Juanita James may not yet be speaking publicly about her appointment to lead the Fairfield County Community Foundation ”“ but a lot of other people are.
James, the longtime community face for Stamford-based Pitney Bowes Inc., is replacing Susan Ross as CEO of the Norwalk-based foundation, coming out of a short-lived retirement even as Ross heads into retirement herself, along with her spouse, Charles MacCormack, who is ending a long run as CEO of Westport-based Save the Children.
While Save the Children looked to its own ranks for a new president in Carolyn Miles after conducting a national search, the Fairfield County Community Foundation selected perhaps the most prominent outsider it could find among some 80 candidates that were the outcome of its own countrywide search coordinated by Spencer Stuart, which also handled Save the Children”™s search.
“I, from the beginning, thought it would be terrific if we brought someone to the table who had experience in the for-profit world,” said Barry Hawkins, chair of the Fairfield County Community Foundation and a partner in the Stamford office of Shipman & Goodwin. “It”™s a big difference between the two, though, so it is good that she is grounded in the nonprofit community.”
In the 2009 fiscal year, the foundation paid Ross about $200,000.
James, who declined a request for an interview made through a foundation spokesman, assumes her position in early October, after a career with Pitney Bowes, Time Warner, and Bertelsmann Inc.
Away from the office, she has been a trustee of her alma mater Princeton University and Lesley University in Boston, as well as a director of Reading is Fundamental, Curtain Call, and Ferguson Library in Stamford, among others; and spearheading numerous philanthropic endeavors on behalf of Pitney Bowes. Last year, Mayor Mike Pavia lauded James as Stamford”™s “citizen of the year.”
“She has got a passion that is just inspiring to everyone,” said Kathleen Ryan Mufson, director of corporate citizenship and philanthropy for Pitney Bowes. “She is someone who walks the talk and is the consummate leader. She has the smarts, the drive, the enthusiasm ”“ you wrap all that together and (she) makes a difference out there.”
In addition to her Princeton degree, James holds a master”™s in business policy from Columbia University.
During Ross”™ tenure from 1996 through 2011, the foundation increased its assets from $10 million to more than $125 million while awarding $114 million in grants to nonprofits. It also completed a merger in 2008 with the Greater Bridgeport Area Foundation.
Not all those grants were made locally ”“ in the fiscal year ending in June 2009 the Fairfield County Community Foundation made grants to entities in other states, from the Block Island Conservancy just a ferry ride away from Connecticut, to the Catalina Island Conservancy at the tail end of a cross-country flight to California.
The large focus of the foundation”™s efforts, however, remain local. In the wake of the financial collapse of 2008, nonprofits across Fairfield County and nationally went into survival mode, putting double pressure on the foundation as charitable contributions shrank a third-straight year even as requests for aid from other nonprofits increased. For the fiscal year ending in June 2010, the foundation reported an $800,000 increase in contributions to $9 million, along with a rebound in its investment portfolio.
