Putting Children First

The Kellogg Foundation has nearly $10 billion in assets and it's been incredibly influential in helping children and vulnerable communities thrive. What's your process for expanding that sphere of influence?

This has been a time where expanding that influence has been very important, so one of the things that we believe is no matter how many billions we have, it's just a drop in the bucket as it relates to what is needed and as far as systems change and reform, and what's needed for children to thrive. That's nothing compared to the 1.9 trillion American rescue plan that was just afforded, but what we can do as philanthropy in addition to the resources that we provide is fun, we can convene, we can bring people together and amplify their voices, we can help bring communities that practice together and highlight best practices, and allow skill to happen within the work, we can use our voice to support a grantee or to highlight and issue that needs greater attention, and what we are learning, we can do even more as we join with other foundations, and be a collection of philanthropy behind an issue, and we are doing that now in earnest across philanthropy, I think the collective action is just building.