A Conversation with Janet Mountain, Executive Director
Q: What drives the foundation’s mission?
A: Our focus has always been on children living in urban poverty. Michael once said, “We’re not looking for the biggest problems. We’re looking for the problems with the biggest opportunities.” For instance, in urban education, America has large urban districts, organizations on the scale of Fortune 500 companies, with little access to cutting edge management tools, practices or technology to help them manage for results. That's an opportunity. Another issue prevalent in America’s urban core is childhood obesity and the early onset of diabetes, a debilitating disease that can have a fundamental impact on a life going forward. So we are driven to make systemic transformations in education and children’s health through grants that will have long-term impact for a large number of kids. Not just this generation, but generations to come.
Q: How would you describe the foundation’s approach?
A: We are pragmatic. Our approach is to drive for results and invest money where opportunities exist, and where you can actually see the outcome. We look for a pretty clear path on how we can make a difference in ways that actually result in a measurable improvement for real kids in cities across the world.
Q: What is the allocation strategy in your areas of focus?
A: When we think about children living in urban poverty and where to direct funding, we are guided by the focus areas of the foundation – education, childhood health, and family economic stability – across issues and geographies. Our strategy is to concentrate on direct service grants, working directly with our partners in the community to transform lives. In the programs in which we are already heavily involved, we look for deeper or more permanent ways to approach those situational problems. That is really how our grant portfolios grow over time.
Q: Why is the foundation’s international work important?
A: It goes back to our culture of finding problems with the biggest opportunities. Look at the billions of children in the underdeveloped world, and think about how much further the dollar can go in their environments where basic social safety nets are, in many cases, completely non-existent. There is such a compelling need. In India, for example, a third of the country’s 400 million children live in such extreme, desperate poverty most Americans can’t even imagine what it’s like. By focusing on a few key cities and few key levers – primary education, basic services and family economic stability – our grants are affecting upwards of 200,000 kids. That’s a tremendous number of lives being changed and it's certainly changing things for the future. That’s a worthwhile activity.
Q: What distinguishes the foundation’s partnerships with grantees?
A: We work with many philanthropic organizations and have developed valuable partnerships over the years. We have great respect for what they do and how they do it. We definitely believe there are huge benefits to, where possible and where opportunistic, aligning resources across a set of organizations to achieve the same end. What distinguishes the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is, foremost, the people who work here- the experience, talent and ability to connect. Whether our team is working with a large urban school district, a small non-profit or a complex government structure, our people have the industry expertise and empathy to help navigate through the everyday challenges our philanthropic partners face on the ground. We know how hard it is to manage large organizations, to align people and resources against a particular goal that seems really hard to attain, and to actually make results happen. Our connection with our grantees is something history has told us is quite powerful.
Q: How do you envision the impact of the foundation?
A: Over time, if we are successful at achieving the mission of the foundation, we will have very clear examples of where a different or defined or refined approach has driven measurable change. We would hope that those results would be dramatic enough that they would garner attention and replication, but the primary goal remains constant: that a child's life has ben unambiguously changed for the better.
Q: What drives the foundation’s mission?
A: Our focus has always been on children living in urban poverty. Michael once said, “We’re not looking for the biggest problems. We’re looking for the problems with the biggest opportunities.” For instance, in urban education, America has large urban districts, organizations on the scale of Fortune 500 companies, with little access to cutting edge management tools, practices or technology to help them manage for results. That's an opportunity. Another issue prevalent in America’s urban core is childhood obesity and the early onset of diabetes, a debilitating disease that can have a fundamental impact on a life going forward. So we are driven to make systemic transformations in education and children’s health through grants that will have long-term impact for a large number of kids. Not just this generation, but generations to come.
Q: How would you describe the foundation’s approach?
A: We are pragmatic. Our approach is to drive for results and invest money where opportunities exist, and where you can actually see the outcome. We look for a pretty clear path on how we can make a difference in ways that actually result in a measurable improvement for real kids in cities across the world.
Q: What is the allocation strategy in your areas of focus?
A: When we think about children living in urban poverty and where to direct funding, we are guided by the focus areas of the foundation – education, childhood health, and family economic stability – across issues and geographies. Our strategy is to concentrate on direct service grants, working directly with our partners in the community to transform lives. In the programs in which we are already heavily involved, we look for deeper or more permanent ways to approach those situational problems. That is really how our grant portfolios grow over time.
Q: Why is the foundation’s international work important?
A: It goes back to our culture of finding problems with the biggest opportunities. Look at the billions of children in the underdeveloped world, and think about how much further the dollar can go in their environments where basic social safety nets are, in many cases, completely non-existent. There is such a compelling need. In India, for example, a third of the country’s 400 million children live in such extreme, desperate poverty most Americans can’t even imagine what it’s like. By focusing on a few key cities and few key levers – primary education, basic services and family economic stability – our grants are affecting upwards of 200,000 kids. That’s a tremendous number of lives being changed and it's certainly changing things for the future. That’s a worthwhile activity.
Q: What distinguishes the foundation’s partnerships with grantees?
A: We work with many philanthropic organizations and have developed valuable partnerships over the years. We have great respect for what they do and how they do it. We definitely believe there are huge benefits to, where possible and where opportunistic, aligning resources across a set of organizations to achieve the same end. What distinguishes the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is, foremost, the people who work here- the experience, talent and ability to connect. Whether our team is working with a large urban school district, a small non-profit or a complex government structure, our people have the industry expertise and empathy to help navigate through the everyday challenges our philanthropic partners face on the ground. We know how hard it is to manage large organizations, to align people and resources against a particular goal that seems really hard to attain, and to actually make results happen. Our connection with our grantees is something history has told us is quite powerful.
Q: How do you envision the impact of the foundation?
A: Over time, if we are successful at achieving the mission of the foundation, we will have very clear examples of where a different or defined or refined approach has driven measurable change. We would hope that those results would be dramatic enough that they would garner attention and replication, but the primary goal remains constant: that a child's life has ben unambiguously changed for the better.