When Rebecca Rimel, president and CEO of the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, describes the challenges she faces running a $4.6 billion organization, she uses the same words one hears from leaders in the for-profit world: "highly strategic," "politically aware," "leveraged" and "accountable." But her bottom line is impact, not profits. "We are highly driven to make a difference in the key issues that matter to the health and happiness of our stakeholders -- the public," she said during a recent leadership talk at Wharton. "We play to win and choose initiatives where we think we can do that. Being focused and tough-minded [defines] the business I am in every day."
The Pew Charitable Trusts, which began 58 years ago as a private foundation, was started by the four sons and daughters of Joseph N. Pew, founder of Sun Oil. It is investing more than $200 million this fiscal year in a variety of areas, including the environment, health and the arts.
"There is the perception, sometimes, that we are another big Mac machine in the sky," Rimel said, "that we just figure out which button to push and give away money." Instead, Pew focuses on well-defined problems, selecting issues that it believes are ripe for change and where it thinks it can have an impact in three to five years. "We look at our core competency -- what we are good at -- and make sure we have appropriate resources to allocate to the problem at hand," Rimel said. Leverage is critical. So is non-partisan support. In fact, the Trusts will not consider an issue that doesn't have it. "If Tom Delay [Republican congressman from Texas] and Hillary Clinton [Democratic senator from New York] are arm-in-arm over an issue, I'd say, 'Well, we are over that hurdle,'" Rimel noted. "We are not driven by ideology, but we work hard to promote democracy."
Reinventing itself as an independent public charity two years ago has made the Trusts more effective and efficient, she added.
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