Contact SamHometown
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
Undergraduate education
Bachelor of science in community and nonprofit leadership, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Employer
Kids First Chicago
Job Title
Senior Grants Manager
Start Date
November 2024
Primary job responsibilities
I’m honored to work for Kids First Chicago (K1C) as their senior grants manager. Since 2015, K1C has equipped parents with the information, access, and resources needed to effectively advocate for their children’s needs. By listening to parents’ concerns and ideas for improving the education system, we’re able to partner with the city, district, and school leaders to develop and implement policies that prioritize families’ needs.
In my current role, I’m responsible for managing all matters related to grants and institutional giving, including corporate partnerships, foundation grants, and public funding opportunities. I work closely with the development team, senior staff, and board members to build relationships that support K1C’s mission to improve education for Chicago’s children.
How do you use what you learned at La Follette on the job?
At the La Follette School, I developed not only the technical skills to analyze and implement policy but also the ability to approach complex issues with an open-minded perspective. Policy solutions are often framed as binary choices, but I learned at La Follette that this dichotomous thinking is limiting, especially in an era where compromise can seem impossible.
By grounding policy analysis in rigorous data and empirical evidence, I learned to create a “balance sheet” of competing viewpoints before making decisions. This approach has enhanced my ability to think dialectically – understanding the complexities of an issue rather than reducing them to extremes.
In my role at Kids First Chicago, I work with a team focused on breaking down the complexities of education policy to ensure parents in Chicago have accurate, actionable information to make the best choices for their children. As a grants manager, I regularly communicate our policy successes to a diverse set of stakeholders, and it’s critical that I convey not only the outcome but also the nuanced process that led to that outcome. The ability to move beyond dichotomous thinking has been indispensable in this work, allowing me to reflect on the complexity of the process and communicate it effectively.
Why the La Follette School?
My undergraduate studies in nonprofit management provided me with a deep understanding of localized action and direct service delivery. This experience cultivated an appreciation for the tangible impact that nonprofits can have, though I recognized that such efforts, while scalable, tend to focus on more targeted, community-level outcomes. Motivated by the desire to broaden my scope of influence, I decided to pursue a Master’s in Public Affairs, believing that government can be a powerful force for positive change.
In the United States, federal, state, and local governments allocate approximately $1.8 trillion annually to public welfare programs, compared to about $88 billion in private philanthropic contributions to human service organizations. While this private sector funding is significant, it is a small fraction-roughly 5%-of the government’s capacity to drive large-scale change in human services. I am convinced that meaningful and lasting transformation requires not only identifying effective solutions but also developing strategies to scale those solutions.
I recognized that a Master’s in Public Affairs would provide the expertise and tools necessary to evaluate and influence policy on a broader scale. By focusing on systemic, large-scale change, I aim to leverage public policy to reach and improve the lives of more individuals across diverse communities.
Internship while at La Follette
During my time at La Follette, I had the opportunity to serve as a development intern at the Brookings Institution. This role fostered my interest in the intersection of fundraising and public policy and helped refine my ability to effectively communicate bold and pragmatic solutions. The experience also strengthened my capacity for open-minded inquiry, which remains central to my professional approach today.
Most rewarding experience at the La Follette School?
My most rewarding experience was the client-based project I completed with a group of classmates enrolled in the Cost-Benefit Analysis course. My team had the opportunity to publish a report that assessed the long-term costs and benefits of investment in universal child savings accounts for Wisconsin residents.
Child savings accounts are increasingly being featured in public policy discourse as a promising tool to address wealth inequality and improve access to higher education. It was an honor to elevate that conversation in Wisconsin. My team had two distinct opportunities to share our work with policymakers, which included:
- A presentation to the Governor’s Council on Financial Literacy and Capability
- A poster board display at UW-Madison’s “Day at the Capitol”
La Follette made that experience possible and it’s a project I’ll be proud of for the rest of my life.