The world of philanthropy is not very business oriented. I don’t mean to say that nonprofits should be more commercial, but I do mean that they’d see more success at their mission, whatever it may be, if they approached it the way business leaders do.
There are things that business people do routinely, especially when they’re growing a business. You have to know the market you are serving, inside and out. What kind of people are they, and what’s the best way to communicate with them? You have to really understand the customer base and how your product or service is going to relate to them. You have to find out how to make that interrelationship happen. You must think hard about how you build a business—even if it is a nonprofit. Or maybe especially if it is.
◆ Harry Slatkin, founding CEO Slatkin & Co, a home fragrance giant; parent of an autistic child. All of us are entrepreneurs. Brian Kelly, Jim Simons, and I all started our own businesses and foundations, and we approached Autism Speaks the same way. When you’re an entrepreneur, you need to figure out how to get where you want to go. It doesn’t come easily, so you have to create a road map and then you can carve out your own path. And when someone says no to us, it makes us want to do what we need to even more. We want to actually prove that it can be done.
It’s the business side of our world that gets us to where we are and allows us to be successful, and I think that’s why we are treating autism like a business. It’s not just a malfunctioning child. It’s not just a scientific issue. It’s a business, and in business there are formulas for devising solutions for problems. You analyze and weigh the options, decide on one, and execute it to the best of your ability. That’s exactly what we’re all doing with autism.
We all have our own style of doing it. I built my business from the ground up. Bob has a different style from his days at large corporations. But our different styles allow us to create all of the approaches and solutions in the autism world, which, hopefully, will lead us to a cure. We all would love not to ever have had autism enter our world, that’s for sure, but it has. When you’re a businessperson confronted by such drastic, overwhelming issues, you have two choices. You can either tackle it or whine about it. And whining adversely impacts your business. You’re going to lose a lot of money if you don’t figure it out. And so for all our children, we have to figure this out. Our goal is that someday my normal child will not have to fear having a child with autism. ◆
What’s happened with cancer in this country may be instructive. Richard Nixon declared the war on cancer in 1972, more than 40 years ago. Today we’ve got sharper knives and more knives, but still no firm answers about cause and cure. But what we have done is to make cancer treatment local. Most people don’t care about the cancer research, they just care about their own treatment, and there are so many good places that provide it locally. And yet the NIH still has to spend $6 billion on research because they don’t know what causes it. While autism will continue to be in a costly research mode, we need more and better local treatment options since it is not a contagious condition but needs constant attention.
People don’t realize what it takes to make the National Institutes of Health take an active interest in a condition as prevalent as autism. We have to create our own bill in Congress to drive money to the NIH, which receives $30 billion annually in federal funding, with $260 million earmarked for autism research. To date, we have helped raise $3 billion in NIH funding for research, and even then we don’t have real control over how they spend that money and are never told the final results. It’s an imperfect system. That would be unacceptable in the business world.
We will never have enough money or resources, so we have to be very efficient with what we have. That requires the kind of discipline and processes businesses use to succeed.
◆ Andy Shih. Bob is known for his management prowess and business acumen, while Suzanne has a reputation as a fierce and passionate advocate. They brought rigorous business processes and practices to the advocacy world. The Wrights brought a laser focus on the stakeholders and return on investment in autism advocacy. Working at Autism Speaks has opened my eyes—as well as provided me a strong sense of purpose—to the importance of always keeping the families at the heart of everything I do. It’s how we accomplished so much so fast. ◆
◆ Brian Kelly. There are no easy roads on autism. Every aspect of what you need to do to advocate for your child is real work. It requires a lifelong family commitment. And if you layer financial hardship on top of that commitment, it is a devastating combination. That is the part for me that is really destroying the fabric of the family. When the fabric of the family is destroyed, who serves? Our challenge has become the human beings and executing the strategy that can improve the quality of their lives. I have found that putting on a businessman’s perspective is very helpful. It keeps you focused, keeps you from drifting into unproductive thinking, helps you see the next right thing.
I really think that it is about being decisive, and to do that, you have to do your homework on whatever initiatives you are going to undertake. Be decisive about tackling the initiative and applying the best human beings and resources to do it. Many of these challenges and decisions are time sensitive. Even though we have a formal board process for approving expenditures and making decisions, there are many subcommittee discussions that are ongoing all the time. We try to move and take action quickly. That’s where the business perspective is critical. ◆
Jim Simons is America’s best-known mathematician, and he has become one of the wealthiest people in the country. He’s in his 70s. When I first met Jim, 7 years ago, he was spending about $3 million a year on genetic research involving autism. I wanted him to come with us, and he wanted to, but only if he could have absolute control over the science program. Which I could not do.
So I made a good decision, a business decision. “Jim,” I said, “You go and do your thing. We will be at your disposal. We will help you in any way you want. We will invest with you if you think that that’s appropriate, if you want us to. We’re going to be your partners, but you can operate on your own.” He formed the Simons Foundation and hired some top-notch people, and they now spend about $50 million a year for autism. And it’s deep science, it’s genetic research. Jim Simons is the real deal. I admire him a lot. He is the second largest source of research money for autism behind the NIH. We’re third, having raised nearly $600 million in 10 years.
◆ Dr. Herbert Pardes. Harry and Laura Slatkin came to me in 2000 when I was CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, asking for support to establish an autism program and center. They hosted a fundraising dinner where I listened to their heartfelt descriptions about what it was like to have an autistic child. This youngster was virtually dysfunctional in communication. Children like this have trouble telling their parents or doctor the pain they are feeling, especially when they are agitated. They were dealing with a child who needed almost literally constant attention.
The Slatkins were determined to raise money and secured donors, including the Wrights. They also did the bulk of the work to build the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain in White Plains, New York. It provides comprehensive care in a single setting for individuals living with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disorders of the brain. It is a collaborative program between New York-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in partnership with New York Collaborates for Autism.
The Autism Center at New York-Presbyterian’s Westchester campus opened last year, working on diagnosis evaluation treatment, and it will continue to evolve with more programs related to autism under an executive director, Catherine Lord. The Slatkins got that done and the Wrights gained attention for the disorder. They rapidly and aggressively raised money for grants and started to work the politics of it. They go after anybody and everybody. Another remarkable couple, Jim and Marilyn Simons (he is a successful hedge fund manager) have their own foundation which focuses heavily on autism. And they’ve convened a very substantial scientific and administrative group working on research.
So you’ve got this network of people who are putting their resources and passions to work on autism. What I bring to the Autism Speaks board and efforts—as one who has been very heavily involved with getting attention to mental illness and a former head of the National Institute of Mental Health—are the lessons I have learned. It’s a rare privilege to work with smart, dedicated people to get tough, impossible things done. We’re all exhaustive workaholics who are committed to doing something about this darn disease.
Then the challenge becomes how to sustain all this. The story is good for about an hour and a half, right? That’s where the Wrights come in. Bob is trying to bring a certain set of sensibilities and principles that are inherent to the corporate world. In that way he’s like John Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley, who built the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, and Herbert Irving of Sysco, a major supporter of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. They are businesspeople with a set of strong contacts and widespread influence. They know how to handle big issues. They are big thinkers with the confidence and know-how to get things done.
The Wrights, and others like them, have a very sharp sense of how to use your time, all your assets, your money, your people, your contacts, all directed to solve this problem. That’s what business leaders do. And Autism Speaks, like any other organization that wants to be successful, is a business. So you have to bring in the right financial people, the legal people, and the public relations people. And most important, it is unacceptable to spend an enormous amount of time, money, and resources on something without moving it forward. ◆