How Battling Bureaucrats for Military Families Taught a Michigan Grant Maker to Marshal Her Resources

ENTRY LEVEL

Diana Sieger

Age: 51

First job: Assistant program director and coordinator, Service to Military Families, Veterans and Disaster Service, American Red Cross, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Current job: President, Grand Rapids Community Foundation

I grew up in an affluent, predominantly white suburb in the Detroit area. My parents were far more conservative than I, but they were open-minded and certainly didn’t do anything to squash my ambitions. I would say that, as a teenager, experiencing the riots in Detroit and watching the civil-rights movement, along with the escalation of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy, had a tremendous influence on me in terms of what I wanted to do, as cliché as that sounds today.

When I was a teen, I volunteered for two summers with the Head Start program tutoring inner-city children. We taught motor skills, as well as reading readiness. This work really was a defining moment for me: I saw the vast differences between the haves and the have-nots and the difference in how they were treated by those in power. When I saw those inner-city children who hadn’t developed the skills that suburban kids took for granted, well, that really yanked my 16-year-old head back. At this time, I became very aware of the importance of social policy and how it was implemented.

Of course, as a pretty normal teenager, I also spent plenty of time watching garbage TV — Mod Squad and Where the Action Is — while sitting on the sofa eating Whip ‘n Chill.

After getting a B.A. in sociology at Western Michigan University, I was hired by the American Red Cross in Grand Rapids. I was really lucky to get a job as a Red Cross caseworker for military families. I helped family members keep in touch with spouses who were in Vietnam or who were stationed at other bases around the world. It was a great entry-level job — it helped me understand the dynamics of families and made me realize that I really did want to work in the nonprofit world.

At the age of 22, I had to learn how to evaluate a family situation, how to determine what was real and what might be a misrepresentation of the facts and how to pull together all the appropriate resources to best advocate for these people so they could get the benefits to which they were entitled. I got very good at learning how to network and learning who would be a good resource and understanding social policies.

I also learned to be absolutely fearless when assisting people who couldn’t work through the local social-services system on their own. When our local Department of Social Services was going to put up barriers for our families, I stepped in and advocated on their behalf. Another part of my job was to help families that were affected by natural disasters but that had no insurance. That is when I really was ready to help — when families could have only “one emergency a year,” as defined by our county social-services department. Being fearless meant advocating so families could stay together and have some sense of normalcy.

What led me to foundation work was meeting C. Patrick Babcock during my internship with the Michigan Department of Labor in Lansing. Pat, who was the department’s director, told me he really wanted to work for a foundation, which he eventually did, and the idea always stuck with me. Then, when I was at the United Way of Kent County, in Michigan, working as an associate executive in agency relations and planning, I began interacting with what was then called the Grand Rapids Foundation.

My knowledge of foundations was limited, but at the United Way, I began to understand its various programs, how to read financial statements, the details of fund raising, and I made some significant decisions about who got what money. I learned a lot about community problem solving and, again, how to connect all the resources to solve a problem.

When I went to the Grand Rapids Foundation in 1987, it was 65 years old and had a good reputation but needed to grow. I spent 12 months creating a strong infrastructure. I knew that if I didn’t change the structure and method of how we raised money, we would remain entrenched in the way things had always been done. One of my initiatives was to get people to donate money while they were still living, rather than just from bequests. The first four years were very hard, but things began to pay off in the early 1990s.

When I began, I was the first full-time staff person, and there was a part-time secretary. Shortly after that, I hired two people I regarded highly from the United Way. Now I have a staff of 18 and some of the best fund-development leaders in the United States — and those original two people I hired are still with me as vice president for programs and vice president for finance and administration. Two years ago, our assets were $180-million, but now they are around $150-million because of the down market. We still are doing quite well with fund development, so I am hopeful that we will prevail and continue to thrive.

I learned from an early age that getting to know caseworkers, supervisors, city commissioners, county commissioners, state legislators, and U.S. representatives and senators was absolutely critical if a position was to be put forth for action. When I would contact a public-assistance caseworker for a client who had suffered a fire without homeowners or renters’ insurance, and the caseworker was keen on throwing up barriers, I just marched right on in to help in any way possible. I hardly ever failed in my attempts, though it took a great deal of negotiation, guts, and good casework. Now when I am pushed to the wall, I draw from those earlier days even when it involves a more macro-level issue — I remember who was affected. I still do, and that is why I am so rabid about making things right. — As told to Mary E. Medland

How did your first job in the nonprofit world shape your current career? Tell us about it at entrylevel@philanthropy.com. Your story may appear in a future edition of Entry Level.