Kauffman CEO: Foundation’s reset aligns Mr. K’s intent with KC’s needs of the moment

A recently announced strategy refresh for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation will drive the organization’s collective impact in the community — honoring the vision of its namesake while recognizing the challenges Kansas City faces today, said Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace.

“Mr. K had very distinct philosophies and ideas around how he wanted this work done,” explained Burns-Wallace, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, in a sit-down interview with Startland News. “One of the things he talks about, though, is that he wanted future leaders to make sure that the work that we were doing still matches the current time.”

Ewing Marion Kauffman

On April 30, the Kauffman Foundation released its “Vision for 2035 and Refreshed Strategic Plan” to re-center the future of the influential philanthropic organization around the intent of the iconic Kansas City entrepreneur Ewing Marion Kauffman, whose name not only graces the walls of the Kauffman Foundation, but also is reflected in Kauffman Stadium, the “Mr. K” award for the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year, and beyond. Kauffman grew his decades-long legacy even further than his business success by embracing humanitarian causes that most-deeply connected with his hometown.

Click here to learn more about the life and legacy of Ewing Kauffman.

“As we move forward, we’re trying to make sure that we’re grounding ourselves in Mr. K’s philosophies as we do this work,” said Burns-Wallace, noting the Kauffman Foundation is rolling out a new booklet to help current Kansas Citians better understand Ewing Kauffman and his intent.

“He talks about how all the money in the world cannot solve our problems,” she continued. “We can only do it if we do it together.”

RELATED: Kauffman Foundation revises funding priorities to three key areas, sharing first public details of its new strategic focus

Updates to the Kauffman Foundation’s strategy come after the summer 2023 arrival of Burns-Wallace; a slew of leadership changes; and interviews with hundreds of the foundation’s grantees and internal stakeholders, as well as civic leaders.

From the archives: Why Kauffman’s new CEO just rolled out the blue carpet (and an ask) for Kansas City

Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace holds a copy of the booklet “The Philosophies of Mr. K”; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

“For the Foundation, it has been almost 10 years since they did a formal, strategic refresh,” noted Burns-Wallace, who can often be seen at community events wearing her signature blue shoes and other subtle nods to the Kauffman Foundation and Kansas City entrepreneurs. “I think over that time period, they had done some smaller refreshes or conversations. But when you bring in a new leadership team, it gives you an opportunity to just hit reset.”

“We were really trying to take different stakeholder voices and align that with, again, the needs of the region at the moment and what are identified as major priorities that need to be addressed,” she added.

[Editor’s note: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a financial supporter of Startland News’ nonprofit newsroom.]

The three strategic focuses defined within the strategy: college access and completion, workforce and career development, and entrepreneurship.

“Mr. K talks about the removing of systemic barriers so that each and every individual has the power of their own economic mobility,” Burns-Wallace explained. “And we know each of the levers that are part of our strategic refresh play a role in helping individuals build wealth, build assets to have that control over the various aspects of their economic freedom and prosperity in different ways.”

“It is driven by the data,” she added. “It’s driven by what we know is happening in our communities and the gaps that are there and how we use these levers to try to tackle and reduce those gaps across the communities.”

Entrepreneur’s life cycle

Entrepreneurship is at the heart of Ewing Kauffman’s journey, Burns-Wallace said, sharing the anecdote that he started the billion-dollar business that would become Marion Labs by selling pharmaceuticals out of the trunk of his car.

That connection between business and Kauffman’s work must remain critical, she said.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; Startland News photo

“We know that business ownership — particularly for Black and Brown communities, for those who are coming from a lower-income background — is actually one of the fastest ways to build assets, to be able to build wealth,” Burns-Wallace said.

The Kauffman Foundation aims to help more people understand that entrepreneurship is a viable pathway — and moreover, that they have the resources and support if they’re starting, she continued.

Of course, maintaining resources and support as those same businesses are sustaining, growing, and becoming profitable also is part of the equation, Burns-Wallace added.

“I think as we go forward in the work, it’s an important priority for us to think about that entire lifecycle of that entrepreneur,” she said. 

Ventures in the traditional startup space will continue to be a focus for this branch of the Kauffman Foundation’s work, Burns-Wallace confirmed, but recentering the strategy also extends the organization’s support to small business owners who are trying to reach the next level — whether that’s hiring employees, raising capital, or selling the business.

“I have a keen interest in making sure we’re thinking about how entrepreneurship and those business owners play key and critical roles in workforce development in our region, how they play key and critical roles in helping the communities that they are a part of become stronger and build the wealth within those communities,” Burns-Wallace said. “Entrepreneurs play such a key and critical role in this larger ecosystem.”

Just as entrepreneurship bleeds into workforce development, Burns-Wallace said, she’s excited to see the intersections and overlaps of the three key strategies outlined in the Kauffman Foundation’s refreshed vision.

“How do we foster that within the communities and bridge some of our work so that it’s not like, ‘OK, we’re doing education work over here; we’re doing workforce and career stuff now; and OK, over here is entrepreneurship?’” she asked. “They all intersect. They all build and stack on each other.”

Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Hometown focus with national implications

While the Kauffman Foundation’s strategy aims to address challenges in Kansas City, Burns-Wallace said the organization remains mindful that work focused locally — through what Ewing Kauffman called “solutioning” — can be applied to the world.

Close to 70 percent of the Kauffman Foundation’s funding has targeted Kansas City in recent years, Burns-Wallace detailed, but that impact might not always have been easily recognized at home because people didn’t fully understand the strategy and specifically how funding was being doled out.

Moving forward, the intention behind investments will be more transparent because stakeholders will be able to see how they dovetail with the Kauffman Foundation’s strategies, she said.

“That’s where this alignment is so important,” said Burns-Wallace, noting an effort to achieve greater clarity through the new vision. “We are aligning investments with the priorities that are arising in Kansas City.”

And that doesn’t mean the Kauffman Foundation will be backing away from all its national commitments, she said.

“We still want to make sure that we are carrying the work that’s happening in Kansas City on to that national stage as a model,” Burns-Wallace continued, “but also learning from partners at that national stage that we can bring those findings back to Kansas City.”

Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Looking through a new lens

Although the new strategic plan was released just a week ago, Burns-Wallace said it has been generally well-received.

“The jury is probably still out on like, ‘Do I like this or not?’ and that’s OK,” she explained. “But I do think they feel like there’s clarity. They have an understanding of the priorities and then are anticipating what comes next.”

New grant funding from the organization has been paused amid the restructuring of the Kauffman Foundation and its strategic plan. Over the next few months, Burns-Wallace noted, leaders will begin identifying and rolling out funding priorities.

Additional community conversations — taking a deep dive into each of the strategic focuses — also are planned.

“I think in each of those conversations, as we begin to engage, people will understand a little bit more around our theories of change and how we want to leverage into each of those areas,” Burns-Wallace said.

She cautioned taking too narrow of a view of the Kauffman Foundation’s new priorities and presuming certain programming no longer is a fit for support.

Early childhood development, for example, might not fall neatly into the three focus areas, Burns-Wallace said, but early childhood centers are often run by entrepreneurs who need training and support. 

And workforce development is needed to address the shortage in staffing for these centers, she added.

“It’s a little bit of a different way of thinking about it,” Burns-Wallace said, encouraging people to look for such intersections. “As we move through the next couple of months and continue to share in conversation, I hope people will see things through that type of lens.”