Prudent, Feisty and Unapologetic

Prudential Foundation’s Gabriella Morris doesn’t shy away from shining ‘a light on disparity’

By Dennis Schaal

Gabriella Morris, the President of the Prudential Foundation, describes herself as “basically an introvert,” and I suspect her friends and colleagues might get a big chuckle out of that self-characterization.

After all, when asked at the start of an interview what differentiates the Prudential Foundation from other corporate philanthropies, Morris quickly says in jest: “I’m here.”

Morris has been “here” at Prudential Financial since 1985 and she’s presided over the Prudential Foundation since 1994. Like the Prudential Foundation itself, Morris is not at all shy or defensive about the foundation’s community involvement, even in what some might consider edgy arenas.

For example, Morris is a member of a search committee to recommend a new superintendent of schools for the state-run district in Newark, N.J., where Prudential has been headquartered since 1875.

The foundation provided a $75,000 grant in 2006 to the Education Law Center, a Newark group that pushes the state to provide more school funding out of local property taxes for public school students in New Jersey’s urban and special needs’ districts.

The foundation also is mulling getting involved with a prisoner re-entry program.

A lawyer by trade (University of Texas) with undergraduate paperwork from Princeton in architecture, urban planning and African American studies, Morris says she’s proud of Prudential’s “effort to be substantive philanthropically.”

Morris points out that the foundation can support the Education Law Center without endorsing each of its positions. And she doesn’t worry if some of the foundation’s initiatives, like its close working relationship with the City of Newark and Mayor Cory Booker, or the 2004 program that brought Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu to Newark to mark the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, might appear off-the-beaten path for some with straight-laced notions of today’s corporate mission.

Some messages are controversial “because you put a light on disparity,” Morris states. “It is not something that we fret over.”

Nor does Morris feel compelled to outline “a business nexus” for all of the foundation’s grant-making.
“Part of your license to do business is your contract with the community,” Morris says. “Corporations are social institutions. We are more than the last dime we give to shareholders.”

The Prudential Foundation, which provided almost $35 million in grants and corporate contributions in 2006, focuses on things like improving public education and community development.

The foundation’s total giving is higher than the $30 million mean for U.S. corporations, and more than half of Prudential’s philanthropy is education-oriented, says Charles Moore, the Executive Director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) in New York City.

Crediting the leadership of Morris and Prudential’s former CEO and current chairman Arthur Ryan, who’s on the CECP board, Moore says Prudential’s “proactive” approach sets the foundation apart.
The Prudential Foundation is “far more concerned” with the societal impact of its programs than the business impact, Moore says. “And that doesn’t mean you are wasting shareholder money. That reflects well on employees and the brand.”

Speaking of brand, Morris, who also is Vice President of Prudential’s Community Resources Division, seems to have put some of her own stamp on the Prudential Foundation, which is one of four units in the division.

From her experience at the foundation, she quickly rattles off some philanthropy tips for peers at other corporations. She advises:

• Look strategically and pare down your giving focus, if necessary. “You can’t get traction with the budget with nine things,” Morris says.
• Measure and evaluate your giving whenever possible. Establish core objectives beforehand and measure all of your partners’ efforts by the same criteria. “Before we were talking apples and oranges, but it allowed us to see how we could properly set things up,” Morris says. She adds that a corporate foundation can assess the impact of some programs, but not all. “Measure what you can,” Morris says. “Getting into the world of evaluating the whole thing is nearly impossible.”
• Find good partners because one foundation can’t fix everything. “In the art of collaboration, invite everyone to the party at the same time,” Morris says. “No one wants to start in the middle.”
• Involve the entire company, from rank-and-file employees to the company’s senior leadership, in the philanthropy process to ensure the program’s support.
• Help develop community leaders. When you fund a community center, Morris says, you want to ensure that there are skilled leaders there to run it.

And, it has been quite a run for Morris, who uses what she calls her “creative” impulses to network and build partnerships. Along the way, Morris has met Tutu, Queen Latifah and countless other household-name personalities. But, celeb encounters aren’t the only highlights.

“I meet people who are real risk-takers in society,” Morris says. “I meet heroes from the street to people whom everyone knows. This is a joy, and a humbling experience.”