September 11 Response Marked by Creativity and Collaboration
Social Enterprise Newsletter, Spring 2002
Bertina G. Ceccarelli (MBA '93) remembers the morning of September 11 as well as anyone. The senior vice president of marketing and communications at the United Way of New York City (UWNYC) was in her office interviewing a job candidate when she heard about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. While her initial response was one of disbelief, Ceccarelli and her colleagues took action quickly. Within hours of the second tower falling, the September 11th Fund was formed in partnership with a neighboring nonprofit, the New York Community Trust (NYCT).
"We set up a separate management organization and created a collapsible charity with the very specific mission of appropriately distributing the monies that had been collected," she says. "The focus was not on fundraising or donor management or relationship building—it was a new way for two very established organizations to think."
The unprecedented demand for relief necessitated two basic management skills for every organization: the ability to collaborate and the ability to adapt to change. While cooperation within and across sectors has been a consistent strategy for successful nonprofits, the magnitude of destruction and the urgency of need forged nearly instantaneous relationships with a clear common objective: to quickly and efficiently aid the families, businesses, and communities affected by the attacks.
HBS assistant professor Jane Wei-Skillern saw the value of chronicling this collaboration and developed a case for the spring 2002 first-year required Social Enterprise course. The case follows the rapid, hour-by-hour creation of the September 11th Fund through the joint efforts of the NYCT and the UWNYC, the city's two largest grantmakers, while also highlighting the private-sector support contributed by a volunteer team of five consultants from McKinsey & Co.
"The case approaches the social entrepreneurial process from the perspective of the management teams at the two nonprofits and the McKinsey consultants who helped create an organizational infrastructure and marketing plan for the Fund," Wei-Skillern explains. "We want students to see potential for themselves in similar leadership roles, at all stages of their careers, whether their career path leads them to the nonprofit or private sector."
Another key issue is the relevance of business skills in addressing social needs, Wei-Skillern continues, noting that the case touches on issues that cross disciplines such as marketing, operations, finance, communications, and leadership. "It also highlights the power of institutional collaboration," she adds. "The September 11th Fund is among the most successful collaborative fundraising efforts in history. The United Way acknowledges that much of the success is attributable to the UWNYC's existing relationships with some of America's leading companies, such as McKinsey. Because the UWNYC had long-standing relationships with such companies, it was able to call upon them during a time of need."
Cooperation across the nonprofit sector was essential as well. The September 11th Fund worked with Safe Horizon, an organization used by the New York State Crime Victims Board to dispense compensation. "The World Trade Center site was considered the scene of a crime, so victims were eligible for those dollars," Ceccarelli notes. However, the parameters used by the Crime Victims Board to determine who qualified for aid favored traditional families, excluding, for example, divorced couples or workers who lost their jobs. The September 11th Fund stepped in to fill those gaps and used the check-writing apparatus in place at Safe Horizon to distribute emergency cash assistance to anyone who could prove short-term need as a result of the attacks.
In other words, entrepreneurial flexibility, a key attribute of any organization's success, became a necessity in the rapidly evolving circumstances that followed the attacks. At ReSTART Central, a nonprofit that matches small businesses with donated goods and services, business-savvy volunteers—many of whom are professional consultants—help owners sort through the tangle of questions that need to be addressed before they can reopen their doors. While owners may initially have focused on the short-term challenges of locating office space and replacing furniture, they're now concentrating on more strategic, long-term goals.
"The biggest challenges," says ReSTART founder Maria G. Gotsch (MBA '89), "are staying responsive to the changing needs of businesses—important issues now are different than what they were in the fall—and informing people that volunteers and other help are still needed." Many of the volunteer consultants at ReSTART have dealt primarily with large corporations in their work as consultants, Gotsch notes. "They find this much more hands-on and tactical," she says. "As a volunteer, you can really make a difference."
Personal gratification and learning are also part of the story, since those who contributed to the efforts gained as much as they gave. For instance, Neal Zuckerman (MBA '00) one of the McKinsey consultants to the September 11th Fund, "wanted to be part of the positive response to this tragedy." He says he gained insight into the complexities and tensions that arise when "money meets emotion," and the pressure for accountability. "When the country puts its trust in you," Zuckerman notes, "it's very important to do well—and the Fund did."
Ceccarelli—a marketing and communications specialist who entered the nonprofit sector last year—discovered a similar sense of satisfaction in her work. Formerly of NBC, Ceccarelli found her media experience to be invaluable in planning "Tribute to Heroes," a three-hour joint national telethon that raised $120 million for the September 11th Telethon Fund. Recalling the frantic pace required to create a communications infrastructure to handle response to the telethon, Ceccarelli says, "The pace of our work was like that of a dot-com racing to go public, except that we were all doing it to help others.
"If you live in New York, undoubtedly you know of people who have been touched by these events," she continues. "While my efforts can never be as heroic as those of the rescue team, at least there's something I can do to help. I think that's the spirit of everyone here."
John Whitehead, new chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, with the then-Mayor-elect of NYC, Mike Bloomberg, Frank Zarb, former head of the NASDAQ, and Richard Grasso, chairman of the NY Stock Exchange at a November 2001 press conference announcing Whitehead's appointment.
Whitehead Leads Lower Manhattan Development Effort
As chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), John C. Whitehead (MBA '47) heads the organization that oversees all aspects of revitalizing and rebuilding the area surrounding the former site of the World Trade Center. A founder and continued supporter of the School's Initiative on Social Enterprise, Whitehead, 79, has also served as cochairman of Goldman Sachs, as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and as deputy secretary of state in the Reagan administration.
"We want to see the whole bottom of Manhattan developed as a unified community," Whitehead told the New York Times (November 30, 2001). Among other tasks, the LMDC will be responsible for planning roadways, reconstructing subway tunnels, and managing the construction of new office, retail, and living space for the area. "This is probably the most difficult, complicated problem I've faced in my lifetime," said Whitehead, who also envisions that the development project will encompass a memorial, museum, and cultural arts center. "At least my hair can't get any grayer or whiter."
