Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
When NPR disclosed in April, amid controversial cuts in federal funding, that it had received one of the largest gifts in the history of public media, the announcement shined a spotlight on Connie Ballmer, whose $80 million donation will help the radio network with digital transformation.
Though Ballmer and her husband, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, have given away more than $8 billion in their lifetimes, Connie has a much lower profile than fellow philanthropists such as Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott, whose charitable contributions are obsessively tracked by business journalists and popular media alike.
Connie Ballmer, who majored in journalism and previously sat on the NPR board, says she gave to the organization because she’s a listener. In an email exchange with Modern CEO, she underscored the importance of nurturing “the smaller stations that are super important to their communities,” adding, “Helping them modernize and take advantage of the digital age is a great role for philanthropic dollars and something I’m proud to support.”
Focusing on the local
While the NPR donation was a personal gift, Ballmer Group, the couple’s economic mobility philanthropy, shares an ethos around empowering organizations at the local level. In July, Ballmer Group announced it would spin its economic mobility charities in Southeast Michigan (where Steve grew up), Los Angeles County (where the Ballmers own the LA Clippers basketball team), and Washington (the state the family calls home) into three separate and independent nonprofits.
The goal, says Terri Ludwig, CEO of Ballmer Group, is to give each team the freedom to build strategies and make decisions that are best for their communities. “How do we keep staying close to the work, and how do we empower our leaders?” she asks, adding that she thinks of these new entities as startups rather than spin-offs.
Investing in communities
Ludwig, who joined Ballmer Group in 2019 after leading the national housing development nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, is well-versed in building and running a large-scale organization that must also stay connected to the communities it serves.
“It is not an easy role, bridging cofounders and a philanthropic team, but she has created a great culture here of open communication, independent thinking, and humility,” Connie Ballmer says.
Before her stint at Enterprise Community Partners, Ludwig worked in finance. Throughout her career, she’s seen what different stakeholders bring to big problems. She credits the private sector for its speed and discipline, appreciates the government’s ability to scale, and values the trust that nonprofits engender.
“Each sector brings unique and important strengths,” she says. “When those strengths can come together, we can solve problems at scale.”
Businesses and CEOs can scarcely afford to ignore the economic mobility challenges Ballmer Group and others are trying to address. “If we want to be economically competitive in our country, we have to invest in our communities and our kids,” Ludwig says.
Connie Ballmer began her family’s philanthropic efforts some 25 years ago, writing checks from her kitchen table to local organizations in Seattle.
As the AI boom and entrepreneurial exits mint a new generation of billionaires, I asked Ludwig to share her advice for aspiring philanthropists. Her counsel is pragmatic: Don’t wait for the perfect strategy.
“Start with the problem you deeply care about,” Ludwig said. “Find the people who are closest to the challenge, learn from them, and begin. Refine your approach over time.”
Read more: Modern philanthropy
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- Is the era of the benevolent billionaire finally over?
- Lessons in leadership from a nonprofit innovator