The Packard OE Team

Welcome to the Organizational Effectiveness Knowledge Center, and especially to this corner where we share what we are thinking.

As many of you know, the @PackardOE team has changed in the last few months. Kathy Reich, our director since 2010, moved on to the BUILD program at the Ford Foundation earlier this year. We are thrilled for her and the Ford Foundation in this new adventure.

I am excited to be taking on the role of Director, because I believe that the work of Organizational Effectiveness is critical to the success of the goals and strategies that the Packard Foundation shares with our nonprofit partners. Our terrific team includes Jamaica Maxwell, Program Officer, Kai Carter, Research Analyst, Linda Gargiulo, Program Associate, Emily Dwyer, Program Associate, and Arum Lansel, Program Operations Manager. You can read about each one of us in the bios section of the Foundation’s website.  (Update: position filled! Read about new Program Officer Jean Ries here.)

The OE team is privileged with a special mission, making grants to strengthen the capacity of Foundation grantees so that they can better achieve their program goals. Beyond our relationships with those organizations, the OE team also strives to learn with the field about the best ways for foundations and nonprofits to engage together to build capacity to achieve our shared goals.

We do our work within the Packard Foundation, which is a values-driven organization. Dave and Lucile handed down five core values to the board and staff: integrity, commitment to effectiveness, respect for all people, belief in individual leadership, and the capacity to think big.

Here’s how those values play out for OE:

• We are committed to integrity in all that we do, including the wise use of resources and accountability to our own team, to the Foundation, to the field, and to the people and places we are working to help and serve.
• We are committed to effectiveness through our focus on continuous improvement, growth, adaptation and learning for our nonprofit partners and for ourselves as a team.
• We aim to show respect for all people by being responsive, respectful, and collaborative, fostering open dialogue and listening more than we talk. We aim to partner with others in the field and are actively interested in feedback on how we are doing.
• We believe in individual leadership, and work directly to develop nonprofit leaders through a range of approaches.
• We think big about the possibilities for each grantee leader, organization and network, working to understand the big picture of the work we do, and fostering a sense of possibility and experimentation.

This is what we aspire to. And our hope is that all of our partners, whether grantees or not, will hear those values not just through our words, but even louder through our actions.

Stay tuned in this space to hear more about what we are learning and thinking, and let us know what you think too! We look forward to engaging with all who join us in the effort to strengthen and improve the nonprofit sector around the world.

Linda Baker
Director, Organizational Effectiveness