying, essentially, how can you work through influence, through sort of, you know, figuring out what people want and what motivates them and and sort of working through the other, other Members of the jury to help get the outcome without revealing too much of the movie, to get the outcome that that the person who's driving the character, those, those were very helpful mentors and bosses and inspirations. Obviously, I could also talk about all the different people that have inspired me from a, you know, historical point of view. I have Ruth Bader Ginsburg wallpaper and and one of the rooms in my house, and she sort of looks down on on anyone sleeping in that room. So,

10:03

that's great. And 12 Ingerman. I It's fresh my mind because my daughter read it last year in middle school, and I hadn't looked at it in decades, maybe, and it reminded me also of how there's so many layers to it. So everyone listening, please pick it up or go watch the movie, because there are so many things in it that you uncover as you go through that piece of work. And one thing that struck with me, because I talk about with them, working with donors, is that you don't know what's behind people's conversations. Sometimes there's so many different layers to individuals, and they bring their experiences with them, and so to uncover that, or sometimes uncover biases, but it's really interesting. So thank you for bringing

10:46

that up. I'm very impressed with your daughter's Middle School, that that was a book assigned to to them. I had to wait till I was 20. Remember 2425 to come across this. There was this work, but indeed, was being used as a mini MBA. Yeah, it's

11:07

it's a good piece, and I almost forgot about it until it came up last year. So let's go to your work now. I'm curious about the work that you're doing and Newman's Own Can you share more about the products that you're working on and what the goals are that you have set. Yes,

11:24

absolutely. So Newman's Own Foundation's mission is to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity. And that breaks down in three main priority areas. One of them is joyful experiences for children with serious illnesses, which is the summer camps that Paul and Newman also created back in the 80s for kids with cancer, rare blood disorders, HIV, AIDS, a number of of different medical conditions. And then the two other main priority program areas are nutrition education and school food and indigenous food justice. So there we have about 50 or so grantee partners ranging from Food Corps and FRAC, which are sort of quite larger national nonprofits to much smaller community based organizations from Hawaii to Alaska to the Navajo Nation to Rosebud Reservation up in South Dakota, they're really working deep, embedded, deep into community, working to bring about food justice for kids and ensure that kids have the right stars in life for you know, not only having access to food and healthy food, but also really learning how to about Healthy food habits, how to grow, gather, cook, culturally relevant, fresh can't afford food, and you could add a lot of other wonderful objectives, but that's, that's the vision. And then another big thing. And you know, one of the reasons I really work at Newman's own foundation is, and going back to your comments about everyday philanthropists, is what makes this very unique is that the foundation owned the food company at Newman's own ink, which sells, as you know, the salad dressing, the popcorn past this horse, etc. And this is from the very beginning, since Paul Newman founded it in 1982 all the profits and royalties from the sale of the new moon zone products go to the foundation because we, in fact, own it, which is, you know, similar to now Patagonia and a few others around the world, but is a pretty unique setup and and so really, It's the consumers of our products, who are the philanthropists there, and they are the everyday philanthropists. And it's incredible to think about and and sort of a model that I really, you know, think is innovative and continues to be innovative, and that I want to help continue to promote and see who else is interested in, in starting up businesses or converting their businesses, in the case of Yvon chouiner from Patagonia, to become, to become businesses that are owned by foundations and that can sustain philanthropic Giving, but also really do good in the world. Yeah, that's amazing. So

14:45

share a little bit about your the professional journey that you had. I know that you were at Boston Consulting, and then you actually pivoted into going into and I know that you were inspired by the pro bono work you did, which is very similar to when I left the practice of law, I was doing pro bono work as an attorney, and just felt like I needed to do it full time. And I wonder, you know what it's sometimes it's hard to make that change professional. And I wonder, like, Did you get any pushback? Were there any any type of friction when you were making that change over?

15:22

Well, I took a 40% pay cut. That's probably one thing to talk about. And then I got promoted a couple of times. And then when I moved from Save the Children to the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, I took a second 40% pay cut, but I had a sort of I was basically back at my starting salary from the Boston Consulting Group. For many sort of I go up and then I go back down, and then I go up and then I go back down. So I guess that's one friction. But I definitely was happy to do that at the time. Did it twice, and was happy to do that at the time. I also think that

16:01

there were some people

16:04

I'm still, you know, very grateful and very good friends with, many people that my time at the Boston Consulting Group, and, you know, I just spoke at some alumni events and things like that. It really gave me a great basis for, you know, business acumen and a number of things that actually today as so it was an awesome training ground, but there were a couple of people who were really not I delighted that I was Going to work for a pro bono client and and didn't really understand that, but that was not people that were people that I wanted to listen to at the time. So Right? And I think for some

16:54

of our listeners who are are working in the corporate sector and want to do something more, either they're inspired to do something, but sometimes it's hard to leave something that you're comfortable with, or you go into a different field, even though you have that values to do that. So I wonder if there's anything that you can share that was helpful to you when you made that decision.

17:18

Absolutely so. And by the way, I wrote a book which is called the answers. You a guidebook. They're creating a life full of impact. And there are several chapters which talk about this. So one of them is about starting with 10% of your time and money. And it's partly inspired by somebody who wrote a book, one of my friends, Patrick J McGinnis, who original book called The 10% entrepreneur, and which is like, Don't quit your day job at start of an entrepreneurial side venture with 10% of your time and money and influence and resources. And sort of, I basically took that concept, which isn't also, by the way, 10% of your money is a religious concept that has existed for many generations going forward. So the people who you know want to think about moving into social impact, into philanthropy, are not sure where to start. Don't have the means or routes to quit their day job and go and work for Planned Parenthood or save the children or on the moon zone foundation. Thinking about, how do you carve out 10% of your time and or your money to volunteer, to give back to think, and I talk about money from a giving perspective, but an impact investing perspective, from a purchasing perspective, you know, unless you are a professional tree planter, thinking about what your superpowers and your skills are. And again, if you're a lawyer, how do you do how do you support pro bono non profit with your legal expertise and things like that? So first, sort of mapping your superpowers and then applying those are places that are good inroads in, not only obviously, in sort of feeling purposeful and and and sort of getting a lot of value in and of itself on these things, but also exploring different opportunities and networking and getting connected. And again, in my book, I talk about a couple of people who truly, actually a former lawyer as well, ISIS boost, who now runs the LEX Lundy pro bono foundation, but through a lot of her volunteering aspects, then got connected and and sort of got her her first jobs in in sort of social impact and nonprofit. And now she's no longer a lawyer, but she still supports lawyers and their pro bono practice, which is wonderful. Yeah, I think

20:01

that's great. So we're gonna, we'll post information about the book in the show notes. Yeah, I think just it's, it's taking the small steps in the beginning, asking the questions. Anyone in this field also is always happy to have a conversation, I feel so is happy to mentor, or just me for 15 minutes, or, you know, and or, over a zoom call and out their experience and hadn't provided resources. So before we get into our last questions, just curious, are there any resources that you could think of that have been helpful to you as you went through your philanthropic journey?

20:37

I guess I'll give you three books. So one that I read right at the beginning, that I really did, you know, shape my thinking and other things, is, and it's called the Blue sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, which I can, which you probably know. And she's the founder, CEO of acumen, which is an impact investing, one of the first impact investing type firms, and still going strong and incredible. But you know, for me, that was really transformational and really thinking about impact investing and innovative financing structures, and I would say that is a through line as well in my career about really looking at innovative solutions, innovative financing, innovative business models, Newman's own foundation and owning a food company being one of these things. So that book was pretty incredible. The second one would be decolonizing wealth, by Edgar Villanova, who's from the Lumbee Tribe, and who, again, I'm sure you know about it, and perhaps many listeners do Bucha, but, but I still really, I think anyone really getting into philanthropy in a deep way should think about the less positive aspects of it and the problematic aspects of it around, and in this context of the US around Native American issues. But the book is much broader than that, about really thinking about what to do and not to do, and also means of heal, it using philanthropy as a way to heal, as opposed to ways to perpetuate Neo colonial white savior issues. And then the third one, and I forget the surname of the person, the first name is that is about curiosity. And what I'm reading at the moment, it really his thesis is how to really be curious with people. He travels across the country meeting he's a queer man from Oakland, California who worked at the greater good initiative at Berkeley, and then travel country, meeting Catholic nuns and supporters and a number of people who are, let's say, very much, outside Typical comfort zone to really think about curiosity is doing good in the world and also really understanding a much deeper level and and that's a little bit of a side note to philanthropy, but I I think curiosity is a value that is absolutely integral to doing good work in the world,

23:41

absolutely. And I wrote it down because I don't have that one. So

23:45

just came out, and I so much so that I cannot fully remember. I met Scott, and he gave me his book, so I should really know his surname, and I apologize.

23:56

We will list it also in the show notes. Okay, so we're nearing the end, Alex, this has been wonderful to hear your journey and all the resources and your inspiration through your philanthropic journey. But I would love to know, as your philanthropic journey continues,

24:09

what do you want your legacy

24:13

to be? I've already stated that I think, how have I driven throughout my life, innovative solutions and financing and business models that have helped towards my the ultimate mission, which is about equality of opportunity.

24:37

Great. Well, thank you for that. I don't know somebody

24:39

will put that on my tombstone. That might be a bit long, but I have the, you know, I've really helped in that area,

24:50

and I would affirm that, yes, I think you have so. So with that, where

24:56

can people find out more value?

25:01

So you can go to our website, newmanzone.org, and then I have a website that is cruelly not up to date, but which is called your impact life.com, and then you can get my book in a number of bookstores, and obviously Amazon,

25:22

and we'll list everything in the show notes. Alex, thank you again for joining us and sharing your journey with our listeners. Is there anything you would like to leave us with any advice at the end?

25:33

Um,

25:37

we think of philanthropy as the bigger billionaire type philanthropists, but in the US, lower income Americans give more as a percentage of their income by quite a long way than richer Americans. And collectively, small donors make up more in philanthropy than billionaires. So I do invite everybody to and I just read a really interesting article as well, and our remittances outpace by far global aid. So I do really think that. I hope all of you who are listening can already think of yourselves as philanthropists in the way that you show up, through your giving and through your volunteering and through your presence in community, I encourage you to continue to do more, hopefully at least 10% of your you know it's a journey and and, you know, really, I want to reverse that image of the philanthropist and include everybody at that table. Thank

26:52

you for that. I couldn't have said it was exactly what we do here. So it's perfect. Yes, we celebrate, we celebrate all giving in every form that we can share on in our podcast, but certainly the everyday, philanthropist is an important person, and we want to highlight that here so thank you again, Alex. Have you to our listeners, feel free to check out everything that Alex is listed, and we'll have everything in the show notes read the book, I'm going to as well. And until next time.