March 18, 2025 • 41 mins
Today’s episode is part of Podcasthon, a global effort bringing thousands of podcasts together to raise awareness for charitable causes.
My guest today is Christopher Helfrich, President and CEO of Eat. Learn. Play., the foundation he co-founded with Stephen and Ayesha Curry to tackle childhood hunger, early literacy, and active lifestyles for kids in Oakland.
Since launching in 2019, Eat. Learn. Play. has raised and invested over $32 million—directly impacting underserved children and families. Under Christopher’s leadership, the foundation has grown into a force for change, helping Oakland kids get the nutrition, education, and movement they need to thrive.
Before this, Christopher led the Starlight Children’s Foundation and served as Head of the Nothing But Nets campaign for the UN Foundation, working to combat malaria globally.
And in 2024, he and Stephen Curry landed on the cover of Inc. Magazine for their work in fostering equity, access, and opportunity for all.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to a special episode of how I Built my Small
Business.
I'm Anne McGinty, and today'sepisode is part of Podcastthon,
a global effort bringingthousands of podcasts together
to raise awareness forcharitable causes.
My guest today is ChristopherHelfrich, president and CEO of
Eat Learn Play, the foundationhe co-founded with Stephan and
(00:30):
Aisha Curry to tackle childhoodhunger, early literacy and
active lifestyles for kids inOakland.
Since launching in 2019, eatLearn Play has raised and
invested over $32 million,directly impacting underserved
children and families.
Under Christopher's leadership,the foundation has grown into a
(00:51):
force for change, helpingOakland kids get the nutrition,
education and movement they needto thrive.
Before this, christopher ledthe Starlight Children's
Foundation and served as head ofthe Nothing but Nets campaign
for the UN Foundation, workingto combat malaria globally.
And in 2024, he and StephenCurry and some of the team
(01:14):
landed on the cover of IncMagazine for their work in
fostering equity, access andopportunity for all.
Check out the link in the shownotes to learn more about Eat
Learn Play.
Let's get started, chris.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And I'm so happy to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So can we start out with you just telling us a
little bit about you, Like whoare you and when and why did you
decide to dedicate your lifeand career to doing good?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it's.
I mean, listen, it's a, it's abig question, you know, and I
think it was probably more of agradual thing.
And then you know a big ahamoment.
But you know, probably like alot of people, it was sort of
coming of age.
You know, the light bulb goeson during college right, where
you start to be a little bitmore aware of the world around
you, some of the inequalitiesthat exist in our world.
(02:05):
And for me it was a time whereI sort of, yeah, opened my eyes
a little bit and became probablya more empathetic person.
And through that process earlyon in my career, I did just sort
of realize pretty quickly thatfeeling good about what I did,
you know, day to day, was moreimportant to me than the dollar
amount on my paycheck Not thatthat wasn't important, but it
wasn't as much of a motivator.
(02:25):
So I'd say that's part of it.
But there's a big part of it toothat comes from family.
Right, I'm from a pretty bigfamily that got much bigger.
When I was in high school andinto college I grew up the third
of four boys and then, when Iwas a late teenager, my parents,
over the course of severalyears, adopted three more kids,
like you know, bring them inequally into the family in a
(02:47):
beautiful way, kids from reallytough situations, right.
And I saw my parents sort ofmove heaven and earth Right To
make things as great as possiblefor these kids, to put them
through school and to truly makethem, you know, equal parts of
the family right, and to see howthat extended my dad's career,
I'm sure by many years and, youknow, just caused my mom to take
(03:08):
on an unbelievable workload.
But they did it so lovingly andpretty much effortlessly that
you know I don't think I evenknew at the time just how
inspired I was by that.
But as I look back now it wasclearly like a seminal gesture
or whatever from them that justmade me admire them even more
(03:29):
and it made me want to probablybe more like them, more like my
mom.
Even though I've been able tochart my own career, which is
very different from anybody's inmy family, I do like to think
that my mom and my dad and theirselflessness took hold a little
bit in me like and theirselflessness took hold a little
bit in me.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That is incredibly generous and I don't think that
I knew that it's.
It's so selfless and it's alsoreally beautiful that you're
able to be that inspired by yourparents while they're still
here, Because my dad passed afew years ago and I'm inspired
to live in his legacy, but it'sjust a little bit unfortunate
that it took him passing for meto see it.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, just a little bit unfortunate that it took him
passing for me to see it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So that is amazing.
So when you graduated fromcollege and between then and now
, what was your experiencebefore co-founding?
Eat, Learn, Play.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, I mean it wasn't a winding path, but I
think, like most of us, it tookus a little while to find our
footing right.
I cut my teeth in a couple ofdifferent ways.
Right Like fundraising andpartnerships has always sort of
been at or near the center of alot of my roles.
I realized early on, like myfirst role was at my alma mater,
trinity University in SanAntonio, texas.
(04:36):
I had worked like in the in thefledgling college radio station
, like as a summer job betweenmy junior and senior year, at a
time when the radio station hada mixed format and no real
audience.
But they're like all right, youwant to come sell some
sponsorship time andunderwriting time on public
radio, have at it.
And I spent the summer notknowing any better and did I
ended up raising I don't know ifit was tens of thousands of
(04:58):
dollars or whatever.
It didn't feel amazing to me.
But what I didn't know isnobody had ever sold anything
because there was no audience tospeak of.
And so early on in my senioryear, the university president
made a decision to actually turnthe station, which had, you
know, powerful signal, into oneof like America's only jazz
radio stations, not smooth jazz,soft jazz, like real jazz.
(05:19):
And you know the universitylike asked me would you, would
you be interested in coming?
And like co running the station, like we're going to hire a
music person to do all that side, but there is a mandate from
the college to becomeself-sufficient within, you know
, within two or three years.
That's what I was tasked with.
So, like my earlyentrepreneurial roots actually,
you know they go back 20 yearsnow with that, with that
opportunity, and that wassuccessful.
(05:41):
And then I kept climbing alittle bit up the fundraising
path and the truth is, as Icontinued sort of opening my
eyes to the world, I foundmyself you know this is like
early mid 2000s just sort ofcaring more and more and maybe
being a little bit more and morefrustrated about the world
around me.
Right, and just wanting to domore, to sort of be in the thick
of things, like trying to makethings better.
(06:01):
There's like not one particularcause that I'm particularly
passionate about, like it has tobe cancer, it has to be climate
change, it's like there's a lotthat needs help in the world
and if I can use some of mytalents and my energy to to to
improve something, then you knowit's time well spent and so
sort of cut my path, fundraisingand building partnerships.
And then a big break came in2011 when an organization that I
(06:23):
supported this you know at thetime big global grassroots
anti-malaria campaign nothingbut nets I got tapped to run
that initiative through the UNfoundation.
And so then, all of a sudden,it's like leaping over from from
fundraising to, you know,you're doing fundraising,
advocacy, leading theorganization, and I did that for
like five and a half years andthat was one of the best times
(06:43):
of my life, just trying tofigure out how can you be
creative and effective enough tolike rally hundreds of
thousands of Americans to careabout a disease that's, you know
, impacting kids halfway aroundthe world, but definitely not in
America any longer.
And I was really able to, likeyou know, looking back, like
flex my muscles in terms ofbuilding partnerships and being
creative and trying to figureout how to rally people around a
(07:06):
vision.
It was something I waseffective at, but definitely the
best move that I made like theluckiest thing that's maybe
happened is we were partnerswith the NBA cares right,
nothing but nets or a basketballterm, but like Dikembe Mutombo,
who just passed but is like aliving legend from DR Congo.
He had retired and he had beenlike the spokesperson for
(07:28):
malaria in the NBA.
But we were, like we werewithout a player, and if you
don't have a player in apartnership with the NBA, like
you're not going to be able tomove too many hearts and minds.
Teams aren't rolling out thered carpet and throwing money at
you just because NBA care saysthat they like you.
And, at the same time, like Irealized we needed to get a
player on board.
But it's 2011.
So we weren't going to get KobeBryant or LeBron James at this
(07:48):
point in their careers to liketo care about malaria.
But I'm a sports fan.
I've got siblings who went toDavidson College, where Stefan
went, and so I pursued this likeoft injured, you know this guy
with a bum ankle, second yearplayer on the lowly Golden State
Warriors, to be like our bigmalaria ambassador, thinking if
this guy can ever get healthy,like he might have a bright
(08:09):
future in the league.
And so I approached Steph in2011 about, you know, doing this
, and he said yes, like he wasexcited about it, and so he
became an unbelievableambassador for the cause and for
the next five years we workedtogether.
This guy took a week out of hissummer in 2013 as he was really
ascending into becoming asuperstar to spend time in
(08:31):
refugee camps with me on theborder of the Congo, and you
really get to know somebody onexperiences like that.
But to see the grace and thegenerosity and just how he
carries himself and is presentfor other people, even in places
like refugee camps, it wasamazing to witness, right.
Anyways, I led that campaign foryears, connecting with Stefan
(08:51):
and getting to know Aisha, andthat journey was huge.
I was in the right place at theright time.
In part because of that,nothing but Nets experience that
when Aisha and Stefan gotserious about starting a
foundation, like six years ago,that brought their philanthropic
interests together Like I wasthe person that they called to
like help them.
Just sort of imagine,brainstorm, think through like
(09:12):
what could this be?
What kind of impact could wehave?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wow, and I love the connecting of the dots there
because it all makes sense inretrospect.
But it also does feel likemaybe you were meant to meet him
, maybe this was all meant tohappen.
So it sounds like you connectedover nothing but nets.
You kind of built a friendshipand a relationship.
So when did Eat, learn, playcome into the picture?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We launched in July of 2019, you know, right before
the pandemic but for like this,you know, seven, eight months
before that, I was sort ofgrinding away with the curries
at my side but by myself, likethe only staff member of this
thing, trying to put togetherthe pieces of what it could be.
You're in the Bay Area, soyou'll appreciate this.
It's no accident that it was inlate 2018 that they started
(09:55):
getting serious about this.
Right, the Warriors they werein their final year playing in
Oakland, which had become theCurrys', adopted hometown,
hometown and, like in acommunity that had really
wrapped their arms around theCurry's and as the Curry's
became a family.
You know it's the place thatthey loved and it's also a place
where there's a lot of of ofhardship currently and a lot of
struggle, and so part of thereason around the timing of Eat,
(10:18):
learn, play was to make surethat Oakland and this generation
of Oakland kids is looked afterright as the Warriors pack up
and move across the bridge toSan Francisco.
And so that's the timing of itall, and you know, beyond that,
they're saying like, listen, wewant to focus on Oakland and do
everything we can for kids inthis community.
There was a couple other thingsI think are worth mentioning
(10:39):
that they felt really stronglyabout in terms of drawing the
parameters of what we were goingto build together.
The second thing besides Oaklandwas these issue areas right,
like Aisha has been for a longtime, way before he learned play
, like a passionate crusaderagainst childhood hunger, like
doing a lot of work with no KidHungry, and she knows the
statistics nationally andlocally and like for her it was
(10:59):
a non-negotiable you know we'regoing to.
We need to make sure Oaklandkids are fed Steph.
Like you know we're gonna.
We need to make sure Oaklandkids are fed Steph.
Like you know, he attributes somuch of the awesome person that
he is today to his experienceplaying sports and being active.
Right, whether it's likeindividual sports, like golf or
team sports, like you knowbaseball and basketball, you
know just who he is.
(11:19):
He attributes to to playing.
So for him, like the playpillar was sort of like yep,
that's my stake in the.
And then education was the areawhere they both felt strongly
but also were smart enough and,I think, humble enough to
realize like okay, we don't knowin this sort of very vast
education space where we canhave the greatest impact.
And so we sort of dabbled in acouple of different areas in
education.
But that's that's, anne, whereeat, learn, play came from.
(11:42):
And like when I was trying tofigure it out on the board with
with a dear friend of Stefan's,like what do we call this thing?
There's all these issues.
There was like this eurekamoment was like, oh, I think
we've got it Eat, learn, play.
And then the third thing theycare about when we were building
this was the name.
One of their lawyers hadregistered the foundation before
(12:03):
I started, knowing that thiswas coming down the pike.
They had registered it with theIRS as a Stephan and Aisha Curry
Family Foundation and when wewere sort of sitting around the
dinner table like imagining whatthis could be, it was Aisha who
was like I don't want to doanything publicly until we get
this name changed.
Right, the Curry FamilyFoundation doesn't say anything
about the impact that we want tohave, right, it makes it about
us, and that's the opposite ofwhy they started this thing.
(12:25):
And Stefan sort of chimed infrom across the table.
He's like yeah, this is aboutimpact, not about legacy, and
that's sort of been a mantrathat we've carried with us now
for the last, you know five anda half, six years.
But that's how Eat Learn Playcame to be and, like, those were
the initial big sort ofparameters from the Currys as we
were building this thing, likeokay, like let's see what we can
do.
But these are the things that.
These are among the things wefeel really, really strongly
(12:45):
about.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
What an incredible North Star to like to take out
the ego part and to take out thename, the recognition, and just
focus on what the cause isreally trying to address.
And I recently learned how manykids really depend on the food
at school if it's for free inorder to eat or they may just go
hungry.
And then, with the play youwere mentioning, we all see the
(13:11):
benefit of team sports or sportsin general for what it can do
for one's self-confidence andskill building and then the
learning obviously.
Yeah, I don't know what thestate is of the schools in
Oakland, but I imagine that it'spretty imbalanced when you look
at the Bay Area overall.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
It's such an important point that you make
right and in where they shouldbe, and it's not what kids
deserve.
Right, like our whole attitudein this is Oakland kids deserve
the very best and what role canwe play in very tangible ways to
do it.
But, like, the truth is is that39% of Oakland students right
now are living in food insecurehouseholds.
Right, schools are the placeswhere you know over half of
(13:46):
Oakland students, like 17,18,000 kids get two or three
meals a day.
Our learn pillar has evolvedinto a very, very deep focus on
early literacy because it'samazing, but you can basically
draw a straight line between akid's ability to read well at
the end of third grade and theirsuccess in school and in life.
It's how dire that is.
(14:07):
Third grade reading level is ahuge predictor of graduation
rates, of career success andalso and it's kind of messed up,
but it's one of the key datapoints that prison systems use
in our US as a way of predictinginmate populations.
So I say that and then I'lltell you that in Oakland, when
we got started with thisinitiative, 85% of children of
color in Oakland schools werereading behind grade level by
(14:29):
the end of the third grade 40%of students, of children of
color, were two or three or moregrade levels behind in third
grade, and so that's theimperative we have to change
that.
And then, when you talk aboutplay, yeah, I mean, what we came
to realize is at schools can behubs for a lot of things, but
especially youth sports.
(14:49):
Right, like, every child shouldbe able to experience the joys
and the benefits of youth sports.
Right, like, every child shouldbe able to experience the joys
and the benefits of youth sports.
And schools should be thatplace where kids should have
access to high quality youthsports.
But budget cuts happen.
Participation in Oakland andaround the country is like
falling precipitously when weknow that kids who are engaged
(15:09):
in these sort of healthybehaviors end up being, you know
, like for the most part, moresuccessful in life.
And so, and eat, learn, playlike it's.
We're playful at our nature andI think that's part of our
secret sauce, but the issues areserious.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, it's.
It's just inequalities that areI mean you.
You spread that out over thefuture and it is feeling hugely
imbalanced.
When you were mentioning howyou learned the fundraising and
the partnerships, going back toyour radio days at college, what
can you tell us about what it'slike fundraising and the best
way to get people's support foryour mission?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
You know, I'm probably not the most
traditional like by the bookfundraiser.
Right, like, or even like thenonprofit sector, I'm not
spending a lot of time going toconferences or like, oh, this is
how it's done.
It's like we try to run Eat,learn, play and like a business.
I think for me, probably threeof the biggest things I think
have driven a lot of myfundraising and partnership
building success like.
One is passion.
(16:03):
Right, like you know, I amsuper passionate, and maybe
you're hearing it in my voice,but I'm super passionate about
what I get to do.
Like I feel lucky and have anability, I think, or I hope, to
be able to get others excitedabout becoming a part of this.
Right, like eat, learn, playit's not about me.
Like this thing is open and ifyou want to come and grab part
of it and be part of it, likegreat, and I will do what I can
to get you excited about that.
(16:25):
The second thing is I think Ihave a really good or unusual
imagination.
Right, like, I've got a lot ofareas where I'm not as strong,
like detail orientation oralways being able to stay on
task, like whatever, but like Ithink I have a unique
imagination to be able to takean issue like malaria and go.
You know what?
We should bring Stephen Curryover to refugee camps and we
should lead this campaign thatraises money and being able to
(16:46):
like connect the dots and bringa network together to help us
towards that goal.
And so I do think for me, likehaving that imagination has been
a key ingredient.
And then the third thing is,just like it's hustle right,
there's no substitute for hardwork, right?
In the last six years of mylife, you know, has proven that
again and again to me.
But it's like you got to workhard if you want it right.
(17:07):
But those are some of the keypieces.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
When you mentioned that you run this nonprofit kind
of like a business, it wasreally making me curious to know
a little bit more about thatside of the nonprofit.
Like I have no idea what ittakes monetarily to get a
nonprofit up and off the ground.
Are there any thoughts that youcan share with us?
For anyone listening in who iscurious maybe they want to start
something like this on theirown at some point, like how much
(17:31):
does it realistically take?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I mean, there's different levels of this stuff,
right, and we've already, in ourfirst five and a half six years
, I've gone through many lifecycles.
I think it's a matter of whatyour vision is and what you want
to do right.
For us with Eat, learn, play,one of the things that I think
sets us apart, or that I'm proudof, is we have this imagination
that's buoyed right, that'sstrengthened by the Curry's
voice in their platforms andtheir networks, like.
(17:54):
We are very unique in that way,but it's it's understanding,
like what's the issue that we'retrying to help solve and the
attitude that we have, and partof how I think we think about it
like a business is just who arethe kids that we're trying to
reach and what will it take forus to get the job done and for
us to do all the work that wewant to do is like 20, 30, 40,
$50 million a year for a longtime, and so we've got a top
(18:15):
notch finance team, we've got aboard, we've got our budget is
down to a T.
We're audited every year, butthe mandate that we have
internally is like is to growand to do everything we can for
these kids that we're trying tosort of set big goals that are a
reach but that are achievable,and then figure out how to get
that work done to the point nowwhere, five and a half years in,
we're now like raising anddeploying like 20, $25 million a
(18:38):
year back into the localcommunity.
It's what the kids need, likeit's what the market is
requiring, and so we're doingeverything we can to get that
done.
It's not, hey, let's try tohost a fundraiser, raise a
million dollars this year andgive it away and we'll feel good
about ourselves.
It's.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
It's really driven by the need that's out there and
trying to do everything we canto play the biggest role we can.
So take us back to that dinnertable.
You were sitting down with theCurrys and you had decided to
start this and you changed thename.
So everybody was happy withmoving forward.
What were the next steps Like?
How do you proceed from thatpoint to bring your now idea to
fruition?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It's a good question, right.
They gave me a lot of autonomyright To fill in the blanks
besides those three things thatthey felt strongly about.
But, like going back to thoseearly days, it was me alone, a
lot of days in an empty officeand in my house, just sort of
trying to put these piecestogether.
A big part of it was getting toknow the community and also
(19:40):
building a network with, youknow, within sort of the Curry
spheres, right, which, which hasa lot of power again, beginning
to get people excited about thepotential of this thing and how
they could be involved, likethat was.
That was a key part of it.
And then every week, every twoweeks, every three weeks, we
were back around that dinnertable and you know, like here's
the paper, here's the currentplan, like let's react and the
Curry's sort of picking it apart.
Yes, no, you know asking greatquestions.
(20:00):
I mean, looking back, it wassort of beautiful how it was put
together.
But also, looking back, I can'tbelieve all that I didn't know
and how naive I was to launchthis thing as, like, the only
staff person knowing where we'vegone.
It's like I can't believe I didthat and I'm not sure that I
could do it again.
What I didn't know is actuallyreally helpful.
Like I can't believe I wassleeping at night back then, but
(20:22):
it was.
It was great and so it was.
It was a lot of back and forth,it was a lot of networking and
beginning to build partnershipsand finding those people at, at,
at community organizations oryou know, or or potential
funders who could even though itwas just a single piece of
paper, just me talking to them,like you could see that they
were grabbing on and willing tolike, take that leap with us to
(20:42):
say, all right, you might nothave $500,000 to give us right
now, but you know, we're, we'llbe alongside you and and
hopefully we can get there.
So there was a lot of that.
There was something else aroundthat dinner table as we were
getting into those conversationsof, okay, like, how are we
going to make this thingsustainable and successful long
term?
And there's this issue of, likethe Curry's are wealthy.
Right, like Stefan's contractis out there, it's public, so
(21:04):
I'm not breaking any secrets,but the idea is, like, how can
we make sure that that is animpediment to people getting
involved?
Right, like the Curry's couldhave created this as a private
foundation and self-funded it,but there would be a cap in
terms of how much we could do.
And what we realized, you knowpretty quickly, is they're
magnetic, right, like they haveall of these fans and followers.
(21:25):
They're incredible, likebeloved people, and so people
want to be a part of what theydo.
And so they promised, you know,on one of those dinner table
conversations, and they agreed,to fully fund, forever, all of
the administrative andfundraising overhead costs for
the foundation, so that everydollar that comes in can go
directly back out into into theprograms and the partnerships
(21:46):
that we're supporting.
And all of a sudden, there wasthis moment of like.
You know we can answer thatpotential objective, you know
we're trying to build this thing, so like it'd be hard for
someone who cared about theseissues to say no.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
So there's a couple of things that you've just said
that I really would love to knowmore about.
The first one is just youmentioned how much you didn't
know at the very beginning andhow surprised you were that you
were able to actually get tothis point.
What are you talking about?
So?
What did you not know?
Can you be more specific?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah.
So I mean, the earliestinvestment we ever made was in
underwriting like summer campcosts for like a thousand
Oakland kids so that they couldhave someplace in the summer to
go and eat, learn and play in asafe environment.
And we launched in July, rightin the height of summer camp.
And so we decided it was a kindof clever idea, but we decided
(22:36):
to throw a carnival, basicallyat Lake Merritt in downtown
Oakland to launch Eat Learn Playand let's bring in over 1,000
campers from across 20 parks andrec sites around the city to
help us kick off Eat Learn Play.
And we did right and it wasamazing.
Yeah, it was just like it stillis like one of the best days
that he or in play has had.
But I'm not an event planner.
(22:56):
I already admitted like eightminutes ago that I'm not very
detail oriented.
But here I was like the onlylike real employee of this
organization that was hosting anevent for over a thousand kids.
That was like big on the mediabecause you're, you're, you're
with the Bay area's power coupleand like there was that like
big on the media because you'rewith the Bay Area's power couple
(23:18):
and we were naive and that wasa strength of ours at the time.
But what was behind that wasthe people that I had been
talking to and the Curry'snetwork that loves them.
It was really the power ofpartnerships and that's still at
the heart of Eat, learn, playtoday.
So it's going out to all of theCurry's brand partners and all
of the Oakland sports teams whowere still in Oakland at the
time and just saying, hey, we'redoing this and we would love
for you to be a part of it.
(23:38):
Right, and it was going to likeparks and rec and saying, hey,
do you have any event plannerswho could like, who could pitch
in and and sort of help withthis?
And what happened was like this,this just unbelievable event
where we just basically had, youknow, we had the chases and
rackettons and Golden StateWarriors and Oakland Roots and
Under Armour, like everybody'shosting, like an activity
station, and the kids are justcycling through in one direction
.
The Currys are cycling throughin another direction and we had
(24:01):
a photographer and avideographer follow them and so
we could sort of repay all thesepartners by like you know what,
we'll get some photos of Stephengaging, you know, in your fun
activity station with these kidsand and it worked right.
It just like really worked.
And you know, yes, I was astaff of one when we hosted that
event and we pulled it off, butreally there was like 200
(24:22):
people there right alongside us,like willing us to success in a
beautiful way.
But as I try to recount thatstory to our team now at Eat,
learn, play and now we're like20 people strong.
They know me and they know thethings that I'm not good at,
they kind of look at me like howthe hell did this happen?
Like I barely believe that youcould pull this off.
Health, rich.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I am amazed.
I have the hardest time evenjust planning a kid's birthday
party.
So I can't imagine an event fora thousand people in a public
space, with permits and all thegazillion things that you must
have had to have done.
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
You permits and all the gazillion things that you
must have had to have done.
That's incredible.
You surround yourself withpeople who know what they're
doing and you treat them welland you make them feel a part of
it and they are like they are apart of it and I think that
authentic connection, that thatyou can help people make with,
with what you're doing, andagain we have the curry.
So it's it's, it's it's easierthan if you're starting from
scratch without them Like that'sdefinitely the secret sauce.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean you've got the Curry's,but you also have so much
passion.
It's very clear you are drivenby your heart and I think that
anybody that you partner with isgoing to be able to see that.
So the other question that Ihad was you said the Curry's
have committed to funding theoverhead costs of the nonprofit.
Can you give us an idea of whatthat means annually for them?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
It's not insignificant at all and it
grows every year, right To theircredit.
I talk about how we have about a20 person team right now, right
Over the first couple of years,and this was something that I
actually felt was maybe going tokeep us from growing and
reaching our full potential,because bringing on new
fundraisers building out like abest in class finance and
operations team, like it costs alot of money and those funds
(25:55):
come directly from their pockets.
And so I sort of you knowbrought it up a little
sheepishly with the Currys, withtheir financial advisor who
sits on our board, and like itwas Steph who, like, shook his
head.
He's like, no, like we want youto grow this thing as big as
you can to have the impact thatwe want to have.
Like we have your back right.
The commitment that they makeannually is, is, is a very, very
big one, but again, to havethat almost a mandate from them
(26:17):
of like, don't be worried aboutus.
Like you be responsible withthe funds.
But what we want and the reasonwe created this thing in the
first place was was to impactthis generation of Oakland kids,
and we don't want to put limitson that.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So generous it's, it makes it so sustainable to just
remove that one weight from thefoundation's needs to make sure
that it can continue forperpetuity.
That is incredible.
So it's been, you said, sixyears now.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
So we launched in July of 2019.
So we've officially been on themap publicly for five and a
half years and again, I startedseven, eight months before that.
So that's where you're gettingthe weird timeline for me, but
it's been six years for me.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Okay, so in those six years, what has been the
hardest part of getting this towhere it is today?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
It's a great question , I think.
I think the changing of thelife cycles has been hard for me
, right, like I've.
I've been lucky to leadorganizations that have that
have been successful, but I'vebeen lucky to lead organizations
that have been successful, butI've never built an organization
and taken it to where it is now, right, and it's that
acknowledgement again of, likeyou know, you have to open your
eyes and accept that you don'tknow what you don't know, and
(27:23):
going from a startup intoadolescence and now adolescence
into whatever this next phase is, it's been rife with challenges
, right, like you know, when wewere young, right when we were
early on, we had three, four orfive staff members and we could
move really fast, right, and wecould respond to challenges and
everybody was sort of in theloop and you felt like everybody
knew what was going on and wasrowing in the same direction.
(27:44):
You get to 1215 staff membersand now, all of a sudden, things
can't happen as fast, right,and you begin to have those
internal communicationchallenges and the culture of
the organization starts tochange a little bit.
And so, making sure you havethe tools and the support for me
, like the executive coaching,to help me be the best leader I
can for an organization at thatlevel and even though we in some
(28:08):
ways can't move as fast as weused to, what growing has done
like the depth of our work,right, like the true impact of
our work is like has multipliedlike 5x, 10x, 20x over the last
couple of years as we've grown.
But it's been, it's been reallyhard, right, and I have not
naturally been as positioned forthat, like you can probably
hear it in my voice.
Like you know, I definitelybring an entrepreneurial spirit
(28:31):
to eat, learn, play.
But as we get to the point nowwhere we have a community that's
really relying on us and we'vegot a base of, you know,
probably a thousand supportersand a lot like dozens of like
really committed partners, likeit takes more than
entrepreneurial spirit to movethis thing.
And so it's like how do we, howdo we build this team with
great people who are way betterat their jobs than I am, and how
(28:54):
can, how can I get out of theway when necessary and just
empower them to do their thing?
It hasn't always been easy,definitely been challenges at
point, but it's helped get uswhere we are today.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
It sounds like you're learning on the go a little bit
, but the good thing is thatthere are other nonprofits out
there who've been through thesame pain points and I'm sure
would offer mentorship to helpyou get through it.
It pain points and I'm surewould offer mentorship to help
you get through it.
It sounds like you would neverlet this fail, like this is your
mission, this is your heart andeverything.
So, to spin it a little bit,what, in the last six years,
(29:23):
have been the most memorabledays?
Like when you look back and yousnapshot a picture in your mind
of days when you feel like thenonprofit has made some
significant impact or forwardmomentum.
Like what would they be?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
That's such a good question.
I'll start with our eat pillar,because that's really where we
started.
Like, the first couple of yearsof Eat Learn Play, we were
pretty much exclusively focusedon on on hunger in Oakland.
I talk about how we launched inJuly of 2019.
We had just hired our secondand third employees in November
of 2019, like just hired oursecond and third employees in
November of 2019, like, and hadthem onboarded right before
(29:56):
COVID hit Right and Aisha hadposed in a board meeting, like
in January of 2020, like there'sthis thing going on and I'm a
little worried about it.
Like she was very early on in itand so it was in our heads, but
there was this aha moment I hadlike, as it was like beginning
to creep closer of oh my gosh.
Like yeah, it looks likeschools might close indefinitely
(30:16):
, right, and if I've learnedanything over the last year,
it's that students again rely onschools for their for for two
or three meals every day, and soif school is closed
indefinitely, like, how do wemake sure that Oakland kids
don't miss a meal, right?
So like, here we are, threepeople like planting a flag, not
knowing what we were doing, butwe had no kid hungry and we had
the local food bank and we hadthe school district and we just
(30:38):
like put out a call to action onhow do we make sure the
community stays fed during thisand obviously COVID became so
much worse and it lasted so muchlonger than we could have
imagined.
But in that first year of COVIDwe ended up helping to
distribute 26 million meals outinto Oakland through the school,
through the food bank.
But our biggest partnership waswith World Central Kitchen,
jose Andres, who they're doingamazing work in LA right now.
(31:00):
But it was in Oakland where weco-piloted this idea of what if
we employed local restaurants tobe preparing meals for hungry
kids and families in thecommunity.
Restaurants had all been closeddown, these small businesses,
because of COVID.
And like we ended up with thisbasic model of paying local
restaurants $10 for every mealthat they prepared and delivered
(31:21):
during the pandemic.
And like we ended up employing130 Oakland restaurants and
doing like I don't know if itwas a million and a half or 2
million restaurant meals backout into the community during
that time.
So like to see what we could do, like that was those were early
days and that's where we got alot of our momentum.
It's also, anne, where I thinkwe realized that we are at our
(31:45):
best when we meet people withwhere they are, with what they
need, and do so in reallydignified, joyful ways.
These are not turkey sandwicheswrapped in cellophane.
It's like let's give Oaklandkids and Oakland families the
best.
That's a big one.
A couple of years ago we wentthrough like a long strategic
planning process and this waspushed on me by our COO and the
board and it was the best thingthat Eat Learn Play has ever
done.
You know, we had to take like along look after three years
(32:07):
like where are we having thegreatest impact?
You know, where could we bebetter?
We've done so much listening tovoices in the community to
figure out where we can be atour best.
You know, what came out of thatwas meeting kids where they are
, meeting them with dignity andmeeting them with joy in a city
that currently lacks a lot ofjoy.
And at the same time, I cameupon this body of research from
(32:29):
a partner organization that doesa lot of philanthropic impact,
investing, and what they foundwas, you know, for organizations
our size and our age, but thegreatest ROI were not the
organizations that tried tostart something from scratch,
and they weren't theorganizations that were trying
to like bite off these issuesaround the edges.
Like, the organizations thatthey had in their portfolio who
made the most impact were theones that, like, identified the
(32:50):
distribution channel that servetheir constituency, and those
organizations were laser focusedon making that distribution
channel, that system, better.
And there was a total light bulbmoment for us of public schools
.
Right, like, public schools arewhere 35,000 kids in Oakland go
every day to eat, learn andplay, and, like we talked about
a half hour ago, like, withoutcomes that aren't nearly good
(33:11):
enough.
And so, over the last couple ofyears, we've been on this
amazing journey to transform theschool experience for a
generation of kids.
So, like, everything we'redoing is rooted in how do we
make this experience of being apublic school student in Oakland
better?
Right, we're investing five $6million a year now, after a lot
of listening and research onliteracy tutoring.
(33:32):
Right, like, tutoring works.
And when your kids struggle inschool when my kids struggle in
school, like I know we moveheaven and earth to like give
them the support they need.
Our attitude is, like theseOakland kids, they deserve the
exact same thing, and so this isone of those ways that we're
trying to will our way toensuring that every child in
Oakland who's behind grade levelin reading has one on one high
(33:52):
dosage professional tutoringthroughout the year.
We have just remodeled our 17thschoolyard tutoring throughout
the year.
We have just remodeled our 17thschoolyard, so we are like
transforming campuses in theflatlands of Oakland at
elementary schools, like takingthese facilities that like sadly
look a little bit more likeprison yards than schoolyards,
and we're using our imaginationto like, dream up and dreaming
up with the kids.
But like, what would your dreamplay space look like?
(34:13):
And these are like seven figurecapital projects now where
we're creating these dreamschoolyards for kids to be able
to, to play and learn and growand like, and it's, it's, it's
awesome and we have thousands ofvolunteers that now are engaged
in this effort.
But like that aha moment, Ithink, when we pivoted as an
organization and, like you know,planted our flag, it wasn't an
(34:34):
easy decision or a sexy decisionto like to invest heavily in
transforming the public schoolexperience.
That's a gratifying moment.
That is 100% been a turningpoint in terms of getting Eat,
learn, play more focused andtaking our impact to the next
level.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
It really sounds like your impact is noticeable
instantly too.
I mean not just by thevolunteers, but by the kids you
get to see your work.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
A hundred percent and I've barely touched on you know
a lot of the work we're doing.
But you're right, Like themoney that we're donating to
just just FYI and for youraudience, like we are not making
big investments in the schooldistrict directly, we're playing
this sort of convening pointguard role, almost of like
connecting all of thesecommunity experts and leaders in
these organizations to likecollectively wrap our arms
(35:17):
around these kids where they are, and it's been a winning
formula so far.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
What an incredible mission to be a part of, and I
was wondering for any listenerswho may want to start their own
nonprofit one day what advicecould you give to them?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
One is listen right At every turn, at Eat, learn,
play.
When we've paused and listenedto our partners and the
community that we're trying toserve, like it has sent us into
the right direction.
Right, like you know, myinstincts are to move fast, but
there's a lot of wisdom gained.
But from listening to what thecommunity needs.
You know one of our partnerswho I mentioned a couple of
minutes ago no Kid Hungry, theirfounder, billy Shore.
(35:55):
He has an expression, he has abook like add passion and stir
right.
Listen to the community's needsand then add your passion.
And I think good things happenwhen you put those two things
together.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I've got one last question, which is just if you
could go back and have aconversation with yourself when
you were in your early 20s andit doesn't have to be anything
related to what we've discussed,but what life wisdom would you
give yourself?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Oh my gosh, probably that it's all going to work out
if you work hard.
You know my journey has notbeen without stress and it's and
it's not been without anxietyand a lot of self-doubt.
You know like and we could do awhole nother podcast on that
you know like I've been reallyhard on myself over the last 20
years and it worked out.
And part of it, ann, is, Ithink, probably leaning into
(36:38):
those things that make medifferent or make me unique and
being comfortable and sort ofupfront with those
vulnerabilities, versus tryingto project in your early
twenties, your early thirties,whatever, that you've got it all
figured out or that you'retotally in control.
It's like for me it's aconstant lesson in reminding
myself that I'm not in controland to try to drive good things
(36:58):
from that.
But yeah, in my early 20sespecially, it was like gripping
on tight and trying to likewill myself to success.
And you know I don't think thatthat was a main ingredient in
my success.
Like that human aspect, therecognizing your weaknesses and
accounting for it, hasdefinitely been something that's
helped.
(37:23):
And I do want to say one otherthing, in part because you are
friends and a former classmateof my wife, kate, what I
probably would also tell myselfin the early twenties is, like
Mary Kate, when I look back atmy success and our success, like
who you choose to be around issuch a key part right, and like
the success that I've had likedoesn't happen without like
having just the most badasspartner right, and so I think
that might actually be thenumber one sort of like secret
(37:43):
behind any impact I've been ableto create, and I hope you know
I'd be somewhere on the top 10of her list in terms of what's
you know sort of empowered hergreat career.
But I do want to call that outbecause you know behind the
scenes for sure.
But who you're with right Likein my case my wife is.
She gets a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, supportive people.
It's important to have themaround you.
Well, crick, thank you so muchfor coming on the show and
taking some time to chat today.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Thanks for the time and the opportunity and
congratulations on on everythingyou have going on.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Today's key takeaways .
Building partnerships is aboutrelationships, not transactions.
Cultivate genuine long-termpartnerships by aligning with
people who share your values andmission.
Approach collaborations with amindset of mutual benefit rather
than short-term gain, whetherit's fundraising, marketing or
(38:37):
community engagement.
Creativity opens doors.
So if you're stuck, askyourself or pick the brain of a
creative friend how can I dothis differently?
If you want to learn how toactually think outside the box,
I have an upcoming episode withDuncan Wardle, disney's former
head of creativity andinnovation, dropping April 1st.
(38:58):
So follow the show so you don'tmiss it.
Millions of kids in the US facehunger daily.
Whether you volunteer, donateor advocate for better policies,
small actions stack up tomassive impact.
So consider what's one thingyou can do this week or month to
contribute.
Being active is essential formental and physical health, so
(39:22):
prioritize movement, play andsports to build confidence,
discipline and well-being.
Passion fuels persistence,imagination sparks innovation
and hard work brings the results.
If you want to make real impact,listen first.
Spend time in the community,ask questions and let their
(39:44):
voices guide your impact.
Don't let a lack of experiencestop you, because you can use it
to your advantage.
You're forced to ask greatquestions, experiment and find
new solutions.
Expect trade-offs when scaling.
If you're a solo operator,progress is slow but flexible.
(40:04):
With a small team three to fourpeople momentum accelerates and
as you scale, internalchallenges appear, communication
culture shifts anddecision-making slows.
Plan for each stage and adjustyour leadership strategies
accordingly.
The best leaders acknowledgegaps in their knowledge and seek
(40:26):
executive coaching, mentors oradvisors to navigate challenges
at higher levels.
And great leadership is knowingwhen to step back If you've
hired the right people.
Your job isn't to micromanage.
It's to set the vision, removeroadblocks and trust your team
to deliver.
Authenticity is your greatestasset.
(40:49):
People don't connect withperfection.
They connect with real Leaninto your quirks,
vulnerabilities and differences,because that's what makes you
memorable.
The right people will challenge, inspire and support you, but
you have to invest in thoserelationships.
First Give before you ask, andsurround yourself with people
(41:11):
who challenge you to grow,support your vision, share your
values and push you towardsexcellence.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
Welcome to a special episode of how I Built my Small
Business.
I'm Anne McGinty, and today'sepisode is part of Podcastthon,
a global effort bringingthousands of podcasts together
to raise awareness forcharitable causes.
My guest today is ChristopherHelfrich, president and CEO of
Eat Learn Play, the foundationhe co-founded with Stephan and
(00:30):
Aisha Curry to tackle childhoodhunger, early literacy and
active lifestyles for kids inOakland.
Since launching in 2019, eatLearn Play has raised and
invested over $32 million,directly impacting underserved
children and families.
Under Christopher's leadership,the foundation has grown into a
(00:51):
force for change, helpingOakland kids get the nutrition,
education and movement they needto thrive.
Before this, christopher ledthe Starlight Children's
Foundation and served as head ofthe Nothing but Nets campaign
for the UN Foundation, workingto combat malaria globally.
And in 2024, he and StephenCurry and some of the team
(01:14):
landed on the cover of IncMagazine for their work in
fostering equity, access andopportunity for all.
Check out the link in the shownotes to learn more about Eat
Learn Play.
Let's get started, chris.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And I'm so happy to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So can we start out with you just telling us a
little bit about you, Like whoare you and when and why did you
decide to dedicate your lifeand career to doing good?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it's.
I mean, listen, it's a, it's abig question, you know, and I
think it was probably more of agradual thing.
And then you know a big ahamoment.
But you know, probably like alot of people, it was sort of
coming of age.
You know, the light bulb goeson during college right, where
you start to be a little bitmore aware of the world around
you, some of the inequalitiesthat exist in our world.
(02:05):
And for me it was a time whereI sort of, yeah, opened my eyes
a little bit and became probablya more empathetic person.
And through that process earlyon in my career, I did just sort
of realize pretty quickly thatfeeling good about what I did,
you know, day to day, was moreimportant to me than the dollar
amount on my paycheck Not thatthat wasn't important, but it
wasn't as much of a motivator.
(02:25):
So I'd say that's part of it.
But there's a big part of it toothat comes from family.
Right, I'm from a pretty bigfamily that got much bigger.
When I was in high school andinto college I grew up the third
of four boys and then, when Iwas a late teenager, my parents,
over the course of severalyears, adopted three more kids,
like you know, bring them inequally into the family in a
(02:47):
beautiful way, kids from reallytough situations, right.
And I saw my parents sort ofmove heaven and earth Right To
make things as great as possiblefor these kids, to put them
through school and to truly makethem, you know, equal parts of
the family right, and to see howthat extended my dad's career,
I'm sure by many years and, youknow, just caused my mom to take
(03:08):
on an unbelievable workload.
But they did it so lovingly andpretty much effortlessly that
you know I don't think I evenknew at the time just how
inspired I was by that.
But as I look back now it wasclearly like a seminal gesture
or whatever from them that justmade me admire them even more
(03:29):
and it made me want to probablybe more like them, more like my
mom.
Even though I've been able tochart my own career, which is
very different from anybody's inmy family, I do like to think
that my mom and my dad and theirselflessness took hold a little
bit in me like and theirselflessness took hold a little
bit in me.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That is incredibly generous and I don't think that
I knew that it's.
It's so selfless and it's alsoreally beautiful that you're
able to be that inspired by yourparents while they're still
here, Because my dad passed afew years ago and I'm inspired
to live in his legacy, but it'sjust a little bit unfortunate
that it took him passing for meto see it.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, just a little bit unfortunate that it took him
passing for me to see it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So that is amazing.
So when you graduated fromcollege and between then and now
, what was your experiencebefore co-founding?
Eat, Learn, Play.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, I mean it wasn't a winding path, but I
think, like most of us, it tookus a little while to find our
footing right.
I cut my teeth in a couple ofdifferent ways.
Right Like fundraising andpartnerships has always sort of
been at or near the center of alot of my roles.
I realized early on, like myfirst role was at my alma mater,
trinity University in SanAntonio, texas.
(04:36):
I had worked like in the in thefledgling college radio station
, like as a summer job betweenmy junior and senior year, at a
time when the radio station hada mixed format and no real
audience.
But they're like all right, youwant to come sell some
sponsorship time andunderwriting time on public
radio, have at it.
And I spent the summer notknowing any better and did I
ended up raising I don't know ifit was tens of thousands of
(04:58):
dollars or whatever.
It didn't feel amazing to me.
But what I didn't know isnobody had ever sold anything
because there was no audience tospeak of.
And so early on in my senioryear, the university president
made a decision to actually turnthe station, which had, you
know, powerful signal, into oneof like America's only jazz
radio stations, not smooth jazz,soft jazz, like real jazz.
(05:19):
And you know the universitylike asked me would you, would
you be interested in coming?
And like co running the station, like we're going to hire a
music person to do all that side, but there is a mandate from
the college to becomeself-sufficient within, you know
, within two or three years.
That's what I was tasked with.
So, like my earlyentrepreneurial roots actually,
you know they go back 20 yearsnow with that, with that
opportunity, and that wassuccessful.
(05:41):
And then I kept climbing alittle bit up the fundraising
path and the truth is, as Icontinued sort of opening my
eyes to the world, I foundmyself you know this is like
early mid 2000s just sort ofcaring more and more and maybe
being a little bit more and morefrustrated about the world
around me.
Right, and just wanting to domore, to sort of be in the thick
of things, like trying to makethings better.
(06:01):
There's like not one particularcause that I'm particularly
passionate about, like it has tobe cancer, it has to be climate
change, it's like there's a lotthat needs help in the world
and if I can use some of mytalents and my energy to to to
improve something, then you knowit's time well spent and so
sort of cut my path, fundraisingand building partnerships.
And then a big break came in2011 when an organization that I
(06:23):
supported this you know at thetime big global grassroots
anti-malaria campaign nothingbut nets I got tapped to run
that initiative through the UNfoundation.
And so then, all of a sudden,it's like leaping over from from
fundraising to, you know,you're doing fundraising,
advocacy, leading theorganization, and I did that for
like five and a half years andthat was one of the best times
(06:43):
of my life, just trying tofigure out how can you be
creative and effective enough tolike rally hundreds of
thousands of Americans to careabout a disease that's, you know
, impacting kids halfway aroundthe world, but definitely not in
America any longer.
And I was really able to, likeyou know, looking back, like
flex my muscles in terms ofbuilding partnerships and being
creative and trying to figureout how to rally people around a
(07:06):
vision.
It was something I waseffective at, but definitely the
best move that I made like theluckiest thing that's maybe
happened is we were partnerswith the NBA cares right,
nothing but nets or a basketballterm, but like Dikembe Mutombo,
who just passed but is like aliving legend from DR Congo.
He had retired and he had beenlike the spokesperson for
(07:28):
malaria in the NBA.
But we were, like we werewithout a player, and if you
don't have a player in apartnership with the NBA, like
you're not going to be able tomove too many hearts and minds.
Teams aren't rolling out thered carpet and throwing money at
you just because NBA care saysthat they like you.
And, at the same time, like Irealized we needed to get a
player on board.
But it's 2011.
So we weren't going to get KobeBryant or LeBron James at this
(07:48):
point in their careers to liketo care about malaria.
But I'm a sports fan.
I've got siblings who went toDavidson College, where Stefan
went, and so I pursued this likeoft injured, you know this guy
with a bum ankle, second yearplayer on the lowly Golden State
Warriors, to be like our bigmalaria ambassador, thinking if
this guy can ever get healthy,like he might have a bright
(08:09):
future in the league.
And so I approached Steph in2011 about, you know, doing this
, and he said yes, like he wasexcited about it, and so he
became an unbelievableambassador for the cause and for
the next five years we workedtogether.
This guy took a week out of hissummer in 2013 as he was really
ascending into becoming asuperstar to spend time in
(08:31):
refugee camps with me on theborder of the Congo, and you
really get to know somebody onexperiences like that.
But to see the grace and thegenerosity and just how he
carries himself and is presentfor other people, even in places
like refugee camps, it wasamazing to witness, right.
Anyways, I led that campaign foryears, connecting with Stefan
(08:51):
and getting to know Aisha, andthat journey was huge.
I was in the right place at theright time.
In part because of that,nothing but Nets experience that
when Aisha and Stefan gotserious about starting a
foundation, like six years ago,that brought their philanthropic
interests together Like I wasthe person that they called to
like help them.
Just sort of imagine,brainstorm, think through like
(09:12):
what could this be?
What kind of impact could wehave?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wow, and I love the connecting of the dots there
because it all makes sense inretrospect.
But it also does feel likemaybe you were meant to meet him
, maybe this was all meant tohappen.
So it sounds like you connectedover nothing but nets.
You kind of built a friendshipand a relationship.
So when did Eat, learn, playcome into the picture?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We launched in July of 2019, you know, right before
the pandemic but for like this,you know, seven, eight months
before that, I was sort ofgrinding away with the curries
at my side but by myself, likethe only staff member of this
thing, trying to put togetherthe pieces of what it could be.
You're in the Bay Area, soyou'll appreciate this.
It's no accident that it was inlate 2018 that they started
(09:55):
getting serious about this.
Right, the Warriors they werein their final year playing in
Oakland, which had become theCurrys', adopted hometown,
hometown and, like in acommunity that had really
wrapped their arms around theCurry's and as the Curry's
became a family.
You know it's the place thatthey loved and it's also a place
where there's a lot of of ofhardship currently and a lot of
struggle, and so part of thereason around the timing of Eat,
(10:18):
learn, play was to make surethat Oakland and this generation
of Oakland kids is looked afterright as the Warriors pack up
and move across the bridge toSan Francisco.
And so that's the timing of itall, and you know, beyond that,
they're saying like, listen, wewant to focus on Oakland and do
everything we can for kids inthis community.
There was a couple other thingsI think are worth mentioning
(10:39):
that they felt really stronglyabout in terms of drawing the
parameters of what we were goingto build together.
The second thing besides Oaklandwas these issue areas right,
like Aisha has been for a longtime, way before he learned play
, like a passionate crusaderagainst childhood hunger, like
doing a lot of work with no KidHungry, and she knows the
statistics nationally andlocally and like for her it was
(10:59):
a non-negotiable you know we'regoing to.
We need to make sure Oaklandkids are fed Steph.
Like you know we're gonna.
We need to make sure Oaklandkids are fed Steph.
Like you know, he attributes somuch of the awesome person that
he is today to his experienceplaying sports and being active.
Right, whether it's likeindividual sports, like golf or
team sports, like you knowbaseball and basketball, you
know just who he is.
(11:19):
He attributes to to playing.
So for him, like the playpillar was sort of like yep,
that's my stake in the.
And then education was the areawhere they both felt strongly
but also were smart enough and,I think, humble enough to
realize like okay, we don't knowin this sort of very vast
education space where we canhave the greatest impact.
And so we sort of dabbled in acouple of different areas in
education.
But that's that's, anne, whereeat, learn, play came from.
(11:42):
And like when I was trying tofigure it out on the board with
with a dear friend of Stefan's,like what do we call this thing?
There's all these issues.
There was like this eurekamoment was like, oh, I think
we've got it Eat, learn, play.
And then the third thing theycare about when we were building
this was the name.
One of their lawyers hadregistered the foundation before
(12:03):
I started, knowing that thiswas coming down the pike.
They had registered it with theIRS as a Stephan and Aisha Curry
Family Foundation and when wewere sort of sitting around the
dinner table like imagining whatthis could be, it was Aisha who
was like I don't want to doanything publicly until we get
this name changed.
Right, the Curry FamilyFoundation doesn't say anything
about the impact that we want tohave, right, it makes it about
us, and that's the opposite ofwhy they started this thing.
(12:25):
And Stefan sort of chimed infrom across the table.
He's like yeah, this is aboutimpact, not about legacy, and
that's sort of been a mantrathat we've carried with us now
for the last, you know five anda half, six years.
But that's how Eat Learn Playcame to be and, like, those were
the initial big sort ofparameters from the Currys as we
were building this thing, likeokay, like let's see what we can
do.
But these are the things that.
These are among the things wefeel really, really strongly
(12:45):
about.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
What an incredible North Star to like to take out
the ego part and to take out thename, the recognition, and just
focus on what the cause isreally trying to address.
And I recently learned how manykids really depend on the food
at school if it's for free inorder to eat or they may just go
hungry.
And then, with the play youwere mentioning, we all see the
(13:11):
benefit of team sports or sportsin general for what it can do
for one's self-confidence andskill building and then the
learning obviously.
Yeah, I don't know what thestate is of the schools in
Oakland, but I imagine that it'spretty imbalanced when you look
at the Bay Area overall.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
It's such an important point that you make
right and in where they shouldbe, and it's not what kids
deserve.
Right, like our whole attitudein this is Oakland kids deserve
the very best and what role canwe play in very tangible ways to
do it.
But, like, the truth is is that39% of Oakland students right
now are living in food insecurehouseholds.
Right, schools are the placeswhere you know over half of
(13:46):
Oakland students, like 17,18,000 kids get two or three
meals a day.
Our learn pillar has evolvedinto a very, very deep focus on
early literacy because it'samazing, but you can basically
draw a straight line between akid's ability to read well at
the end of third grade and theirsuccess in school and in life.
It's how dire that is.
(14:07):
Third grade reading level is ahuge predictor of graduation
rates, of career success andalso and it's kind of messed up,
but it's one of the key datapoints that prison systems use
in our US as a way of predictinginmate populations.
So I say that and then I'lltell you that in Oakland, when
we got started with thisinitiative, 85% of children of
color in Oakland schools werereading behind grade level by
(14:29):
the end of the third grade 40%of students, of children of
color, were two or three or moregrade levels behind in third
grade, and so that's theimperative we have to change
that.
And then, when you talk aboutplay, yeah, I mean, what we came
to realize is at schools can behubs for a lot of things, but
especially youth sports.
(14:49):
Right, like, every child shouldbe able to experience the joys
and the benefits of youth sports.
Right, like, every child shouldbe able to experience the joys
and the benefits of youth sports.
And schools should be thatplace where kids should have
access to high quality youthsports.
But budget cuts happen.
Participation in Oakland andaround the country is like
falling precipitously when weknow that kids who are engaged
(15:09):
in these sort of healthybehaviors end up being, you know
, like for the most part, moresuccessful in life.
And so, and eat, learn, playlike it's.
We're playful at our nature andI think that's part of our
secret sauce, but the issues areserious.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, it's.
It's just inequalities that areI mean you.
You spread that out over thefuture and it is feeling hugely
imbalanced.
When you were mentioning howyou learned the fundraising and
the partnerships, going back toyour radio days at college, what
can you tell us about what it'slike fundraising and the best
way to get people's support foryour mission?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
You know, I'm probably not the most
traditional like by the bookfundraiser.
Right, like, or even like thenonprofit sector, I'm not
spending a lot of time going toconferences or like, oh, this is
how it's done.
It's like we try to run Eat,learn, play and like a business.
I think for me, probably threeof the biggest things I think
have driven a lot of myfundraising and partnership
building success like.
One is passion.
(16:03):
Right, like you know, I amsuper passionate, and maybe
you're hearing it in my voice,but I'm super passionate about
what I get to do.
Like I feel lucky and have anability, I think, or I hope, to
be able to get others excitedabout becoming a part of this.
Right, like eat, learn, playit's not about me.
Like this thing is open and ifyou want to come and grab part
of it and be part of it, likegreat, and I will do what I can
to get you excited about that.
(16:25):
The second thing is I think Ihave a really good or unusual
imagination.
Right, like, I've got a lot ofareas where I'm not as strong,
like detail orientation oralways being able to stay on
task, like whatever, but like Ithink I have a unique
imagination to be able to takean issue like malaria and go.
You know what?
We should bring Stephen Curryover to refugee camps and we
should lead this campaign thatraises money and being able to
(16:46):
like connect the dots and bringa network together to help us
towards that goal.
And so I do think for me, likehaving that imagination has been
a key ingredient.
And then the third thing is,just like it's hustle right,
there's no substitute for hardwork, right?
In the last six years of mylife, you know, has proven that
again and again to me.
But it's like you got to workhard if you want it right.
(17:07):
But those are some of the keypieces.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
When you mentioned that you run this nonprofit kind
of like a business, it wasreally making me curious to know
a little bit more about thatside of the nonprofit.
Like I have no idea what ittakes monetarily to get a
nonprofit up and off the ground.
Are there any thoughts that youcan share with us?
For anyone listening in who iscurious maybe they want to start
something like this on theirown at some point, like how much
(17:31):
does it realistically take?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I mean, there's different levels of this stuff,
right, and we've already, in ourfirst five and a half six years
, I've gone through many lifecycles.
I think it's a matter of whatyour vision is and what you want
to do right.
For us with Eat, learn, play,one of the things that I think
sets us apart, or that I'm proudof, is we have this imagination
that's buoyed right, that'sstrengthened by the Curry's
voice in their platforms andtheir networks, like.
(17:54):
We are very unique in that way,but it's it's understanding,
like what's the issue that we'retrying to help solve and the
attitude that we have, and partof how I think we think about it
like a business is just who arethe kids that we're trying to
reach and what will it take forus to get the job done and for
us to do all the work that wewant to do is like 20, 30, 40,
$50 million a year for a longtime, and so we've got a top
(18:15):
notch finance team, we've got aboard, we've got our budget is
down to a T.
We're audited every year, butthe mandate that we have
internally is like is to growand to do everything we can for
these kids that we're trying tosort of set big goals that are a
reach but that are achievable,and then figure out how to get
that work done to the point nowwhere, five and a half years in,
we're now like raising anddeploying like 20, $25 million a
(18:38):
year back into the localcommunity.
It's what the kids need, likeit's what the market is
requiring, and so we're doingeverything we can to get that
done.
It's not, hey, let's try tohost a fundraiser, raise a
million dollars this year andgive it away and we'll feel good
about ourselves.
It's.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
It's really driven by the need that's out there and
trying to do everything we canto play the biggest role we can.
So take us back to that dinnertable.
You were sitting down with theCurrys and you had decided to
start this and you changed thename.
So everybody was happy withmoving forward.
What were the next steps Like?
How do you proceed from thatpoint to bring your now idea to
fruition?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It's a good question, right.
They gave me a lot of autonomyright To fill in the blanks
besides those three things thatthey felt strongly about.
But, like going back to thoseearly days, it was me alone, a
lot of days in an empty officeand in my house, just sort of
trying to put these piecestogether.
A big part of it was getting toknow the community and also
(19:40):
building a network with, youknow, within sort of the Curry
spheres, right, which, which hasa lot of power again, beginning
to get people excited about thepotential of this thing and how
they could be involved, likethat was.
That was a key part of it.
And then every week, every twoweeks, every three weeks, we
were back around that dinnertable and you know, like here's
the paper, here's the currentplan, like let's react and the
Curry's sort of picking it apart.
Yes, no, you know asking greatquestions.
(20:00):
I mean, looking back, it wassort of beautiful how it was put
together.
But also, looking back, I can'tbelieve all that I didn't know
and how naive I was to launchthis thing as, like, the only
staff person knowing where we'vegone.
It's like I can't believe I didthat and I'm not sure that I
could do it again.
What I didn't know is actuallyreally helpful.
Like I can't believe I wassleeping at night back then, but
(20:22):
it was.
It was great and so it was.
It was a lot of back and forth,it was a lot of networking and
beginning to build partnershipsand finding those people at, at,
at community organizations oryou know, or or potential
funders who could even though itwas just a single piece of
paper, just me talking to them,like you could see that they
were grabbing on and willing tolike, take that leap with us to
(20:42):
say, all right, you might nothave $500,000 to give us right
now, but you know, we're, we'llbe alongside you and and
hopefully we can get there.
So there was a lot of that.
There was something else aroundthat dinner table as we were
getting into those conversationsof, okay, like, how are we
going to make this thingsustainable and successful long
term?
And there's this issue of, likethe Curry's are wealthy.
Right, like Stefan's contractis out there, it's public, so
(21:04):
I'm not breaking any secrets,but the idea is, like, how can
we make sure that that is animpediment to people getting
involved?
Right, like the Curry's couldhave created this as a private
foundation and self-funded it,but there would be a cap in
terms of how much we could do.
And what we realized, you knowpretty quickly, is they're
magnetic, right, like they haveall of these fans and followers.
(21:25):
They're incredible, likebeloved people, and so people
want to be a part of what theydo.
And so they promised, you know,on one of those dinner table
conversations, and they agreed,to fully fund, forever, all of
the administrative andfundraising overhead costs for
the foundation, so that everydollar that comes in can go
directly back out into into theprograms and the partnerships
(21:46):
that we're supporting.
And all of a sudden, there wasthis moment of like.
You know we can answer thatpotential objective, you know
we're trying to build this thing, so like it'd be hard for
someone who cared about theseissues to say no.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
So there's a couple of things that you've just said
that I really would love to knowmore about.
The first one is just youmentioned how much you didn't
know at the very beginning andhow surprised you were that you
were able to actually get tothis point.
What are you talking about?
So?
What did you not know?
Can you be more specific?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah.
So I mean, the earliestinvestment we ever made was in
underwriting like summer campcosts for like a thousand
Oakland kids so that they couldhave someplace in the summer to
go and eat, learn and play in asafe environment.
And we launched in July, rightin the height of summer camp.
And so we decided it was a kindof clever idea, but we decided
(22:36):
to throw a carnival, basicallyat Lake Merritt in downtown
Oakland to launch Eat Learn Playand let's bring in over 1,000
campers from across 20 parks andrec sites around the city to
help us kick off Eat Learn Play.
And we did right and it wasamazing.
Yeah, it was just like it stillis like one of the best days
that he or in play has had.
But I'm not an event planner.
(22:56):
I already admitted like eightminutes ago that I'm not very
detail oriented.
But here I was like the onlylike real employee of this
organization that was hosting anevent for over a thousand kids.
That was like big on the mediabecause you're, you're, you're
with the Bay area's power coupleand like there was that like
big on the media because you'rewith the Bay Area's power couple
(23:18):
and we were naive and that wasa strength of ours at the time.
But what was behind that wasthe people that I had been
talking to and the Curry'snetwork that loves them.
It was really the power ofpartnerships and that's still at
the heart of Eat, learn, playtoday.
So it's going out to all of theCurry's brand partners and all
of the Oakland sports teams whowere still in Oakland at the
time and just saying, hey, we'redoing this and we would love
for you to be a part of it.
(23:38):
Right, and it was going to likeparks and rec and saying, hey,
do you have any event plannerswho could like, who could pitch
in and and sort of help withthis?
And what happened was like this,this just unbelievable event
where we just basically had, youknow, we had the chases and
rackettons and Golden StateWarriors and Oakland Roots and
Under Armour, like everybody'shosting, like an activity
station, and the kids are justcycling through in one direction
.
The Currys are cycling throughin another direction and we had
(24:01):
a photographer and avideographer follow them and so
we could sort of repay all thesepartners by like you know what,
we'll get some photos of Stephengaging, you know, in your fun
activity station with these kidsand and it worked right.
It just like really worked.
And you know, yes, I was astaff of one when we hosted that
event and we pulled it off, butreally there was like 200
(24:22):
people there right alongside us,like willing us to success in a
beautiful way.
But as I try to recount thatstory to our team now at Eat,
learn, play and now we're like20 people strong.
They know me and they know thethings that I'm not good at,
they kind of look at me like howthe hell did this happen?
Like I barely believe that youcould pull this off.
Health, rich.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I am amazed.
I have the hardest time evenjust planning a kid's birthday
party.
So I can't imagine an event fora thousand people in a public
space, with permits and all thegazillion things that you must
have had to have done.
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
You permits and all the gazillion things that you
must have had to have done.
That's incredible.
You surround yourself withpeople who know what they're
doing and you treat them welland you make them feel a part of
it and they are like they are apart of it and I think that
authentic connection, that thatyou can help people make with,
with what you're doing, andagain we have the curry.
So it's it's, it's it's easierthan if you're starting from
scratch without them Like that'sdefinitely the secret sauce.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean you've got the Curry's,but you also have so much
passion.
It's very clear you are drivenby your heart and I think that
anybody that you partner with isgoing to be able to see that.
So the other question that Ihad was you said the Curry's
have committed to funding theoverhead costs of the nonprofit.
Can you give us an idea of whatthat means annually for them?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
It's not insignificant at all and it
grows every year, right To theircredit.
I talk about how we have about a20 person team right now, right
Over the first couple of years,and this was something that I
actually felt was maybe going tokeep us from growing and
reaching our full potential,because bringing on new
fundraisers building out like abest in class finance and
operations team, like it costs alot of money and those funds
(25:55):
come directly from their pockets.
And so I sort of you knowbrought it up a little
sheepishly with the Currys, withtheir financial advisor who
sits on our board, and like itwas Steph who, like, shook his
head.
He's like, no, like we want youto grow this thing as big as
you can to have the impact thatwe want to have.
Like we have your back right.
The commitment that they makeannually is, is, is a very, very
big one, but again, to havethat almost a mandate from them
(26:17):
of like, don't be worried aboutus.
Like you be responsible withthe funds.
But what we want and the reasonwe created this thing in the
first place was was to impactthis generation of Oakland kids,
and we don't want to put limitson that.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So generous it's, it makes it so sustainable to just
remove that one weight from thefoundation's needs to make sure
that it can continue forperpetuity.
That is incredible.
So it's been, you said, sixyears now.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
So we launched in July of 2019.
So we've officially been on themap publicly for five and a
half years and again, I startedseven, eight months before that.
So that's where you're gettingthe weird timeline for me, but
it's been six years for me.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Okay, so in those six years, what has been the
hardest part of getting this towhere it is today?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
It's a great question , I think.
I think the changing of thelife cycles has been hard for me
, right, like I've.
I've been lucky to leadorganizations that have that
have been successful, but I'vebeen lucky to lead organizations
that have been successful, butI've never built an organization
and taken it to where it is now, right, and it's that
acknowledgement again of, likeyou know, you have to open your
eyes and accept that you don'tknow what you don't know, and
(27:23):
going from a startup intoadolescence and now adolescence
into whatever this next phase is, it's been rife with challenges
, right, like you know, when wewere young, right when we were
early on, we had three, four orfive staff members and we could
move really fast, right, and wecould respond to challenges and
everybody was sort of in theloop and you felt like everybody
knew what was going on and wasrowing in the same direction.
(27:44):
You get to 1215 staff membersand now, all of a sudden, things
can't happen as fast, right,and you begin to have those
internal communicationchallenges and the culture of
the organization starts tochange a little bit.
And so, making sure you havethe tools and the support for me
, like the executive coaching,to help me be the best leader I
can for an organization at thatlevel and even though we in some
(28:08):
ways can't move as fast as weused to, what growing has done
like the depth of our work,right, like the true impact of
our work is like has multipliedlike 5x, 10x, 20x over the last
couple of years as we've grown.
But it's been, it's been reallyhard, right, and I have not
naturally been as positioned forthat, like you can probably
hear it in my voice.
Like you know, I definitelybring an entrepreneurial spirit
(28:31):
to eat, learn, play.
But as we get to the point nowwhere we have a community that's
really relying on us and we'vegot a base of, you know,
probably a thousand supportersand a lot like dozens of like
really committed partners, likeit takes more than
entrepreneurial spirit to movethis thing.
And so it's like how do we, howdo we build this team with
great people who are way betterat their jobs than I am, and how
(28:54):
can, how can I get out of theway when necessary and just
empower them to do their thing?
It hasn't always been easy,definitely been challenges at
point, but it's helped get uswhere we are today.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
It sounds like you're learning on the go a little bit
, but the good thing is thatthere are other nonprofits out
there who've been through thesame pain points and I'm sure
would offer mentorship to helpyou get through it.
It pain points and I'm surewould offer mentorship to help
you get through it.
It sounds like you would neverlet this fail, like this is your
mission, this is your heart andeverything.
So, to spin it a little bit,what, in the last six years,
(29:23):
have been the most memorabledays?
Like when you look back and yousnapshot a picture in your mind
of days when you feel like thenonprofit has made some
significant impact or forwardmomentum.
Like what would they be?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
That's such a good question.
I'll start with our eat pillar,because that's really where we
started.
Like, the first couple of yearsof Eat Learn Play, we were
pretty much exclusively focusedon on on hunger in Oakland.
I talk about how we launched inJuly of 2019.
We had just hired our secondand third employees in November
of 2019, like just hired oursecond and third employees in
November of 2019, like, and hadthem onboarded right before
(29:56):
COVID hit Right and Aisha hadposed in a board meeting, like
in January of 2020, like there'sthis thing going on and I'm a
little worried about it.
Like she was very early on in itand so it was in our heads, but
there was this aha moment I hadlike, as it was like beginning
to creep closer of oh my gosh.
Like yeah, it looks likeschools might close indefinitely
(30:16):
, right, and if I've learnedanything over the last year,
it's that students again rely onschools for their for for two
or three meals every day, and soif school is closed
indefinitely, like, how do wemake sure that Oakland kids
don't miss a meal, right?
So like, here we are, threepeople like planting a flag, not
knowing what we were doing, butwe had no kid hungry and we had
the local food bank and we hadthe school district and we just
(30:38):
like put out a call to action onhow do we make sure the
community stays fed during thisand obviously COVID became so
much worse and it lasted so muchlonger than we could have
imagined.
But in that first year of COVIDwe ended up helping to
distribute 26 million meals outinto Oakland through the school,
through the food bank.
But our biggest partnership waswith World Central Kitchen,
jose Andres, who they're doingamazing work in LA right now.
(31:00):
But it was in Oakland where weco-piloted this idea of what if
we employed local restaurants tobe preparing meals for hungry
kids and families in thecommunity.
Restaurants had all been closeddown, these small businesses,
because of COVID.
And like we ended up with thisbasic model of paying local
restaurants $10 for every mealthat they prepared and delivered
(31:21):
during the pandemic.
And like we ended up employing130 Oakland restaurants and
doing like I don't know if itwas a million and a half or 2
million restaurant meals backout into the community during
that time.
So like to see what we could do, like that was those were early
days and that's where we got alot of our momentum.
It's also, anne, where I thinkwe realized that we are at our
(31:45):
best when we meet people withwhere they are, with what they
need, and do so in reallydignified, joyful ways.
These are not turkey sandwicheswrapped in cellophane.
It's like let's give Oaklandkids and Oakland families the
best.
That's a big one.
A couple of years ago we wentthrough like a long strategic
planning process and this waspushed on me by our COO and the
board and it was the best thingthat Eat Learn Play has ever
done.
You know, we had to take like along look after three years
(32:07):
like where are we having thegreatest impact?
You know, where could we bebetter?
We've done so much listening tovoices in the community to
figure out where we can be atour best.
You know, what came out of thatwas meeting kids where they are
, meeting them with dignity andmeeting them with joy in a city
that currently lacks a lot ofjoy.
And at the same time, I cameupon this body of research from
(32:29):
a partner organization that doesa lot of philanthropic impact,
investing, and what they foundwas, you know, for organizations
our size and our age, but thegreatest ROI were not the
organizations that tried tostart something from scratch,
and they weren't theorganizations that were trying
to like bite off these issuesaround the edges.
Like, the organizations thatthey had in their portfolio who
made the most impact were theones that, like, identified the
(32:50):
distribution channel that servetheir constituency, and those
organizations were laser focusedon making that distribution
channel, that system, better.
And there was a total light bulbmoment for us of public schools
.
Right, like, public schools arewhere 35,000 kids in Oakland go
every day to eat, learn andplay, and, like we talked about
a half hour ago, like, withoutcomes that aren't nearly good
(33:11):
enough.
And so, over the last couple ofyears, we've been on this
amazing journey to transform theschool experience for a
generation of kids.
So, like, everything we'redoing is rooted in how do we
make this experience of being apublic school student in Oakland
better?
Right, we're investing five $6million a year now, after a lot
of listening and research onliteracy tutoring.
(33:32):
Right, like, tutoring works.
And when your kids struggle inschool when my kids struggle in
school, like I know we moveheaven and earth to like give
them the support they need.
Our attitude is, like theseOakland kids, they deserve the
exact same thing, and so this isone of those ways that we're
trying to will our way toensuring that every child in
Oakland who's behind grade levelin reading has one on one high
(33:52):
dosage professional tutoringthroughout the year.
We have just remodeled our 17thschoolyard tutoring throughout
the year.
We have just remodeled our 17thschoolyard, so we are like
transforming campuses in theflatlands of Oakland at
elementary schools, like takingthese facilities that like sadly
look a little bit more likeprison yards than schoolyards,
and we're using our imaginationto like, dream up and dreaming
up with the kids.
But like, what would your dreamplay space look like?
(34:13):
And these are like seven figurecapital projects now where
we're creating these dreamschoolyards for kids to be able
to, to play and learn and growand like, and it's, it's, it's
awesome and we have thousands ofvolunteers that now are engaged
in this effort.
But like that aha moment, Ithink, when we pivoted as an
organization and, like you know,planted our flag, it wasn't an
(34:34):
easy decision or a sexy decisionto like to invest heavily in
transforming the public schoolexperience.
That's a gratifying moment.
That is 100% been a turningpoint in terms of getting Eat,
learn, play more focused andtaking our impact to the next
level.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
It really sounds like your impact is noticeable
instantly too.
I mean not just by thevolunteers, but by the kids you
get to see your work.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
A hundred percent and I've barely touched on you know
a lot of the work we're doing.
But you're right, Like themoney that we're donating to
just just FYI and for youraudience, like we are not making
big investments in the schooldistrict directly, we're playing
this sort of convening pointguard role, almost of like
connecting all of thesecommunity experts and leaders in
these organizations to likecollectively wrap our arms
(35:17):
around these kids where they are, and it's been a winning
formula so far.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
What an incredible mission to be a part of, and I
was wondering for any listenerswho may want to start their own
nonprofit one day what advicecould you give to them?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
One is listen right At every turn, at Eat, learn,
play.
When we've paused and listenedto our partners and the
community that we're trying toserve, like it has sent us into
the right direction.
Right, like you know, myinstincts are to move fast, but
there's a lot of wisdom gained.
But from listening to what thecommunity needs.
You know one of our partnerswho I mentioned a couple of
minutes ago no Kid Hungry, theirfounder, billy Shore.
(35:55):
He has an expression, he has abook like add passion and stir
right.
Listen to the community's needsand then add your passion.
And I think good things happenwhen you put those two things
together.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I've got one last question, which is just if you
could go back and have aconversation with yourself when
you were in your early 20s andit doesn't have to be anything
related to what we've discussed,but what life wisdom would you
give yourself?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Oh my gosh, probably that it's all going to work out
if you work hard.
You know my journey has notbeen without stress and it's and
it's not been without anxietyand a lot of self-doubt.
You know like and we could do awhole nother podcast on that
you know like I've been reallyhard on myself over the last 20
years and it worked out.
And part of it, ann, is, Ithink, probably leaning into
(36:38):
those things that make medifferent or make me unique and
being comfortable and sort ofupfront with those
vulnerabilities, versus tryingto project in your early
twenties, your early thirties,whatever, that you've got it all
figured out or that you'retotally in control.
It's like for me it's aconstant lesson in reminding
myself that I'm not in controland to try to drive good things
(36:58):
from that.
But yeah, in my early 20sespecially, it was like gripping
on tight and trying to likewill myself to success.
And you know I don't think thatthat was a main ingredient in
my success.
Like that human aspect, therecognizing your weaknesses and
accounting for it, hasdefinitely been something that's
helped.
(37:23):
And I do want to say one otherthing, in part because you are
friends and a former classmateof my wife, kate, what I
probably would also tell myselfin the early twenties is, like
Mary Kate, when I look back atmy success and our success, like
who you choose to be around issuch a key part right, and like
the success that I've had likedoesn't happen without like
having just the most badasspartner right, and so I think
that might actually be thenumber one sort of like secret
(37:43):
behind any impact I've been ableto create, and I hope you know
I'd be somewhere on the top 10of her list in terms of what's
you know sort of empowered hergreat career.
But I do want to call that outbecause you know behind the
scenes for sure.
But who you're with right Likein my case my wife is.
She gets a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, supportive people.
It's important to have themaround you.
Well, crick, thank you so muchfor coming on the show and
taking some time to chat today.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Thanks for the time and the opportunity and
congratulations on on everythingyou have going on.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Today's key takeaways .
Building partnerships is aboutrelationships, not transactions.
Cultivate genuine long-termpartnerships by aligning with
people who share your values andmission.
Approach collaborations with amindset of mutual benefit rather
than short-term gain, whetherit's fundraising, marketing or
(38:37):
community engagement.
Creativity opens doors.
So if you're stuck, askyourself or pick the brain of a
creative friend how can I dothis differently?
If you want to learn how toactually think outside the box,
I have an upcoming episode withDuncan Wardle, disney's former
head of creativity andinnovation, dropping April 1st.
(38:58):
So follow the show so you don'tmiss it.
Millions of kids in the US facehunger daily.
Whether you volunteer, donateor advocate for better policies,
small actions stack up tomassive impact.
So consider what's one thingyou can do this week or month to
contribute.
Being active is essential formental and physical health, so
(39:22):
prioritize movement, play andsports to build confidence,
discipline and well-being.
Passion fuels persistence,imagination sparks innovation
and hard work brings the results.
If you want to make real impact,listen first.
Spend time in the community,ask questions and let their
(39:44):
voices guide your impact.
Don't let a lack of experiencestop you, because you can use it
to your advantage.
You're forced to ask greatquestions, experiment and find
new solutions.
Expect trade-offs when scaling.
If you're a solo operator,progress is slow but flexible.
(40:04):
With a small team three to fourpeople momentum accelerates and
as you scale, internalchallenges appear, communication
culture shifts anddecision-making slows.
Plan for each stage and adjustyour leadership strategies
accordingly.
The best leaders acknowledgegaps in their knowledge and seek
(40:26):
executive coaching, mentors oradvisors to navigate challenges
at higher levels.
And great leadership is knowingwhen to step back If you've
hired the right people.
Your job isn't to micromanage.
It's to set the vision, removeroadblocks and trust your team
to deliver.
Authenticity is your greatestasset.
(40:49):
People don't connect withperfection.
They connect with real Leaninto your quirks,
vulnerabilities and differences,because that's what makes you
memorable.
The right people will challenge, inspire and support you, but
you have to invest in thoserelationships.
First Give before you ask, andsurround yourself with people
(41:11):
who challenge you to grow,support your vision, share your
values and push you towardsexcellence.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
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