Frustrated by State Budget Cuts, a Longtime Charity Leader Moves On

After 25 years as a nonprofit leader, Eric Stevens decided it was time to shift gears. At 57, he was not ready to retire. But he wanted to pursue his longtime interest in strategic planning and coaching executives in a way that also left time for a healthy personal life.

That led him to resign this winter as chief executive officer of Courage Center, an organization in suburban Minneapolis that helps people with disabilities.

“Everybody needs renewal and a sense of adventure in their lives,” Mr. Stevens says. He plans to develop a new career advising groups and individuals on issues that engaged him as a chief executive — for example, how to be a successful leader while “keeping your center as a person,” and how charities can adopt good business principles while remaining true to their missions.

“I’m particularly interested in helping both organizations and individuals create a new vision for themselves and to see that through, just as I’m doing personally,” he says.

Courage Center, with a $34-million budget, two campuses, and activities across the state, is one of Minnesota’s most prominent charities. The organization serves about 16,000 people per year, providing such services as Courage Residence, a skilled-nursing facility where people with spinal-cord and other injuries learn how to live independently.

Mr. Stevens took the group’s helm in 1999 after spending 20 years as executive director of a smaller organization in the region, St. David’s Child Development and Family Services. He said he was attracted to the job partly by the opportunity to work with adults with disabilities.

“Unlike children, whose parents are the advocates, adults are advocates for themselves,” he says.

During his tenure at Courage Center, Mr. Stevens created a successful capital campaign, put a strategic plan in place, and reversed an inherited budget deficit. In 2003, the organization won a New Freedom Initiative Award from the U.S. Secretary of Labor for its work promoting job opportunities for disabled people.

But alongside these achievements, he says, sits a disappointment: state spending cuts that pushed the center’s budget into deficit again last year. He estimates that the organization, which relies heavily on state Medicaid reimbursements, lost $1.5-million (taking inflation into account) in the state’s 2003-4 budget cycle.

Courage Center appointed Jan Malcolm, a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in Princeton, N.J., and a former Minnesota health commissioner, to succeed Mr. Stevens.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Stevens discussed his time at the center and his decision to move on.

What were the major challenges you faced when you joined Courage Center?

One was a sense in the disability community that Courage was somewhat staid and out of touch with the new trends, the greater human-rights and advocacy focus of the disability community. The second challenge was the major looming financial issues caused by severe corrosion of reimbursement and escalating costs under managed care. Third, the organization needed a new strategic vision for its future.

What were your major accomplishments?

A much stronger partnership with the disability community. That included significantly expanding our advocacy public-policy role on behalf of all people with disabilities, not just getting money for Courage Center at the Legislature. We provided leadership to help pass [state and federal] legislation related to improving employment, housing, transportation, and health care.

Courage’s mission statement is to empower people with physical disabilities to reach for their full potential in all aspects of their lives. I felt we needed to walk the talk around the word “empowerment.” Shortly after I came to Courage Center, I brought strong leadership of people with disabilities onto both our board and management staff. Prior to my coming there, there was not a single person with a disability on the management staff.

A second thing I was really proud of was a new initiative in an area we called wellness and fitness. I had heard in a focus group back in 1999 that people with disabilities who were in their 50s and 60s were saying that they were feeling that their bodies were aging 10 to 15 years faster than their nondisabled friends. Rehabilitation alone was short-term and wouldn’t sustain the long-term health benefits.

And out of that awareness came an initiative: We opened up during my tenure two fitness centers. People with physical disabilities flocked to the centers because they felt this was an opportunity to take charge of their own lives.

A third accomplishment was that during my tenure we designed and successfully completed a $17-million capital campaign. About half of the campaign went to renovate the [Courage Residence] into a state-of-the-art facility.

Could you explain some of the technology involved in that?

There were no automatic door openers and closers. So every time someone was in rehabilitation, they had to call a nurse just to go through a door. We wanted technology that would enhance the sense of independence. We enlarged the bathrooms so that people in wheelchairs would have more turning radius. We added computer technology and training for every resident who wished to have it. I felt that computer training today was as basic a skill for independent living as brushing your teeth and learning how to dress yourself.

What prompted you to leave?

My main motivator was a sense at age 57 I was ready to do something else with my life. I didn’t feel like I could sustain the energy that it takes to be a CEO and still have health and vitality in my personal life.

In your resignation letter, you mentioned budget cuts. How big a factor was that?

My particular passion is developing a strategic vision and building an organization and innovating. Certainly, the continued government funding cuts were part of the added wear and tear on one’s psyche. Frankly, it was becoming less fun.

Additionally, even though I didn’t leave to take another job, I’ve had a longstanding interest in doing coaching and consulting work.

And I’m excited about developing a private practice, contributing to human and organizational growth in different ways, but without the responsibility — and burden — of a 60-hour-a-week job.

ERIC STEVENS, FORMER CEO OF COURAGE CENTER, IN GOLDEN VALLEY, MINN.

Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Queens College, City University of New York; a master’s degree in education from Central Washington State University; and a master’s degree in applied behavioral science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle, City University. Also earned a professional coaching certification from New Venture West, in San Francisco.

Previous work experience: Served as executive director of St. David’s Child Development and Family Services in Minnetonka, Minn., from 1979 to 1999. Earlier jobs included teacher and preschool coordinator at Yakima Valley Commity College, in Washington, and director of early-childhood special-education services at Becker-Clay Special Education Cooperative, in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

What he’s reading: Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading, by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky; Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose, by Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro; and Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker J. Palmer.