Stephen Heintz is the president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and serves as Independent Sector’s Chairman of the Board.

What can volunteers learn from organizations—and vice versa?
Volunteers have a lot to learn from nonprofit organizations.  Many volunteers work for for-profit organizations and may have a limited understanding of the nonprofit sector.   By volunteering they get to see how nonprofits contribute to the health and vitality of our society.  They also see the challenges nonprofits face in terms of organizational issues, management, governance, and finances.  And community service is hugely advantageous to people who are unemployed or who want to change careers as the nonprofit sector employs something like 10 million people in the American economy. On the flip side, given the financial realities of the sector, the value of volunteers is huge to nonprofits. The organizations receive economic value, but they also get committed individuals whose spirit, energy, expertise, and connections to the communities they serve benefit the nonprofit’s work. So, it really is a win-win for the volunteers and the nonprofit organizations.

What lessons have you learned as a volunteer that have stuck with you?
Like many people, my volunteer experience began as a child.  From clean-up projects to paper drives, I gained my first appreciation of giving my time to help others; and it was during that time that I also learned there was such a thing as the nonprofit sector.  Working with different people and diverse populations and groups was hugely valuable to me at such a young age.  So, it was, and still is, important for me to be part of volunteer activities.  Now, in a later stage of my career, a good part of my volunteer work is at the governance level serving on boards—non-compensated boards—and contributing oversight and guidance to nonprofit organizations.  

What initially inspired you to work in the nonprofit sector?
What inspired me to move into the nonprofit sector was frankly 15 years in the government sector.  It was very exciting, and in some ways I felt I made a positive impact, but I also felt constrained, frustrated, and jaded about government, politics, and bureaucracy.  Fast forward to the 1990s, and I was working in the nonprofit sector for the East-West Institute, a kind of combination think-tank and technical assistance provider.  It was a wonderful opportunity to engage with civil society institutions and political leaders on democracy and economic reforms, international relations, and security issues that would inform the then new democracies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  So for me, the nonprofit sector offered a fresh way to engage on similar issues but to do it with much more flexibility, much more creativity—and that was very appealing to me.   And that experience on the frontlines of how the nonprofit sector really functioned is hugely valuable to me now as president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Tell us about a time you failed and what it taught you.
In 1974, at the age of 22, I ran for a state senate seat in Connecticut and lost the election. It was a big blow.  I was very idealistic and energetic.  I had a lot of young volunteers and we ran an aggressive campaign in the sense that we really worked hard.  We focused on the issues, and took on some controversial stances.  In the end, we managed to do better than any other candidate of my party in that district in over 40 years and yet we still lost two to one.  It was an emotional letdown; it was a physical letdown. But it was a fantastic and invaluable learning experience for me.

What is the one thing you wish everyone in Congress knew about philanthropy?
The nonprofit sector, supported by individual charitable giving and philanthropy, is absolutely essential to the vitality of our democracy; and I wish more people in Congress understood the role of philanthropy in that process.  I think when it comes to philanthropy there is an assumption, not only in Congress but in the wider public, of “How hard can giving money really be?”  But the point is giving away money, if you are really striving to do it with excellence, is really hard work.  It’s more about having to say “no” than it is about having to say “yes.”   You have to hone your due diligence, analysis, and assessment abilities and exercise sound judgment about the opportunities you can say yes to and the graceful and supportive ways in which you must say no. It is a lot harder than people understand.