Leadership in Focus: Allyson Hewitt
By Elisa Birnbaum
September 7, 2010
This month in our Leadership in Focus series, we speak with Allyson Hewitt, director of social entrepreneurship at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. Leading the unique program, Social Innovation Generation (SiG@MaRS), Allyson develops capacity in the field of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, provides advisory services to social entrepreneurs and helps transform systems for greater impact. After 25 years of dedication, you could say Allyson knows the nonprofit sector well. Earlier roles included executive director of Safe Kids Canada at SickKids and executive director at Community Information Toronto, a position that garnered Allyson awards for public service commitment.
CharityVillage®: Tell me about SiG@MaRS
Allyson Hewitt:
SiG@MaRs is a convergence innovation centre which means we work with different sectors to try to think differently about encouraging innovation. I spent 25 years in the nonprofit sector in a staff position, longer than that as a volunteer, but never had the ability to work with people from academia, government, business, science, technology etc. in the way that I have here. It has blown my mind. We do three things. We advise, convene and accelerate. We advise through engagement with business stakeholders — if you have a technology you're bringing in, we can get some pretty senior advisors who have spent a lot of their life in the private sector and the most valuable thing they do is open doors and create networks which are always a challenge for the sector.
We convene lots of events, bring really astounding global leaders here and we pull together clusters of people. When Al Etmanski approached us, it was to bring together the federal government, six provinces, and four national banks in a room to think about how the RDSP can be implemented. There aren't a lot of places where that can happen. It's that really neutral sandbox where everybody feels welcome, where they have a place but the real value is in the neutral broker.
And then we try to accelerate social innovation through some really exciting initiatives. One is the Social Venture Exchange, which is creating a platform to allow those with money to meet up with those who need money. It's more than philanthropy. I think it's critical cause it's talking about impact investing. So how do we get those who are interested in donating but also thinking about loans or, ultimately if the sector moves in this direction, allowing for some kind of equity investment that allows them to scale. So we do a lot of work in social financing.
We've also done a lot of research. We have two white papers, one is on social impact metrics. The sector is so overwhelmed by accountability, I would argue raw accountability — focused only on numbers as opposed to the actual outcome. So this just begins that discussion and I think that's a huge one. The second is on legislative innovation, which is really the introduction or possible consideration of the introduction of a new hybrid legal structure. There is an emerging group of people who want to make money and make a difference and they're not incompatible. They've actually embraced a legal structure to support that. So when I think about social purpose work, I think it's something we have to think about.
CV: Do you feel the nonprofit sector is adapting social innovation into their practices to the extent they should? If not, what's holding them back?
AH: I think there are some great examples of nonprofits thinking differently about how they deliver programs and services. We're working with an organization called Well of Change, looking at how we encourage people to volunteer. Volunteering is changing, people don't necessarily have a ton of time but they have skills they want to contribute – and they may not have money either. So if they're a photographer, they put their skills onto the Well of Change site. And if someone is getting married and wants to hire a photographer, instead of a traditional one, you buy it off of Well of Change. If it ends up costing, say $500, the money won't go to you, it goes to a charity I choose. It's a really innovative way of thinking about how we encourage volunteering and funding to the nonprofit sector; it puts a twist on it. I'm always encouraged by that.
"By and large, I think the sector is really good at innovation because we've had to do that to survive." |
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By and large, I think the sector is really good at innovation because we've had to do that to survive. I remember when I was ED of a youth shelter in Etobicoke and the funding for youth shelters was abysmal. We were using food banks to feed the residents. One night I thought, "“It's Friday night and every other kid gets to have pizza." So I found out there was a Pizza Pizza training school in Etobicoke and I asked what they did with the pizzas and they said they threw them out. So we made a deal; they dropped off pizza every Friday night and it didn't cost us anything. There are these types of examples in any nonprofit.
That's not social innovation as I define it; it's just innovation for the purpose of survival. From my point of view we need to use social innovation to transform systems. And for me it goes beyond service delivery. But the challenge is we're funded to deliver services. We're challenged by the volume of need we're dealing with, and our accountability is tied to things like how many people we serve etc. So there aren't huge incentives except to stop and think about how we actually transform those systems. And so we do networking and other kinds of things but there's no funding for research and development as there is in the private sector.
We have great thinkers in this sector, it's just a matter of creating capacity for them to be able to do ultimately what they know how to do.
CV: Are organizations doing enough to foster young leaders?
AH: I think there is lots being done. When I was working at the youth shelter in the late 80s and early 90s we started something called the Metro Toronto Youth task force. One of the recommendations that came out of it that I'm proud of is we established the first metro Toronto youth council. You have to value youth, you have to create a place for them. I think you don't embrace youth at your own disservice; you snooze you lose on this one.
There are some really practical issues — they grew up with technology in a different way that many leaders in the sector have not. And then there's the enthusiasm that youth brings. And what I love about the youth I work with is their ability to do the cold call — they will call anyone. By and large these people are incredible.
I think we what we need to do is create an environment that empowers people to disagree with us. You have to start with respect but ultimately if you want power you have to give it away. And I think the demand for double bottom line, this movement, this trend, bodes incredibly well for the nonprofit sector if we can allow them the freedom and the flexibility to think about how they can generate income differently. Right now when they're looking for a job in the corporate sector, they're asking them about their corporate social responsibility. So I think they need to come to us, saying, "I get your mission, I buy into it, now how can I make money." Bring it on.
CV: What would you say are the main challenges facing the nonprofit sector today?
AH: I think there has been an evolution in the sector but I think you're always going to find people with a very traditional charity mindset: "this is how it's always been done, this is how we're always going to do it". Then there's the trend toward entrepreneurship. There are lots of people with an entrepreneurial mindset. I'd like to see more people with that because we have to think about how to diversify income. I see the pressures on government and although I think it will always have a role in funding nonprofits — to think otherwise I think is delusional — I think about the value of diversifying income. To think about taking on loans, getting access to capital that will allow you to scale. Our mindset is so stuck in, "I won't do it until I get a grant." And with the kind of grants available the likelihood that it will match exactly what you need is minimal and you run after the funding cause that's how you survive. That's a challenge.
There are some really strong leaders, great visionaries, really smart people in the sector that I've worked with my whole life that are really stuck on how the funding works, the wrong kind of accountability. We need a mindset shift not only among those in the sector but those who support the sector.
And the social challenges that we're facing are too big to be solved by any one sector. We absolutely have to get together with other people who think differently about how we can solve these problems. In order for that to happen we need enablers and we need intermediaries. In the knowledge broker role you need someone who comes in with a value proposition of all sectors, who gets we have stuff to learn from business but who gets that business has stuff to learn from us. You need to understand that academia has an incredible role for putting frameworks and analysis around things, and that government has a role not "the" role. We need to create an enabling environment for all those groups to bring their particular skills and perspectives to approach large-scale systems change.
CV: Have you had any inspirational mentors over the years?
More about Allyson Hewitt... |
First nonprofit job: Ottawa rape crisis centre (paid). At 12 set up a breakfast program with home economics teacher (volunteer)
Education: BA in criminology, degree in law, diploma in public affairs, graduate certification in Public Affairs, Voluntary Sector Management and Leading Change/Organizational Development from Algonquin College, York University and the University of Toronto
Annual budget: $1.25 million
Number of employees: 12
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AH: First of all, I come from a family with a very strong work ethic. Then, early in my career, Ernestine van Marle and Bill Goursky were two mentors. They were senior leaders and they took the time to listen to people like me who was around 26 at the time. They made me feel I was smart and my opinion was valued. It's incredible what that can do.
And today I'm working with people like Ilse Treurnicht (CEO of MaRS), a Rhodes scholar, PhD chemist and venture capitalist. I'm absolutely inspired by her because, as a chemist, she loves reactions, what happens when we put different things together. And I would never have thought of that. And John Evans who sits and watches and listens and asks the perfect question — it's an unbelievable skill. He's a visionary behind all this. He lives his values; an inspiring human being. And then I have these peers now like Tim Draimin and Tim Brodhead, Al Etmanski, Frances Westley, all sitting around the table and I think how lucky I am. I've been a mentor and I also seek mentors; people every day that I can learn from.
CV: What makes a leader great?
AH: When I was 26 I thought I should have all the answers. I thought if I'm the leader, people should come to me and I should have the answers. I've come to recognize that you need your vision but you also need your vulnerability. I think vulnerability is underestimated. When vulnerability is combined with resilience, it's the winning combination. I think as nonprofit leaders we have to lessen the pressure on ourselves to know it all. An educated person doesn't know all the answers; he just knows where to get them. And I think it's critical for us to think about what we're saying to people when we're killing ourselves working and trying to have all the answers; it's the wrong message. The message is: together we're going to figure out the answers. "Here's where I think we need to go, here's the vision, I'm going to do all I can to empower you to buy into it, but together we'll figure out how to get there."
Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance journalist, producer and communications consultant living in Toronto. She is also president of Elle Communications and can be reached at: info@ellecommunications.ca.
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