Before graduating last May from the University of Southern California, I learned of my match with Archstone Foundation for a fall internship. I was extraordinarily excited to learn about the organization and the role of private grantmaking in improving the lives of older adults and their caregivers.
During my time at USC’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, I learned about programs the Foundation has funded that have had an impact on the field of aging – among them the Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which piloted a novel way of eliminating silos using effective team care. While textbooks provided some insight into the Foundation’s successes in grantmaking, however, it was not until my internship that I came to understand the value of strategy.
Once I started, I became fascinated with how the Foundation accomplished so much within its constraints. As an accounting minor, I examined its Form 990s and noted the relatively modest endowment. At my first staff meeting, I was surprised the Zoom call had just seven participants – the entire staff team. Despite these potential limitations, the Foundation has not only funded incredibly impactful grantees (many I recognized from Gerontology textbooks and my community service in Los Angeles in the aging field) but also posted solid financial performances reflected in those IRS forms.
It was almost as if Christopher A. Langston, PhD, Archstone Foundation’s CEO and President, read my mind during that first staff meeting. Outlining the Foundation’s new strategic plan, he precisely described the value of following a clear strategy. By carefully considering high-priority areas that demonstrate scalable evidence practices, investments could punch significantly above their weight. These strategies would also utilize the findings from previous work, building on the Foundation’s successes. And the Foundation’s new strategic plan was a masterclass in how strategy can improve the lives of older adults and their caregivers.
A comparison that Christopher made between Archstone Foundation and California’s Medi-Cal program stood out. The state’s Medicaid program spent more than $90 billion in 2018, a year when Archstone Foundation’s assets were about $120 million. Each day, in other words, Medi-Cal spends more than twice the Foundation’s assets. Despite that, the Foundation's impact has lasted decades. Its work on End-of-Life Care and Spirituality in Palliative Care, for example, continues to make waves more than three decades after those funding efforts began.
I was extremely fortunate to learn the benefits of strategy to philanthropy during my internship – from my interview about palliative care with the Foundation’s previous president, Joseph F. Prevratil, JD, to my work on improving data utilization in grantmaking decisions.
The internship also highlighted the importance of employing strategy in daily life. Focusing on the Three Ts seems like an excellent strategic plan, and I am proud to have used my Training from USC to employ Technology to accomplish things for members of the Team – such as employing Excel and Photoshop to visualize the geographic impact of the Capacity Building Grant Program.
Another takeaway for me: Employing strategy is important not only to philanthropy but for the entire field of aging. In a field often dwarfed by competing interests, employing intelligent strategies to improve the lives of older adults is a must.
Thanks go to every person on the Archstone Foundation staff for their encouragement and support. They welcomed me with all the grace and kindness I could have hoped for. I am incredibly excited to utilize my new perspectives, and implement my own strategy, as I move forward in my career to support older adults.
