New Director’s Lineage Is a Bonus

David B. Roosevelt doesn’t have any plans to turn New York back into New Amsterdam, but the new executive director of the Netherland-America Foundation does have a few changes in mind.

The 82-year-old foundation, best known for its support of Dutch-American educational and cultural exchange programs, hired Mr. Roosevelt last month as its first executive director. He hopes to double the organization’s $4.1-million endowment by 2007 and expand the group’s efforts to build better relations between the Netherlands and the United States. He also plans to do more to inculcate the spirit of philanthropy among the Dutch, who have relied primarily on government to support nonprofit organizations.

When the charity’s board started leafing through the 140 applications it received for the job, few expected to see a name as familiar as the one belonging to the man they eventually hired: Mr. Roosevelt, 61, is a grandson of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, who was one of the organization’s founders, in 1921. (Roosevelt means field of roses in Dutch.)

The foundation, like similar European-American groups, was started after World War I. Dutch-Americans wanted to raise money to repair their homeland as well as take steps to improve U.S. relations with the Netherlands, which they feared might have been placed under a strain during the war.

Despite his grandfather’s deep historical connection to the group, David Roosevelt plays down any idea that he was selected on the basis of his name.

“My best preparation for this job has been more than 30 years of both nonprofit management and management experience in the financial-services area,” he says. “The selection process was very, very thorough, and I think the reason I was hired was the depth of my experience. It had nothing to do with my name. And frankly, I don’t think it adds much for the work we have ahead of us.”

Mr. Roosevelt has spent the past seven years as CEO of the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, a $30-million fund in Iowa.

Much of his earlier career was spent working in finance. As an executive at Chemical Bank, in New York, he helped establish one of the first divisions that specialized in managing the endowments of charitable organizations.

He has also served on numerous charity and government boards, including AmeriCorps, the federal government’s national-service program, and has helped to raise money for many charities.

Perhaps his most prominent public role was his membership on a federal commission set up to raise money and oversee construction of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington. Mr. Roosevelt was the only member of the Roosevelt family to serve on that commission, helping to finish a project that was almost a half-century in its creation. The $54-million open-air structure opened in 1997.

Mr. Roosevelt has been in the public eye lately because he just finished a book tour to promote Grandmère: A Personal Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, a personal recollection of the former first lady that draws strongly on his youthful summers spent at her cottage, Val-Kill, in Hyde Park, N.Y. President Roosevelt designed Val-Kill, now a national historic site, in the Dutch architectural tradition, his grandson says.

A member of a family often associated with New York — FDR was the state’s governor before running for president — David Roosevelt nevertheless speaks with an affable Texas drawl. The son of Elliot Roosevelt and his second wife, Ruth Googins, he was born in Fort Worth and attended Texas Christian University.

While Mr. Roosevelt had announced his retirement before the book tour, the Netherland-America Foundation position appealed to him, especially after a group of Dutch friends encouraged him to submit his résumé.

“They knew the foundation was going to start a search for a new director, and they asked if I would be interested,” he says. “I’m a sucker for challenges. In its 82-year history, the foundation has really done an awful lot of great things, but it’s been due to a heck of a lot of hard work on the part of their volunteers. So they wanted to bring in and build a professional infrastructure.”

In an interview, Mr. Roosevelt spoke about his new position and his family’s heritage:

What changes do you expect at the foundation?

Obviously, I’m going to try to grow the annual income. I want to concentrate along with the board and various committees on expanding our program initiatives. We’re very strong with the educational and cultural side, with the Fulbright program, the student loans and scholarships. And on the cultural side, we do a good job of bringing young artists here and sending young artists to study and perform in the Netherlands. But there are a lot of other ways we can expand the outreach, both here and in the Netherlands.

There are other Dutch-American organizations as well, and we want to bring them together so they work in concert with each other. One of the problems we have is organizations that duplicate each other’s purposes and activities. Hopefully, we can eliminate that duplication.

I can also see us being an important part of an exchange of business leaders, or government leaders, to build an understanding of the Dutch and American people.

I’d like to see us used as a catalyst — and I hate that word — but I’d like for us to promote the idea of philanthropy in the Netherlands. European countries simply don’t have the idea of philanthropy that we do in this country. Part of that, and it’s particularly true for arts and culture, is the fact that for so long the governments have been the source of philanthropic activity. There just hasn’t been the philanthropic tradition.

What are the most important causes you have worked on?

One of the areas I was very active in was the whole idea of youth service and conservation corps. I got involved in that in the early and mid-1970s, and I was very active in trying to promote the idea. Working with youth in that way has been a strong interest of mine. It’s a great idea, and that whole youth-service conservation corps, if you look at it, it’s actually a direct offshoot of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps.

What influence did your grandmother’s humanitarian work have on you?

She certainly instilled in all of her grandchildren an interest in philanthropy and charitable work. She never talked about it, but we could see through her work the importance of it. Strangely, not too many of us have been involved in politics.

How strong are later Roosevelt generations’ ties to the Netherlands?

My grandfather loved the personal Dutch connection. He was, in fact, Princess Margriet’s godfather. [Margriet is the younger sister of the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix.] Grandmother was also very proud of her Dutch heritage. My generation, and my father’s generation, and our grandparents spoke about the Dutch connection and had pride in that heritage. Many of us have had the opportunity and the good fortune to know some of the Dutch royal family, and I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of good Dutch friends.

What keeps your organization relevant today?

What the foundation has done throughout its history, and we will continue to do, is focus on the historical connection between the two countries. If you look at the circumstance today, and what is happening in the relations between the U.S. and many of its historical allies, the Netherlands is one of our allies who has never backed away. Do we have issues with each other? Sure, but the connection between the U.S. and the Netherlands is as strong today and maybe even stronger. And the more people understand the relationship between the two countries, the stronger it will be.

ABOUT DAVID B. ROOSEVELT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE NETHERLAND-AMERICA FOUNDATION

Education: Received a bachelor of arts in history from Texas Christian University.

Previous employment: Has served as chief executive of Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, in Iowa, and was founding executive director of the Arkansas Community Foundation. Also served as chief operating officer of an independent investment management company in New York and as an executive of a Chemical Bank institutional investors’ subsidiary.

Books read most recently: The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, by H.W. Brands; and The Ordinary Business of Life: A History of Economics From the Ancient World to the Twenty-First Century, by Roger E. Backhouse.