“The ICF needs our documentation from an auditing perspective, as they get audited on all the checks they write for us,” McCullough said.

This spring, Sarah Wissenbach—philanthropic services administrator at the ICF—encouraged the AEYC to apply to the STEM Action Center for matching funds. McCullough saw a similar opportunity with The Space.

“When Sarah received our grant agreements, she responded with an email saying that these grants really stood out—especially the big $100,000 focus grant to AEYC—because of their educational focus, and that she thought some may qualify for matching funds through the STEM center,” McCullough recalled. “I immediately thought of The Space’s $18,500 education grant that we funded, and asked if they would be eligible. Sarah’s connections at the STEM center said ‘go ahead’–that The Space and AEYC would be good candidates.”

In early June, the STEM center awarded the AEYC an additional $25,000 on top of the WRWF $100,000 grant. Additionally, the AEYC was able to match our grant at $100,000 this year, so they received a grand total of $225,000 through our collaboration.

The Space, meanwhile, received a 50% match from the STEM center last month, adding about $9,250 on top of its $18,500 WRWF pooled grant for a total of $27,750.

“The Space really needed local money to keep providing their services, and it’s my understanding they had been looking for a while to get into Idaho’s STEM funding system,” McCullough said. “We connected the dots to create that perfect pathway. I’d imagine they will have a long and productive future relationship with the STEM center.”

“This is also great news for our members,” McCullough continued, “because as far as I know, this straight-up matching has never happened before.”

McCullough said she’ll continue to work with ICF to keep an eye on other funding sources that can “drum up money” for WRWF grantees.

“It’s disappointing that there is so little funding for early childhood education in the state. But at least The Space, and others, are picking up the slack,” she said. “The result is lost wages for Idahoans as STEM jobs consistently pay twice the median wage of non-STEM jobs. If filled, STEM jobs would provide an increase to personal income for Idaho citizens.”

About The Space
Founded by three local educators in 2020, The Space in Hailey provides high-quality academic support to students in grades 6-12 who do not have the same access to private tutoring, counseling and test preparation as their peers in the Wood River Valley.

Offerings include free summer camps and workshops, individual and group academic support, college and financial aid counseling, tutoring in math, English, science, foreign languages, bilingual resources, SAT and ACT preparation and college essay writing.

Core partners include Wood River Middle School, The Hunger Coalition, Bellevue Library, the Hailey Public Library and the Advocates.

This year, The Space received $18,900 from WRWF for its Forward Learning Scholars Program, which consists of 18 middle-school students identified by school social workers as needing extra assistance.

The program works to address academic and social challenges with “high-dose” tutoring and mentoring, and also encourages kids to explore potential interests in gardening, cooking, reading, dancing and other hobbies.

About the AEYC
On April 6, WRWF officially announced a new partnership with the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children to create the Wood River Early Learning Collaborative thanks to the first-ever Focus Grant award of up to $200,000 to “Help Close the Opportunity Gap in Education.”

Idaho-AEYC will contribute $35K of in-kind services in the form of technical assistance from its staff and their outside consultants. Additionally, they are adding $65K in cash to support the needs assessment, strategic planning and search for the Wood River Early Learning Collaborative project lead.

The collaboration will build partnerships among existing local experts in early-childhood education, including programs such as Head Start, family and group providers, faith-based organizations and school districts, as well as businesses, health-care networks, community organizations and other stakeholders.

Q: What was your earliest influence on becoming involved in philanthropy?

A: My grandfather, an educator, was a big influence in my life. Rather than finding people with the same ideas and creating polarization, he always listened and worked to find a larger whole from diverse opinions and ideas. This is how being American (as an immigrant) and a member of the WRWF means to me: We come together as strangers. We give each other a voice. And we collaborate to find solutions.

My own earliest involvement in volunteerism was in the early 2000s as a member and chair of government committees to advance the careers of women in science and technology.

I joined nonprofit boards at universities with an entrepreneurial/start-up spirit, including The New School in NYC, Olin College of Engineering, Claremont College KECK Graduate School of Applied Life Sciences, and Fordham University. Then, I joined nonprofit boards with a research/medical focus, including Muscular Dystrophy Association, Burke Neurological Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, and EcoHealth Alliance. Additionally, I am on the nonprofit board of Public Agenda, with a research/democracy focus. During the pandemic, I joined our Chief Executive of Westchester County NY’s Asian American Advisory Board.

Q: Tell us about your focus on education, mentoring and participation on the WRWF Education Committee.

A: My initial interest in joining the Education Committee was to educate myself on the Wood River Valley (WRV). Coming primarily to ski and for the summer each year, I knew little about the socio-economic picture and needs of our valley. We started the annual State of the Valley panel discussion and our large, 2-year grant focused on the longer-term, basic needs of WRV. Today with Jenni Riley and Susan Passovoy leading the Education Committee, we have looked at the topics of “our needs coming out of the pandemic” and “balancing growth with our valley’s values.”

Q: What wisdom or takeaway should Future Forward members like me know about active philanthropy, i.e., not just writing checks, but giving back your time and talent to the community?

A: My education about the valley has made me a really more engaged WRV person. I now hear the diverse voices and needs of the valley. I want to help build bridges across communities and give people a voice by being the best authentic leader I can be.

Q: Lilian, your many outstanding achievements include being a member of President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and also serving on several National Science Foundation Advisory Committees. What were those experiences like?

A: Well, it was great when getting my start and I had terrific colleagues with me. I cared about making progress because in the 2000s, women who were scientists and technologists were still perceived as never going to be as devoted and/or as good of a scientist as a man. So, there were a lot of those kinds of issues about enabling women to have families at the same time. It was a practical problem that we tried to solve, but the two areas clashed. So I encouraged our outlook to be broader, especially for women. I felt it was a good experience and I accomplished what I wanted to do. Today, my focus is more about my community, the people I see—and I don’t see an end to that focus.

Q: Tell me about your thoughts on diversity and inclusion.

A: Laura Midgley and I looked at diversity and inclusion for the valley and how we were going to structure grants or the projects to encourage the valley’s nonprofits. We were at the Sun Valley Museum of Art and I wanted to understand from her point of view, what would inclusion look like? She told me that you can look at a painting and just think to yourself, “I like this painting better than this painting.” You can have those kinds of very superficial reactions, or you could have a different reaction, like noticing how an exhibit is put together, to really see all the aspects of a collection of work.”
She used the words “to really see,” rather than “just look”, and I really felt very strongly about that distinction. This is because I have felt that with some individuals, we often don’t see them and we simply have them as being part of a category. Examples are: “This is my server”, or worse, someone that’s in the background and I’m not even aware I know somebody is there doing something good. I started thinking a lot about that phrase “I see you” and I tried hard to think about that in my own personal interactions with people. “I hear you; I see you”, and I want people to really realize the interaction is about the two of us.

Q: What does being an American mean to you?

A: When I came to the U.S. everyone respected each other’s differences and I never felt like I didn’t belong. Then, the pandemic hit, and I heard remarks like “go home” and violence started up around the world. I started to think of myself as a category again. I spent quite a bit of time trying to resolve it and what I realized in the end is that it’s about relationships. Having something deeply in common, coming together, and listening to one another to do something good is what healed me. I came to understand what being an American really comes down to—we come together as strangers, give each other a voice, and together we do good and solve problems. That is what gives me the most meaning and it is tied to philanthropy and what can be evolved out of this sadness. You have to be engaged, have a voice, and give others a voice.
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This interview was inspired by earlier coverage by the State of New York:
Harckham Commemorates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Honors Dr. Lilian Wu of IBM | NY State Senate (nysenate.gov)