Episode 57: Katherine Miller
Join Lori and her guest, Katherine Miller, as they talk about how it’s possible to take a business approach to make an impact on global causes. Katherine works with nonprofits and emerging philanthropists and helps them strategize how to make the most of their funding activities. In this episode, she shares how she helps these organizations create the change that they want to see. Stay tuned!
Here are the things to expect in this episode:
What’s the story behind Table81?
Learning about socially responsible investing. What does this mean?
The value of focusing on the cause you advocate for the most.
And much more!
About Katherine Miller:
I work with advocacy groups, corporations, non-profit organizations, policymakers, and philanthropic funders around the world to make meaningful progress on some of the world's most intractable problems (ie. vaccinations, climate change, gender-based violence, democracy reform, food justice, hunger).
My approach is grounded in data and evaluation. From there I build strategies, plans, and budgets. I love introducing leaders in different communities (scientists, artists, farmers, chefs) to the tools and techniques that turn them into powerful spokespeople and build people-centered solutions. I can step in for short-term support, and manage long-term projects.
Connect with Katherine!
Website: https://table81.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/table81/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/table81
Organizations mentioned:
United Nations Foundation: https://unfoundation.org/
National Sexual Assault Hotline: https://www.rainn.org/resources
NARAL Pro-Choice Ameria: https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/
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 sparks 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 gonna 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 Wednesdays. So today, I am incredibly excited to have Katherine Miller. She is the founder of Table 81 And I know she's going to talk more about that So Katherine, welcome.
Hi Lori. It's so nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
My pleasure. So um, why don't you start us off and tell us more about Table 81?
Sure. So Table 81 is a full-service consultancy that works with nonprofits and foundations and family offices, individual philanthropists, all around political advocacy and giving and policy advocacy and giving so really helping people devise strategies to have the greatest impact with their funding. And my career is sort of at the intersections of all of those things. I worked in politics for a while and then into the foundation and nonprofit space and then social responsible investing space and then in program development. So bringing all those things together to work with sort of best-in-class funders, and also people who are emerging philanthropists, I do a lot of work with people who are just starting that journey of like, oh, wait, we know that we can give more than we're giving. How do we do that? And how do we have the most impact and change the world to be the type of world that we want to see? So,
Now, Yeah, and so your background is absolutely incredible. I want to go through each of them and also you to talk more about the journey, but I know that you have a particular interest in the things that you're working on and missions that you work with. Can you talk a little more about that?
Yeah, I mean, I myself, you know, I'm a you know, I'm an activist and an advocate and a philanthropist in each of those buckets. And so I look at it across that when helping advise people in organizations on how to have the greatest impact that they can, whether it's through communications campaigns or advocacy campaigns, or using their voice individually. I really have focused in the, at the both the state level, but also at the international level. So I've done everything from work with clients on healthcare in China to, you know, landholder rights in West Africa and global vaccination campaigns. And over the past decade or so, I've really become known for and immersed in all of the issues that are focused on our global food system, and trying to figure out a way to bring about a global food system that is more fair, more equitable, is more regenerative in terms of our people on the planet, and also still delicious. So that's sort of what I'm known for.
Yes, yes. Thanks for sharing that. And is that how, what is Table 81? How'd you get the name?
So Table 81 I mean, we all have experiences, right? Like at a restaurant or our grandmother's table or our family table, tables are the place where we all come together? Right? We come together to celebrate, we've come together to mourn. We've come together to have deep conversations, to plan right? We all have that moment where we've been around a table, looking for solutions, looking for fun, looking for common ground. And so Table 81 is actually a very specific table number. So in every restaurant, they assign the table’s numbers so they know where to put your food, right? Know where to bring your dishes. And Table 81 is a very specific table and it's the back garden table at the Tabbert Inn in Washington DC. And that table is where I had many milestones in my life. That's where I signed my first mortgage papers. It's where I accepted my first global job. It's where I decided to become an individual consultant. It's you know, where I celebrated family milestones, so it's a very, so it became something but I feel like tables are the things that bring us together and I'm actually working on a book currently with Island Press called At The Table which is really looking at food systems advocacy, and so that the tables where it all happens.
I agree and even more for all for me in my experience. Everything always happens in the kitchen. Like it happens in the kitchen like that's where the party is. When there's a party that's always in the kitchen. My kids don't sit down long enough to eat at the table. So yeah. So I mean, I love how names come about and that's why I wanted to ask you and it's certainly a piece of individuals legacy. And so we're gonna talk about your legacy a little bit later. But I want to talk about your journey because you have such a rich experience with all different areas within philanthropy and I'd love you to share a little more about how you get started with us.
Yeah, it's a you know, it's a great question and really makes no sense to anybody maybe but me right? Like I graduated from college with a degree in creative writing and poetry, and thought that I was going to become a publisher or editor or writer and realized that those jobs paid so little money that I was going to have to have three or four additional jobs in order to support that dream. And so I got into the political world, because I was a research assistant at the Los Angeles Times. It was one of the things that paid my way to be able to work on magazines or writing submissions, and I fell in love with campaigns. I fell in love with this idea of our collective democracy and really how it was working was something that came up as a child but not really I mean, I had a working single mom, right like, you know, there wasn't a lot of, you know, other than going with her to vote. There wasn't a lot in that space. She didn't, it wasn't something that was cute. It wasn't something that was largely in our lives, and so I really fell in love with it. I also fell in love with it from a way that the most effective advocacy communicators tell stories, right? They connect with you on a personal level. They make you feel a moment they really attach themselves to your memories or your experience. Those are what the best political communicators do. And so I, you know, working in that field for a long time, really, I just, you know, it was the quintessential campaign advocate, you know, going from campaign to campaign and but one of the things that I noticed was that we weren't necessarily looking at systems. We weren't really looking at how if you change one thing you impact 15 Other things right? And so when we look at fights like the minimum wage or other issues, you know, you really do have to take a systemic approach and so that three dimensional chess was missing for me a little. And I found it in the world of global finance, right. And I was lucky enough that one of my political mentors had gone on to work for a Fortune 50 company and she hired me to work in the executive office on speech writing, and then later you know, as a consultant and then later as a communications person, and really started to learn this world of social responsible investing, and how if we change what we're doing with companies, our scale of change is so much bigger, right? And if we change and weirdly, the interesting thing around social investing companies and now emerging V corpse and all these folks, is this idea that you actually can attach corporate performance to social equity, right and the early shareholder campaigns that were, you know, really focused on that I was really fortunate to be a part of some of that work related to divestment in the Sudan, Divestment and other companies and that divestment movement, really just lit something in me. And you know, one of the primary funders and one of the primary avenues for funding outside of government funding is philanthropic funding. Right. And so, you know, I was lucky enough to work for Ted Turner and the United Nations Foundation. They took a business approach. He made a billion dollar commitment to global causes, but everything related to that was communications, advocacy planning, bringing in public private partnerships, and so really bringing those things together. And so it's a it's an interesting journey, but it also builds on itself right started with storytelling and really ends with storytelling and how we can how we, as philanthropists and advocates, can learn to tell a story in a way that really touches the hearts and minds of folks and inspires them to act and so all of those things sort of add up.
Well, yeah, absolutely. I see the threads through it. But it's interesting and especially as how our listeners are trying to figure out their own philanthropic journey and how to execute on their vision. I get asked a question a lot and I'd love to know your thoughts about when someone wants to give back and whether it's through, say impact investing or philanthropy, traditional philanthropy, volunteering, donating, things like that you know, a lot of times they can kind of get stuck on like what to do and to take action to do something. Any thoughts about that since you have experience with that, but both of those and more?
Yeah, I mean, I think you have to look at your philanthropic journey also in three buckets, right? Like, you know, charitable giving is something that my husband and I do like we set a budget every year right? Like, can we what are we going to give to the ASPCA or what are we going to give to Planned Parenthood or you know, in those increments and dollars that are very different than when we really get into the community? Right when we're really involved in our and that's where we I think about you know, that philanthropic arc of time and treasure and talent, right? Your treasure, like you can figure out how to do that, your talent, you know, you can dedicate that to a community based organization, you can join a board, right, you can figure out how you can learn a little bit more, and then really how you're bringing those things together. Really the advocacy piece for me, right? Like you can be an advocate for a bigger, better world. I also think the thing that I tell my clients and the things that I work with folks on is they try to figure out their personal roles as added up, because you are probably giving more from a financial perspective and from a time perspective than you think you are. And you're probably getting it in more places than you think you are, right. And when you truly take the time to sort of add up all those $25 donations, all those $2,500 tickets or all of those large legacy gifts you get. It will help you hone your sort of who you really want to give money to. And I say this all the time, like a $50 donor, unfortunately, is in many ways, not necessarily as important to an organization as a $50,000 donor, right, the time and attention that organizations pay to that but that also gives you that way in and so if you're spending all of that if you're giving all of that your time, your resources to a myriad of causes, take a look at it because it will also help you hone in right every year we make a plan. Every year we talk about okay, who we're going to support our universities as alumni. We're going to support we're pet adopters, we don't have children. So we have you know we have pet children. And you know, so we support our local adoption agency. I do a lot of work in the gender violence and ending sexual violence around the world. And so we get it, you know, that is where the bulk of our money goes. And that's where our sort of legacy gifts are gonna go. But like, if you take that time to add it up, and figure out where all of your time, energy and money is going to a myriad of different causes. It will help you focus and I think focus is the key, right? And then I think you can figure out how you deploy that at a charitable level, like those small dollar gifts to where you're really going to dedicate your time, joining a board or joining a service. And then really what is your longer term impact that you want to have? What's the thing you're going to advocate most for?
Right and it's okay to change as well. I have few people that feel like they're married to something because they started to work on something or or sat on a board and it's okay to pivot. It's because our values may shift a little bit, our priorities or our impact where we want to focus may change. There could be children involved or you want to get your children involved in philanthropy as well. So they're, it’s okay to make changes also along the way.
I think it's okay to make I absolutely think it's okay to make changes. We do that sort of audit self audit every year usually around tax time when we sort of are looking at our itemized donation donations, or you know, our donations, and we're like, what did we get to this year, but we usually use that time period to think about what it is we want to give next year to set that sort of budget, so called, and I do think your time and energy changes with the causes that you care about and morphs over time. Right. So for I've been involved since the early 1990s with the National Sexual Assault hotline. That will never waver for me that it the genesis of that work is from a very personal experience with a college friend and family members and so I will never not not, you know figure out a way to contribute to ending sexual violence in the world. But, you know, I also used to be on the board of NARAL Pro-Choice America. And there was a time when it was time for me to move off that board right that as important as reproductive rights are in this country. There are maybe other people better positioned to serve on that board, maybe other dollars to come into it. Maybe other voices that need to be heard, especially in this move towards finding leaders of lived experience and you know, from different communities. And so I think you know, I think every responsible donor and advocate needs to constantly be thinking, Am I How am I contributing? Am I contributing in a way that is positive for the organizations or the cause that I care about? And what is really of interest and urgency, right? So certainly over the last year, our charitable donations to you know, organizations related to reproductive freedom. Have certainly gone up this year because of some of the challenges but so there's, you know, there are arcs that you can look at right and whether your interest is in animal you know, animal rights or human rights or immigration or food. It's really important to take that step back every once in a while and look at it and make sure that it's really something that's still important to you and still has urgency for you.
Right, yeah, absolutely agree. So let's go even further back. So you talked about growing up, you know, single mom, and that you started after college after you majoring and was it English literature, or?
I was a creative writing major. So yeah, I know right.
So I also wanted to figure out how to go into publishing and I went to law school instead but so even so before that, growing up, and are there any if you just thinking back moments of times that you're giving back, experiences, people that influenced you along the way?
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, you know, I was a single mom. So I can say that I was a product of a single mom and a sort of tribe of women who raised me, my aunt's, my grandmother, and those folks and that tribe of women really became sort of the inspiration for everything, that community of women really became the inspiration for everything. And in part, you know, it was also very traditional, right? We went to we went to Mass every Sunday and there was an envelope and I put money in the envelope. You know, you got your box of envelopes with your name on it from the Catholic church. And, you know, every year and, you know, you put in, I was, you know, expected to put in, you know, whatever part of my allowance, went back into that and went into the church, so tithing that that weekly donation was certainly part of it. I was also enrolled very early, probably as a child maintenance thing, but as certainly a thing as a bluebird as a brownie as a Girl Scout. Right? So that spirit of needing to give back. And that community aspect, you know, you always had service projects, you always had those things. And then you know, the one thing that always sticks with me is probably this seriously beats me, but they used to do this thing, the multiple sclerosis readathon. And you got you it was a way to keep you engaged in books over the summer as a kid, right? And so you got this sheet and you had to record every book. Right? And then you had to go around to your friends and your community members and you had to collect donations based on how many books you read. I am a voracious reader, like ridiculous and so I did very well read time fundraiser Much to the chagrin of my family. So those types of things were the types of things that I participated in as a child and knew that was expected so there wasn't ever you know, and then I did go to a Jesuit University and the Jesuit the Jesuit indoctrination, I'll call it right. It's pretty intense around social justice. Right. And I went to college at the time that there was an amazing priest Daniel Barragan, who, you know, was leading some pretty intense anti nuclear war, anti nuclear power, social justice protests. And so, and it was the start of the first Gulf War. So there was a lot of that foment of advocacy on campus and that social justice piece and so it's always been part of, I think who I am, I just didn't quite realize it, right. Like it wasn't, I wasn't raised to be a philanthropist. Right.
And many of us, you know, it's baked into you because you don't even realize it. I did not grow up in a household my parents went to we're sitting on boards, we went to galas. And it just wasn't what I experienced. However, we did, yeah. All the things that you were mentioning also also within our family, you just having the community giving back what we could. It's just part of what we did, and that's I think it's incredibly important and many people don't think about that like they don't really think back like all these different things. And I even think, Katherine as you were talking you were thinking more and more things like just kept peeling back the layers Oh, yes, this and oh, yes, that and that's kind of happens and I think it's wonderful to think about and a lot of this just because our identity and the organizations we eventually want to support so.
So thank you for Yeah, no, absolutely. And it is funny. It is like a whole layered system, right? Because I didn't grew up in a world where we went to galas or boards or there we were going to put our name on anything like as to the world that I grew up in but you know, there was a, it was instilled in me very early that you gave back that you were part of your community. And I think the other thing that was instilled pretty early was that if you saw something wrong, you talked about it and you said something about it, and I think that is you know, probably the root of being a you know, a person who works professionally with other advocates is like we all have that responsibility. So, yeah.
Well, you know, this is a perfect time to talk about your legacy. So we just talked about upbringing and then consider your legacy to be
Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting question, right? Because I think professionally what I want, what I am known for and want to continue to be known for is that I build things that last, right so strategically, you know, the National Sexual Assault hotline is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary right and I literally was there putting the pins in the wall as we were recruiting rape crisis centers on a thermal paperbacks like I built a campaign with a whole team of people at the United Nations Foundation called the Nothing But That's Campaign. It's an anti Malaria Initiative. It's an amazing fundraising initiative, and it's leveraged almost $100 million dollars for anti malaria and efforts around the country and around the world. And, you know, I've built other campaigns, you know, within the food system, I've built a community of advocates over you know, nearly 1000 chefs strong that talk about global food systems issues and so, my professional legacy and my expertise is that I, I build things that last, and I build things that can keep getting back and morph, you know, that's the strategy. You know, I think my personal legacy is harder to define at this moment, because I don't necessarily feel like I'm at that moment where I should be thinking about legacy right. I still think I feel much younger than I actually am. You know, I think if, when I give myself the opportunity to think about it, I want to I want to make sure that I've done everything that I can do to help people understand both their personal role and their personal power in creating the world that we want to see, this world does not work if we are passive bystanders, right? We don't, we won't see fairness and equity, in any of our children's lifetimes. If we're passive bystanders and so this idea that however, I can contribute to that one by one by one, or collectively that is the thing that I that's the thing that I want to do, and I want to make sure that you know, it's it's always clear that we all have we all have the power to make change. And it all starts with us individually. And so that's really what I hope, hope I leave behind.
Well, I think that it's well on its way that different programs and campaigns that you started are ongoing and really made an impact. So thank you all for the work you have been doing and continue to do. So. It is now time for us to wrap things up. And of course we want to share information about where people can find more about you and Table 81 So where's the best place to find you?
Yeah, so on both Instagram and Twitter, it's just @Table81. That's the handle. It's very easy. And then My website is www.table81.com You can find out information about my bio and projects that I've worked on and for some seminars that I posted, some of the folks that I work with. So yeah, we'd love to stay in touch with folks.
Wonderful. Well, thank you again for joining us. This has been such an incredible talk and I encourage everyone to seek their passion, figure out what means what's meaningful to them. And just take action and go for it. So thank you for joining us. We hope that we provide some insights and inspirations that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in every Wednesday for new episodes, and we'll see you next time. Take care.
Thank you
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 on Wednesdays when new episodes are dropped. We'd love to hear your feedback. So leave a comment and a rating about what you liked and what you'd like to hear more about. And if you liked the episode today, make sure to share it to raise awareness about the story to inspire other women to take action. I'm Lori Kranczer and until next time, you can make a positive impact through philanthropy every day. Thanks for listening.