How Smart Nonprofit Leaders Create Lasting Impact: Jason Whyte
An interview with Jason Whyte, National Reentry Workforce Collaborative
While many nonprofit staff and leaders are leaving the field or those who have stayed are truly running on empty, I went looking for leaders who have figured something out—people who are doing something differently.
The good news is: I found them! This series, How Smart Nonprofit Leaders Create Lasting Impact, shares the insights of amazing people who continue to navigate the ups and downs of nonprofit leadership to create lasting impact. This is one of the many ways we help clients of Development Without Limits improve their services so they can reach more clients with high quality programming that opens new revenue streams.
Jason Whyte, Co-founder & Chairman, National Reentry Workforce Collaborative
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Whyte, a great colleague whose entrepreneurial spirit is a breath of fresh air for the nonprofit sector. In his leadership, Jason combines heartfelt commitment with a mindset toward innovation—always asking: how can we do this better? Jason is the Director of Partnership Strategy at the Latino Coalition for Community Leadership and has recently launched the National Reentry Workforce Collaborative the only national organization founded by workforce practitioners committed to advancing socio-economic mobility for people impacted by the justice system.
Q: What are you most proud of in your leadership, especially in recent times since we have been navigating the pandemic?
I'll first talk about it from a standpoint of leading people. Oftentimes when I work with people, at some point in the journey, I get feedback from them that says I allowed them to be themselves. And it sounds very simple, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it's actually a pretty significant approach to my leadership that I need to preserve and be intentional about. The reality is nothing that we get done can be done in a significant way without the support and the additional help of people. And as someone that leads a network of organizations which consists of people, it really is to another level, another degree in terms of what it means to not just manage an internal team. But, what does it mean to really work with colleagues across the country that maybe even have slightly different focuses and interests? There's a common mission that binds us, which is kind of the work that we're doing to serve folks who are coming back from incarceration. So what I would say is, to hear people say that I give them space to be themselves, it is encouraging because what it means is that in some regard, our relationship is positioned in a way where they can actually bring their best self. And they can be confident that whatever they contribute, or whatever they have to contribute, is welcomed. And I think that that's how you get the best out of people. At least that's one way.
On the career side, one of my greatest accomplishments took place at my last place of employment. I led a team through replicating and scaling a national reentry program. We raised over $30 million in federal and foundation funding to invest in the initiative. The program grew from one to 10 cities, and 645 to over 4,000 participants in four years. I am most proud about this accomplishment because the resources were used to prepare these individuals to successfully reenter the labor force, a step toward breaking the generational cycle of poverty for a group of individuals who have insurmountable barriers to economic opportunities.
Q: Wow. How do you do that? Or what are the choices you make to really help you do that, because that's not something that all leaders know how to do?
I think a good word to use, and I'll try to unpack it a little bit further, is authenticity. It's hard for people to be themselves, if you're not being yourself as well. So I think I try to be very intentional to be authentic. Because what I realize is sustainable relationships require that all parties are actually being their authentic self. At some point in time, if you're not able to be authentic, you're going to get exhausted, especially when you think about the pandemic and the toll that has taken on so many individuals and especially in our work. The service field is hard. I think the work in reentry is particularly difficult because of how challenging the system is, and the level of impact it often has. So it's important to be authentic.
What it means, I can share some practical ideas. Something as simple as: If there was something that happened, and I felt offended, for example. I try to be very honest about that. Or if I felt like there's a concern. Then I'm very forthright in sharing my concerns when maybe things don't go the way that we had planned. And I also try to make it very, very clear that I expect the same from others as well. And it is safe, and it's okay to do that. And I actually want them to do that.
“Because the goal is for us to be completely honest with where we are so that we can truly work together.”
Q: When I think of you as a leader, I think of your capacity for innovation and thinking beyond the confines of what is presented to you. How do you do that? That is not something I see in every leader. What is that for you?
Thanks for your compliment. There's a number of factors at play, let me put it that way. One is, I really am drive to solve problems. And if we come together, and we're really serious about what we're doing, and we say we're trying to address X, or whatever the problem is, I am committed to addressing it. It's a heart-level commitment. So I would say that's the starting point.
Because that's the starting point, I've come to find that most times, things are a little bit more challenging than the plans that we have. Things turn out to be a little bit more difficult. And it being difficult, oftentimes it requires for us to think outside of the box, for us to push ourselves, and for us to really find ways to navigate kind of the challenges as they come up.
I do have an entrepreneurial background. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. I have an entrepreneur-leaning, and I almost can't help myself.
So it's because I do have that entrepreneurial leaning, so to say, I often think that there's a way with this heartfelt commitment to finding a solution. The question always comes up when you feel stuck, when you realized that things are getting challenging, how can you look at this differently?
Let me give an example–NRWC, the National Reentry Workforce Collaborative. When I was at my previous employer, we actually had a commitment to utilize workforce development strategies to address the national problem of mass incarceration. I would argue, and I think many would agree with me, that mass incarceration may be the most significant civil rights issue that we're facing today. Even if a person may not agree that it is the most significant, they would at least agree that it is up there.
As we started implementing the scaling of this program at my former employer, I realized two years in, that this goal that we had to use workforce development strategies to address this national problem was so big. Our singular organization was so far from making a dent or moving the needle that we had to figure out additional alternatives. I was getting connected with a number of other organizations that all receive funding from the US Department of Labor Reentry Employment Opportunities Department. And we're all working toward the same thing, to address this issue. So I was compelled again, because I had that hard commitment to find the solution. And also the entrepreneurial tendency to say, “This doesn't look like it's working as much as we want it to work. What else should we try?”
I literally got the phone and started calling some of the folks that I was meeting in DC and shared the exact concern that I had. And what was encouraging is all of them agreed with me and wanted to actually at least have a conversation. The interesting thing is that the deeper we got into it, the more it became clear to me that this does not just require organizations coming together, but it requires dedicated effort to really move the needle. At that time at my former employer, I think we had gotten up to serving 4,000 individuals. My hope is that through this process of developing the National Reentry Workforce Collaborative, we will be able to mobilize the field to serve 400,000 or 4 million individuals that have come back from incarceration.
Q: What is your primary challenge right now? As a leader, what are you really still navigating?
I think that one of the challenges that I face, and I would say, by extension we face in the field is the alignment of policy and resources. I've worked with a ton of organizations across the country. And in working with these organizations, I do not believe that we're short of people that are committed to the work. I believe that there are a lot of people who are committed to the work. I do believe that people are getting tired.
“But I wonder how much more can the funding community do to align resources with true solutions that the community actually needs? ”
So I think that's one of the challenges that we face right now. Right, there's a need for additional funding, even as we continue to go down this path towards mobilizing the reentry workforce field. And the response that I was expecting to receive from the funding community has fallen short. So my hope would be that as time progresses, that would change. I hope, also, that this common experience that myself and many other practitioners across the country face, will become less than of an issue because there are resources available. Yes, there's always scarcity to some degree, but there's a ton of resources that are available. How can we make those resources more available to people that are committed to our efforts, that are committed to the field, and at the same time align policy that's really driven by data? That is, data and stories from the field versus political agenda.
Q: As a leader, what do you need in order to actually navigate that, to have the funding conversations, to push the policy, to change the landscape? What do you need in order to make that a reality?
That's an interesting question, and one that isn't that easy to respond to. I'm talking within context, leading a network-type effort that's committed to serving organizations and practitioners that are in the field. I would say what I really need is–just as a starting point– is a group of organizations that join the movement and commit to what it means to really move the needle.
We've identified three areas that we're focusing on: program improvement, collateral consequences, and employee engagement. I truly believe that if we mobilized around those areas, we could actually make an impact that if we continue to function on our own, we would just not be able to make. Because there are a few things that will happen. One, the information that we really need to access, I believe it would increase the likelihood for us to do that. The second thing is, a stronger voice. I talked earlier about the need for a policy to be aligned and funding to be available. I think if we're able to mobilize and collaborate, I think we would have a stronger voice to be able to engage with and partner with the policy efforts that are out there that are aligned well. My hope is that it would lead to true change. And then obviously, we would also be able to communicate with funders for them to really be able to understand how we could partner with them. The goal, when I talk about mobilizing, would be to mobilize to partner with high-stakes decision makers that are really committed to change. Along with that, is the need for actual funding. Very simple and straightforward.
So those are the two things that I would highlight: One is that there would be a nucleus of the field that's committed to mobilizing. And the goal would be that this nucleus would help to support the rest of the field. And then the second thing is that resources will actually be available because at the end of the day, we do need resources.
Q: What does your next level of success look like for your personal leadership?
What I've learned about myself over time is that one of my strengths is actually to mobilize stakeholders. And for some reason, I've just always had that gift to be able to pull people together. Sometimes literally people that are at odds; I'm able to bring together and be a voice of truth in the midst of sometimes even conflict. But I think that my next step is, especially considering the conflicts in life now, is not just pulling people together, but unleashing partners for us to collectively get something done. I think that is my next era of growth because I think my ability to mobilize people and pull them together has been proven. And I think where my test is now, and my next step is to see if I can continue to grow in the area of really kind of unleashing these partners that we have been able to pull together for us to actually accomplish something way bigger than any of us could even imagine.
Thank you, Jason! What a great and inspiring conversation as you launch this new collaborative doing challenging and critical work.
As Chair of the National Reentry Workforce Collaborative (NRWC)’s Steering Committee, Jason is responsible for casting the vision and guiding the collaborative’s strategic direction. A leader with a keen aptitude for social justice and a strategic thinker, Jason is also the Director of Partnership Strategy at the Latino Coalition for Community Leadership (LCCL). In this role, he develops strategies and build relationships to expand the organization’s national footprint. Before joining the LCCL, Jason led operations and strategy for the national network of OIC of America. While at OIC of America, he secured over $30M in federal and foundation funding. This funding allowed the organization to replicate national initiatives, programs and projects that support the organization’s ambitions of breaking the cycle of poverty. Jason played an integral role in expanding OIC of America’s national reentry program from one city to ten in just four years. Jason also served on a national committee that provided expert advice on reentry related matters to the Office of America Innovation at the White House; a board member of Jalawo, a nonprofit organization that do holistic community development work in Jamaica; and as an elder at his church. Jason holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Biola University and a M.B.A. in Economic Development from Eastern University.
