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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. It’s oft used slogan, Live United is in many ways a directive to work together to improve the common good within the community, but in a county with more nonprofits than most communities, that can often be a difficult task. Today, on the show, you'll meet the new leader of that organization trying to unite all the helpers in the community, Alma Fumiko Hesus, the new president and CEO of United Way of Lane County. She comes from within the organization, having been its development officer for years, but she's also bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas to one of the region's oldest nonprofits, whether it's developing long range plans or mobilizing quickly during a crisis, United Way is many things to many people, and in this era of funding uncertainty from the federal government, it might be more important than ever. Alma Fumiko Hesus the new president and CEO of United Way of Lane County. Thanks so much for coming in and talking with us.
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: Thanks for having me. Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, you're you've been with the organization for quite some time, and now you're ascending to the top spot. But talk about your background. You know, where you came from, and sort of, what are all the things that have helped lead to this, this, this, this new position?
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: Oh, my goodness. Well, fun fact, on Sunday was my 10-year anniversary at United Way, which feels very, yeah, very exciting and kind of hard to believe sometimes that's not typical these days. But yeah, so my background, I may be rooted here in Oregon. I was born in Eastern Oregon and moved to the island of Guam when I was little. My family is actually in plowing, which is a Pacific Islander and that's important to me to share that, because I'd always had a dream we call, I call it the GILGAN s Island story. We were supposed to just go to the islands and visit and get to know more about my dad's family. And it wasn't till I 97 when I decided to be able to come to the University of Oregon that I moved back to, back to Oregon and again. So, I'm a graduate of the journalism school, and obviously very biased about the breadth that you get to learn being at the J school. But communication was huge for me, and that, I think, was one of the tools that really helped me through my career. And from there, I was at the duck store, which was the University of Oregon bookstore. For those of you who remember back in the day, I came on as an intern and moved my way up into being the marketing manager there, and did that for about 10 years before moving to an advertising agency here in town, Capelli Miles, they worked with a duck store to do the brand, brand, the big branding that they did, and did that for a few years. And a friend was working in the marketing department at United Way, and she reached out and said, Hey, we have a position that's in resource development. And I said, oh my goodness, that's exciting, but I don't do fundraising, and I'm not I don't like asking people for money and, and she'd said, well, actually, this position is about relationship management. It's about building relationships and connecting the community. And, you know, she had me at that, and so I applied and, and that's really kind of what drives me. I think it's important for all of us to understand that we are, we are in an ecosystem, and we're all interconnected, and that's really what drove me to then I came to United Way for the relationships, and I stayed for the connections in the community.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You spoke eloquently about communication, and I want to ask you, you know, United Way is such an integral organization in our community, how does communication of not only just what United Way does, but the way that it does it, and the way it connects with community, talk about that sort of web of importance?
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: So, one of the things that I think a lot of folks will say is like they know of United Way, but they're not 100% sure of what it does, because we do so many different things in the community, and a big part of what we do is, I mean, really, our focus is on mobilizing the community to action so all can thrive. And that really means bringing people together to volunteer, to give financially, and also to invest in the community and programs that are going to help us get our community where we need to be, long term, and we use the theory of change, of collective impact that is working toward a common goal, using shared metrics and shared data to be able to get where we need to be, and having communication, a very clear communication plan of how you're going to get there. And. And we are in the process of continuing to build on that. But really what we are trying to do is recognize that in our community, and that's one thing I love about our community, we have a lot of helpers. We have a lot of folks that want to get involved and help. But what we really need to do better, just because the nature of the world is we need to collaborate more. You know, the saying of many hands makes light of the load. It's really important. But if we are all kind of lifting from different sides, or we're not kind of figuring out who's doing what and how we're doing it, we're not going to make the progress that we need to make. And I think that's the thing with United Way that gets me most excited, is we are really trying to encourage our community that we need to collaborate, we need to work together, and now more than ever, we need that. We need folks looking at realizing that we all have an agenda, an objective, and we're all human, so we have like, egos and everything, but what's really important is knowing that we're not going to accomplish these really big challenges. We're not going to make progress in the really big challenges we have in our community, unless we are working together. And I think that's one of the things that really drives me in the work.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You said a keyword, which I think is key for something like United Way, this idea of mobilization. And what I mean by that is this, it seems to me that United Way can move in two speeds, a sort of a long burn for long important projects that take time to develop, mentally implement, but you also can mobilize very fast when there's an emergency. Talk about sort of managing through that, that idea of trying to aim an organization fast when it's necessary, but also for more long-term planning.
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: Yeah, that's a great question. Michael, so, you know, the work that we are doing, I say we are planting, there's different there's multiple types of seeds. We're planting. We're planting some tomatoes, and you're going to see that yield. And, you know, sometimes, some people have it happen in weeks, and that's sometimes too much. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then, and then, and then the other thing we're doing is we're planting like, we're planting like, I say, coconut trees or oaks, you know, depending on where you're at. And that takes time, you know, and we're going to see, we may not see the, you know, the shade of that in our lifetime, but it's for the next generation to come. And so, we have a mechanism, because we are a fundraising organization. We've been in Lane County for it'll be 80 years in a couple years. Yeah, and we have that tool of being able to raise funds and get them out into the community. So, we have, you know, during the fires that we had and the holiday farm fire, we stood up our Community Response Fund, and many United Ways do this in their community, because they have a mechanism. So, we work with folks in the community to say, when do we need to activate this fund, and so that folks can give dollars to that. And then we know how to get that out to those communities that need them most, especially during a crisis. And then the other part of the work that we do are our awards that we grant out into the community. They are transformation awards and support awards. And those transformation awards, I would call them like our mini collective impact grants. Okay, those are grants that we award to organizations. We have multiple organizations working toward a common goal, and they are working collectively together to be able to work upstream and solve a problem and so or multiple problems. And so those are really exciting grants that we have, and that's really and those take time. One of the programs that we are funding specifically is our, make sure I get the name right. One of the grants, our transformation grants, that I'm most excited about. Well, I'm excited about all of them, so I don't have favorites, but one I'd like to touch on that really speaks to that work of collective impact is our Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition. This is all these are all folks that are volunteering from different organizations, and it could be that they in the work that they do, this is part of their work, but we have a lot of folks coming together to collaborate between the hope and safety Alliance 90 by 30 initiative, kids first sexual assault support services and Siuslaw outreach services. They are building and implementing a countywide primary violence prevention system. And the things, again, that makes me most excited about this is these are folks that are working toward a common goal. So individually, all of these folks do, the depth that they have in the work that they do is amazing, but to do something even bigger than that United Way funded the opportunity for them to have capacity to come together and plan how we can work upstream and do more violence prevention long term, and it's really helped respond effectively when trauma injustices have occurred, and work at the intersection of multiple forms of trauma. So really, that's an example that you said, you know, we have the ability to respond quickly when there's a need right now, a crisis, immediately, but then the work that we need to do upstream takes more time. And I think that's one of the complexities of the United Way. We work on these programs sometimes. A lot of time but you need that, you know, to make sure things get where they need to be. It needs time, it needs space, and it needs and it needs the resources. So, we really try to be mindful about that.
MICHAEL DUNNE: As you mentioned, you've been with the organization for quite some time. What was it about the opening when long-serving CEO Noreen Dunnels left? What kind of interest do you have to move into the top job?
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: Oh, my goodness, if you hear me talk to other folks, it's this part that makes me very uncomfortable. I like to be the cheerleader for folks. I don't like to be the one in the spotlight. But I, yeah, truth be told, I did go to many folks, and if they're listening to this, they know who they are. I said, Hey, we have this position available. Will you apply for it? And, and asked a lot of folks that I, that I have worked with or have seen as amazing leaders in our community, I'd love to work, work for. And they had, a lot of them said, you know, why don't you put your hat in hand, and, you know, it wasn't that I necessarily didn't want it, but it's, you know, I understand how hard leadership is. I mean, it's a tough job. And, and I, like I said, I like to be one of the support folks, and the more folks I talk to, I have a lot of amazing mentors. I've been working in this community for almost 30 years, which is kind of hard to believe. I went to many mentors and just talked through the process and talked through things and Noreen as well. Like Noreen is very supportive, too, and I also knew that we were casting a wide net, like we did a national search. So, I was like, Okay, this is great. I'll toss my hat in, but I'm excited to see, like, who else might be out there, because I really wanted what was in the best interest of the organization, and that was really what I did. It's just to advocate for staff and to be able to support our community and, you know, I thought, you know, why not? We'll see what happens and everything. And again, there was support from other folks’ kind of encouraging that. But yeah, it's, I still feel very much like a servant leader in the process. So, I am, you know, I get to be the one to help block and tackle for our team and support them where I can and then also take the lumps where we need to take the lumps, because that's part of what being a leader is. But, yeah, it's a, I didn't think I would jump into something like this. Like to be like the marketing person, the back-end support, for sure.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, you talked a little bit about your leadership style and your servant leadership. Expand upon that, because I think, you know, you come from an interesting background where you were sort of in a support role, and now you're a leader. And I think that sometimes what happens there is, there's great perspectives that you can bring to a leadership position. Talk about that.
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: It's very interesting and exciting. This is day three in the in the position, and I'm really lucky to have, like I said, we have an amazing board of directors, and many folks on that board, I get to consider, like mentors who've been who've done a lot of the work in the past and or in their current roles as well, and as well as just being able to again, serve in this community in a lot of different ways, and see different folks that I've been able to learn from. But yeah, I think this is definitely a journey. I'm just going to be 100% honest, it's not the most comfortable right now for me, I think, but I know it's going to be fine. I'm going to fall into it okay. Like I said, I have a lot of folks that are very supportive, but yeah, I think part of it is just recognizing that as a leader, it's important to recognize where your own strengths and weaknesses are and acknowledge that. And I try to be really authentic with their team. And then also, there's times where you have to just, you know, you have to be able to say, like, this is the direction we're going in, and you have to show the confidence to the team and be very honest with them, and that's one of the ways we, our whole leadership team, really tries to be very transparent. We believe in transparency, clear communication, and there's lots of spaces where we're going to get it wrong and make mistakes, but that's also part of growth. And I think being able to show your team and show the folks that you work with that you're going to make mistakes, and you're going to learn from those mistakes, because perfection is not, does not exist. And also, if we're not, if we're not, part of growth is making those mistakes. You know, it's the same as when you grow muscles, you have to tear them and rebuild them, right? And so that growth isn't always going to be comfortable. We're going to make mistakes, we're going to try different things out, and we're going to learn, and we're going to grow. And that's important parts to grow.
MICHAEL DUNNE: From your three days on the job, it would be unfair to say, oh, what's your vision? I know that that's a question I'm sure you get but I guess you know, you've been there for a while and looking out now, you know, what is it perhaps that you look out and say, I really think the community needs this. And what might that be?
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: Yeah, I kind of came back to what we chatted about at the top of the hour. Hour or half hour, depending on when your program is. We have many, many helpers in this community. We have so many people that want to do good and help. And I'm sure that you've heard the statistics on this show, per capita Lane County has more nonprofits than any other county in the country, which means we have just people that are wanting to help and get out there and do good work, and that that really inspires me. And we need to be working together more. I think we need to look across sectors, across organizations, you know, I think we have the private, the nonprofit and the public sector, and those are areas like, those are groups that we need to work more together more. And I've heard it at different meetings, and I've heard it out in the community. We're never going to accomplish the goals that we have. We're never going to solve these really big, complex problems if we're doing them in silos. And so, I guess my vision or not, I guess my vision, but it's kind of why I said, why I came to United Way. I learned about what's going on in the community. I learned that there are gaps and blind spots if we're not working together. So, I just think My vision is that we need to be a more collaborative community, and we need to be able to really focus on what our North Star is as a community in order to solve these big, challenging problems. And so, yeah, that's what gets me excited, to be able to go out and meet with people and just talk about what, what brings us together, what unites us really is stronger than what divides us. And I think that's what I really want to make sure that we are helping our community understand that the only way to solve these problems is to be more collaborative and work together and sort of like and I say this from a place of love. We have to check our ego at the door when we come to a collective table to talk about solutions and really, really focus on how we are at the heart of an issue and a challenge.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You bring up an excellent point, though, because, yes, overwhelmingly, it's great when and when a community has a lot of nonprofits, but of course, sometimes that can dilute the impact. And I'm thinking too, you know, United Way. I want to hear it from you in your own words. But to me, it's always been sort of a bit of like a conductor and conducting a symphony talk about that, how important that is to have kind of a signature, overarching, you know, nonprofit that can help others really maximize their impact?
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: Yeah, that's, I really love the analogy of the symphony or the conductor in an orchestra. You know, when you think about having an organization that is able to be at various tables and kind of see the challenges that are happening from a like that, taking that 10,000-foot view and also connecting with business organizations, other nonprofits, and the private sector and the public sector. Like being able to be in this position, it's a very it's a very humbling position to be in. We are trusted in the community, and so being able to take that trust and make sure we are stewarding it in a way that is because that's it. We move at the speed of trust with our community, right? So, I think about, you know, the amount of money that we're going to bring in, the number of volunteers, all of that is important. But what's more important is that trust that we have, so being able to see where the being is, the hope for us is to be able to amplify where we need to, to be able to solve problems for different needs. And I think that that's really one of the things that we try to do. We are the backbone for our early childhood hub in Lane County. So, we have a lot of data and support and resources in terms of what we need for our early childhood support. We also have all of our work is based on volunteers and community members informing it. So, they are also able to bring their lens to the table to say, where do we need to amplify more, or where do we need to be mindful? Like, maybe we don't need to, we don't put as much money over there right now because, you know, somebody else knows that that organization is getting around from a different place. So, we're able to say, Okay, let's look at this up-and-coming organization. How do we make sure they are getting what they need to do to fill this gap that's not being filled in the community right now? So again, one of our volunteers shared, when you think about the orchestra, it's like they are able to listen and know the conductor says, okay, the brass is where they need to be in. The percussion are here. You need that person kind of helping everybody do their work really well, like we know that they're the percussionists are going to do a great job, but they just need that little bit of focus to say how much more, how much less, and everything. So that's really one of the roles that we want to be able to be mindful of the trust that we have in the community, to be able to support that everybody does amazing work, but it is just nice to have somebody kind of helping steward that work. We need to work together to make sure everyone can thrive. Because again, what I would love you know, we have the nonprofit sector. I think we employ more folks in the nonprofit sector, in this community, with all the nonprofits that we have, that we can bring money into our community. So, we don't have this sense of everybody fighting over the pie, sure, but let's make that pie bigger and be able to support our community. So, like and again, here's my Kumbaya. I would love for us not to have to have social services nonprofits. I'd love for us just to have nonprofits for art and nonprofits for, you know, art and everything, pretty and nice and everything, but the fact that we have these gaps, the fact that our neighbors and our community is struggling, it's really hard. So, I think the more opportunities we can have to get our community to work together and to have hard conversations and to have that resiliency, to have those difficult conversations, to know what we need to be working toward and to stick to that is really important.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, congratulations, Alma Fumiko Hesus, the new president and CEO of United Way, really appreciate you coming in and talking to us.
ALMA FUMIKO HESUS: Thank you, Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of organ on the record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. We asked you about our recent conversation with Oregon AG Dan Rayfield about his efforts to fight against the Trump administration's immigration crackdowns. We received several comments. Here are two. One person said that it's not the attorney general's job and that Oregonians don't want to spend their hard-earned tax dollars on lawsuits against the federal government. But another submitter said that, yes, it is his job to protect all Oregonians. Keep sending in comments and questions to us via Facebook, Bluesky or Instagram or email us at questions@klcc.org and we'll read them on the air. Monday on the show. You'll hear about Team Springfield, a collaboration between the leaders of the city, the utility board, the school district, and Willamalane. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon On The Record from KLCC. Thanks for listening.
