The last time Matthew McKenna will admit to littering was on a family road trip as a child, when he chucked a soda can at his brother that missed, flying out the window.
It is not without a little bit of irony, then, that McKenna discarded a senior executive position at PepsiCo Inc. in order to clean up the roadsides of America.
In January, the Bronxville resident took the reins of Keep America Beautiful Inc., organizer of the annual “Great American Cleanup” each spring. From a Stamford, Conn., headquarters numbering just 20 people, Keep America Beautiful provides support to nearly 600 affiliates who mobilize a volunteer army numbering an estimated 3 million people to clean up the nation”™s highways, byways and trails. That is 800,000 more volunteers than a year earlier ”“ including two who are attempting to hike the length of the Appalachian Trail this year to promote the cause.
Last spring, volunteers cleared 200 million pounds of litter and debris along 178,000 miles of roads, streets and highways, not to mention on 121,000 acres in parks. In 150 instances, volunteers removed junk from underwater beds.
More recently, in March McKenna flew down to Mississippi to join volunteers revitalizing a community hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2006. He says it has been his most memorable moment to date ”“ after a Gulf Coast deluge delayed the project, thousands of volunteers materialized, seemingly out of thin air, when the storm clouds cleared.
For McKenna, the opportunity to lead Keep America Beautiful similarly came out of the blue. The organization”™s longtime president, Ray Empsom, retired last fall, only to jump right back into the nonprofit world after being contacted to lead the Hole In The Wall Camps, a Connecticut organization that runs weeklong summer camps for ill or disabled children.
After graduating from Georgetown University Law School, McKenna had worked as an attorney in New York City before joining Purchase-based PepsiCo, ultimately rising to senior vice president of finance.
In the past few years, he decided he wanted to make the jump to the nonprofit world. He initially explored opportunities to become the financial chief at a major university or college, having become interested in the field as a trustee of Hamilton College where he was an undergraduate.
Empsom said he knows well the nonprofit pull, after spending years as an attorney and then a CEO turning around companies.
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“There is a dimension to serving in the nonprofit world one does not find in the corporate side,” he said.
McKenna is currently finalizing an organizational strategic “discussion” that will give KAB a roadmap for the next five years. Much of that debate has revolved around whether to open an office in Washington, D.C. ”“ “and all that entails,” McKenna said. He is also investigating how to broaden funding and thereby support to Keep America Beautiful affiliates across the country.
“One of the things I am learning is how much affiliates (accomplish) through nickel-and-diming,” McKenna said. “You are dealing with people who are committed to a cause and who are motivated by that commitment.”
As part of that planning process, McKenna queried his staff about what organizations they were most “jealous” of, whatever the rationale. For his part, he envies the Nature Conservancy, in part for the massive war chest at its disposal and by extension, its influence.
With $8 million in revenue in 2006 ”“ not including affiliate revenue ”“ McKenna said Keep America Beautiful will never match the Nature Conservancy”™s resources, which draws more than $900 million in revenue annually supporting a vast array of programs.
He said it is too early to tell what impact the economic slowdown will have on donations, but said he has yet to discern any corresponding downturn in donations.
McKenna plans to attend a May 31 cleanup day organized by local affiliate Keep Stamford Beautiful, and sponsored by General Electric Co., UBS AG, and UST Inc. He said it is the last Great American Cleanup scheduled for this spring nationally.
As he prepares to mark his first Earth Day next week as head of Keep America Beautiful, there is one target McKenna has learned not to miss from his first days on the job.
“It is very evident where the recycling bins are located here,” he said.
