Newly Heading a Top Education Funder, Gislaine Ngounou Believes Philanthropy Can Do Better
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Gislaine Ngounou. Photo: Nellie Mae Education Foundation
Gislaine Ngounou, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s new interim president and CEO, didn’t set out to work in education. She earned a BA in electrical engineering, but her experience as a student in classrooms that included few women and even fewer women of color drove her in a different direction. During her summer vacations, she worked at the Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom Schools. That work, she says, ignited her passion for social justice and led to a career in education.
Ngounou worked as a teacher and an administrator in a number of school districts, and, she said, “just continued to see the inequities in public education.” Throughout the time she was earning her doctorate and working at various jobs— including as chief program officer for Phi Delta Kappa International, a professional organization for educators—she continued to focus on issues of racial equity and inclusion.
Ngounou never intended to work in philanthropy, either. When she heard about an open position as vice president of strategy and programs at the Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF), her reaction was, “I’m not a philanthropist, I’m an educator!” But she changed her mind when she realized that the position matched her skills and background at the intersection of change management, K-12 education and racial equity work.
At the beginning of June, Ngounou assumed her current role at the head of NMEF when Nick Donohue stepped down after 14 years at the organization. Donohue steered the organization through a challenging transition period as it closely examined its direction and committed to make racial equity and justice the centerpiece of its mission, as IP has reported. Since the racial reckoning that marked 2020, many philanthropies have made racial equity a key pillar in their programs. But NMEF, the largest education philanthropy in New England, was an early adopter, and Gislaine Ngounou helped make that happen.
The right lever for change
When Ngounou took the interim position at NMEF, the organization announced that she will stay in the role for six to 12 months as the foundation pauses its external search “while taking time to determine next steps around decisions of future, permanent leadership of the organization.”
Asked what this means, Ngounou explained, “We believe the strategy we’ve implemented is the right lever for change going forward, but with Nick stepping down, our board had to take the time to think about where we are in terms of the societal context that is the backdrop against which we are doing this work. Racism is still very vibrant and we are still living in a global pandemic. Meanwhile, we are learning a lot. We want to take the remainder of this year to capture lessons learned, and to listen to community voices, including making community voices part of the search process.”
Ngounou made it clear that NMEF will continue its current direction—that is, focusing on racial equity in public education—under her leadership. NMEF’s six grant funds reinforce each other to advance the organization’s mission: “To prioritize community goals that challenge racial inequities and advance excellent, student-centered public education for all New England youth,” according to the organization’s website.
In concrete terms, NMEF works with organizations building culturally responsive schools, diversifying teacher pathways, decriminalizing schools by replacing zero-tolerance disciplinary measures with restorative practices, and replacing in-school police officers with wraparound support services.
Ngounou pointed to growing pressure from conservatives on schools around the country to limit discussions of institutional racism and so-called “critical race theory.” She believes philanthropy has a role to play in countering the backlash against anti-racism efforts. “We need to continue to use our voice and platform in the kinds of stories we tell, and the way we amplify the voices of our grantees across the region,” Ngounou said. “And we need to invest in the kind of movement building and partnerships required to move this work. We can’t operate within our silos; we need all of our resources and good thinking to manifest change.”
As Ngounou talks, you can almost see the synapses firing in her brain as she considers the many things she’d like NMEF to accomplish. “I’d also like to look beyond seeing public education as a single-issue type of struggle,” she said. “I think oftentimes as funders and philanthropies, you have a mission and have to stay super-focused. The way I see it now, it is almost like the house is on fire. And yes, public education is a cornerstone of democracy, but it is also connected to all types of other injustices. Nellie Mae can’t fund it all, so we need to be very intentional and strategic and combine forces with others to get this work done.”
“Not our money at all”
As the leader of NMEF, Nick Donohue didn’t hesitate to challenge his philanthropic peers. Last year, for example, when many philanthropies were proclaiming commitments to racial justice, he wondered whether those commitments would last. “I have some hopes that this is a trend in philanthropy, but I don’t think there is enough demand to make that a slam dunk,” Donohue told IP. “The reality is that this still looks like it could be a boutique moment for some philanthropies.”
Like Donohue, Gislaine Ngounou wants to see philanthropy do better, and has questioned fundamental assumptions that undergird the sector. In a 2019 IP article, for example, she urged philanthropy to acknowledge that “the accumulated wealth operated and controlled by our foundations is not our money at all. Our individual and collective responsibilities rest in figuring out how to return the money to those to whom it belongs. Communities whose violently stolen lands and labor have built the institutions that allowed capitalism and white supremacy—including philanthropy—to thrive.”
Several months into the pandemic, Ngounou picked up the same theme in an article for Nonprofit Quarterly, in which she urged philanthropy to reinvent itself. “Philanthropy needs to take what we have learned over the last few months—and frankly, over the last several hundred years—and refocus our work to foster more trusting and reciprocal relationships with our grantee partners,” she wrote.
The changes Ngounou wants to see include fewer restrictions on funds, more community involvement in funding decisions, and more diversity in staff and leadership at foundations.
Ngounou has helped NMEF itself adopt these strategies, and she makes it clear she’d like to continue to do so as the next president and CEO of the foundation. “I’ve invested a lot of my experiences and skills and personal values in this work,” she said. “And I try to model the kind of philanthropy world I want to be a part of, which requires that we change our approach to philanthropy. I think our relationships with grantees, our relationships with our community advisors, how we manifest trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking, is in part due to the type of leader I’ve been here. So I hope to have the opportunity to manifest that with the amazing team that we have.”
Correction: The original version of this article stated incorrectly that Dr. Ngounou volunteered at the Children's Defense Fund’s Freedom Schools. She was actually an employee.
