Woman swaps corporate profits for social missions
Juanita T. James has worn many hats in her lifetime. She worked at Stamford-based Pitney Bowes Inc. as chief marketing and communications officer for 11 years. Three years ago, she became CEO and president of the Fairfield County Community Foundation, a nonprofit grant distributor. After walking such different career paths, she parsed the similarities and differences of corporate and nonprofit businesses, illuminating from the inside the different ways the two worlds work.
James, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, is the only first-generation American in her family. Growing up as the daughter of a single mother from British Guyana in South America, James was educated at all-girl Catholic schools until attending Princeton University in the school”™s second graduating class to admit women. Throughout her life, her mother instilled the idea that education is a way to improve life and open doors.
She entered the corporate world via Pitney Bowes on her mother”™s advice after working on the editorial and marketing side at companies, including Time Warner Inc., Doubleday & McClure Co. and German publisher Bertelsmann.
The career shift to a traditional corporation after a career in publishing enabled her to build business skills that would prepare her for a leadership role at the Fairfield County Community Foundation. She has been volunteering and leading various nonprofit boards for 25 years.
“Having been in the business-to-consumer direct marketing world, I thought it”™d be interesting to expand my skills to the business-to-business marketing.” James said. “In my business-to-consumer experience, the pace was a lot faster. It was more dynamic because consumer-to-consumer taste changes so rapidly. I found the business-to-business experience to be much more disciplined, more bureaucratic and slower paced.”
At Pitney Bowes, she worked with corporate and global leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Now, she works with community leaders, college presidents and executive directors of nonprofits that run public services such as after-school programs, homeless shelters and health clinics.
“People who are leading organizations and institutions have a passion for the work they”™re doing,” James said. “They have a vision in mind of what they”™re trying to accomplish. In many ways, the leaders of nonprofit organizations, particularly the smaller ones, are a lot closer to the people they”™re serving and the work they”™re doing because they don”™t have a lot of layers in between the leader and others.”
A big difference James noticed in the corporate world compared with nonprofits is that resources were at her disposal, whether it be access to the financial, accounting, marketing or legal departments. But in the nonprofit sector, fewer resources are readily available, with most of their funds going toward services. The trade-off is that nonprofits are collaborative, whereas corporations are competitive and protective of their information.
“Community foundations are very focused on the geographic and community areas they serve,” James said. “Sharing of best practices, ideas and new discoveries is just a cultural part of that whole sector. Philosophically, we”™re trying to lift up the entire sector. It”™s just a much more open exchange of strategies, ideas, information, supporting resources.”
Leadership stacks up differently in her experience with a traditional corporation versus a community foundation. She said people in the nonprofit sector have a passionate belief in the mission of the organization, which means leaders have to provide affirmation that assures employees are needed and make a difference. In the corporate world, leaders have to consider a range of factors that motivate people, she said. Some have a passion for what the business is doing. Others see a job as a stepping stone. Still others are hanging on until retirement. Leaders must understand what motivates the employees in their group and make sure they respond with the right incentives, she said.
In large corporations, there”™s the pressure of the quarterly earnings. This often prevents companies from having a long-term vision, James said. It can drive leaders to think only about hitting the numbers and make people averse to risk. In the nonprofit sector, the long-term vision is easier to see, but more difficult to execute. To be successful in the nonprofit sector, it all depends on collaboration, consensus and long-term thinking, she said.
Technology, however, is important to both for-profits and nonprofits, especially the world of social media.
“There”™s so much more direct expression with what people think of your product,” James said. “The rapid pace of communication has changed lot of business models all over for both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. The Internet puts information at everyone”™s fingers in seconds. Companies no longer decide how, when and where to communicate.
Working at the community foundation, James said she found the happy medium between her business and nonprofit worlds. The community foundation functions much like a business, managing portfolios of more than 600 donor and scholarship funds each year. In addition to stewarding people”™s financial assets, the foundation emphasizes building relationships with hundreds of organizations throughout Fairfield County, James said.
“We partner with public, private sectors, community leaders and collaborate to address issues like affordable housing,” James said. “We raise money and grant money. We educate and inform, so it”™s like a business in terms of running a portfolio. We”™re not a nonprofit focused on one area. We manage a portfolio of products of services.”