An International-Aid Leader Takes Over as Head of a Big Foundation

When Kathryn Wolford visits Nicaraguan coffee farmers or tsunami-weary Indonesians, she is rarely the

sort of person those grantees might expect.

For one thing, Ms. Wolford, who last week left her job as head of Lutheran World Relief, is female. A quiet, attentive woman, she is not the imposing American some might envision leading an organization that last year had a $34-million budget.

“She is able to disarm them,” says Jeff Whisenant, vice president of finance and administration at the Baltimore charity and its acting president. “They may be expecting a domineering, grandiose person, and that’s not Kathryn. She is able to engage with them, and it’s fun to watch.”

Ms. Wolford, 48, will be less conspicuous in her new role as president of the McKnight Foundation, which gives about 75 percent of its money away within its home state of Minnesota. But she will apply many of the lessons learned in her grass-roots work overseas to her new job, such as the wisdom of giving grant recipients more opportunities to shape decisions at the foundation.

“It’s an opportunity to work on domestic issues in a very intensive way I haven’t had the chance to do before,” says Ms. Wolford, whose passion for global justice began during her undergraduate years at Gettysburg College. “That ambition is possible today because we live in such a globalized world, and the learnings across international and domestic areas are much richer.”

As head of Lutheran World Relief for 13 years, Ms. Wolford is credited with increasing the charity’s budget and strengthening both its advocacy work and its grass-roots partnerships.

And she has made the organization’s distribution of funds more strategic and responsive, according to colleagues. After Hurricane Mitch lashed Central America in 1999, for example, the organization not only helped communities recover but also developed ways to help charities on other continents protect themselves from future natural disasters.

Officials at the McKnight Foundation first became acquainted with Ms. Wolford in 2004, when Lutheran World Relief won a $60,000 grant for its efforts to aid Ugandan women. While the Minnesota foundation gives the majority of its money to domestic causes, it supports programs in Cambodia, Laos, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam.

In reading about the Minneapolis grant maker, Ms. Wolford, who will make $300,000 in her new job, says she was struck by the similarities between the two organizations.

“As I learned more about the McKnight Foundation, I saw a lot of the things I loved about Lutheran World Relief,” she says. “Neither organization is a flavor-of-the month enterprise. Both are keenly attuned to the need among nonprofit and community organizations.”

To McKnight officials, Ms. Wolford seemed a good fit because she had experience in both managing a large organization and working with local community groups.

“She was very connected with grantees on a personal level,” says Erika L. Binger, the board chair.

Despite the parallels between her two positions, Ms. Wolford’s job at McKnight does present new challenges, especially since she will be managing a much larger organization: The McKnight Foundation has $2-billion in assets and gives approximately $90-million in grants each year.

One thing Ms. Wolford will no longer have to worry about, however, is fund raising. But she is keenly aware of how grant making presents its own set of obstacles.

“It’s funny,” she says. “I find myself already using the line that I used to roll my eyes at when other foundation folks used it, which is, ‘Giving money away is hard work.’ But it really is.”

In an interview with The Chronicle, Ms. Wolford discussed her transition.

How will your previous role as a grant seeker influence you?

I hope that it will mean I bring a healthy sense of respect and humility, as well as a keen recognition of the power dynamics that come with sitting on the side of the table where there are significant amounts of resources.

Do you intend to increase the foundation’s international grant making?

No. The McKnight Foundation is very clear about its commitments across program areas and isn’t looking to change those. I’m very comfortable with that. What we’re all excited about is finding out where there are synergies across grant areas, whether across international and domestic lines or across existing grant lines, such as between family and children, and the arts.

Advocacy has been an important aspect of your work at Lutheran World Relief. Will that continue to be important at McKnight?

In a different way. Lutheran World Relief had a very direct constituency of almost eight million Lutherans. I was able to work with the organization to involve these folks and learn how we help them put faith into daily action through citizen advocacy and consumer action.

On the foundation level, it is much more about convening and providing opportunities for grantees and those at the community level to engage more effectively in policy and advocacy work. But clearly, policy change and reform is absolutely essential when you are dealing with entrenched social and economic issues.

Does the fact that you are the first non-Minnesotan to head the foundation present any additional challenges?

There is a learning curve. But I’ve traveled to Minnesota many, many times and spent significant time there, given the strong presence of Lutherans. I have familiarity with the state, but I need to go in with very open ears and learn very quickly and observe as much as I can to understand the particular context in which we’re operating.

What do you see as your biggest accomplishments?

The incredibly principled and ethical stance that Lutheran World Relief has been able to maintain in an environment that is now highly competitive in terms of fund raising and is much more challenging politically. Humanitarian aid is increasingly used, or attempted to be used, around the world for political or religious or military or security purposes. We have maintained a bedrock commitment to respect the people with whom we work. Everyone talks that talk, but I’m not sure everyone walks that walk.

Are you relieved to be leaving fund raising behind?

I found fund raising somewhat challenging, but I also loved telling the story and found that people were often just so anxious to find ways to have a meaningful connection that it actually could be quite fun.

On the other hand, it will be nice to not have to face what many grantees do, which is sometimes having to worry about things from making payroll to having to make very difficult choices.

So many of the community-rooted organizations, in particular, are often working with very few resources.