Richard Ober leads the New Hampshire Charitable Basis, the biggest personal supplier of nonprofit grants and pupil assist in northern New England. The muse manages greater than $1 billion in charitable funds and awards some 7,000 grants and scholarships exceeding $50 million yearly.
Earlier than becoming a member of the muse, Ober held senior workers positions on the Society for the Safety of New Hampshire Forests and the Monadnock Conservancy. He sits on the Heart for Efficient Philanthropy’s board of administrators and chairs the Group Basis Alternative Community, a cohort of group foundations that seeks to shut the chance hole between prosperous and poor households. Ober can be the creator of “The Northern Forest,” a ebook specializing in the huge wooded areas of the northeastern United States and the lives of those that name them house.
I not too long ago chatted with Ober about his greatest influences, the final nice ebook he learn, and why some recommendation solely is smart when you get a bit older. Listed here are some excerpts from that dialogue, which have been edited for readability.
What made you determine you wished to work within the nonprofit sector?
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I had the great fortune of being uncovered to the nonprofit world once I was in faculty and my first job occurred to be within the sector, the place I used to be a publicist for a small arts group in Nashua, New Hampshire.
I realized fairly shortly that you could possibly make a dwelling doing what you cared about, which enabled me to pursue my dream job of doing communications and writing for conservation and environmental coverage teams. I’ve spent my total profession — excluding one yr working for a bit newspaper, which truly was nonprofit — working within the unbiased charitable sector.
Who’re your greatest influences?
Professionally, I’d say my greatest influences have been the individuals I met early on in my profession, particularly Paul Bofinger, who ran the Society for the Safety of New Hampshire Forests the place I spent 16 years. He confirmed me learn how to deliver a number of disparate pursuits collectively to develop widespread floor and daring options. He handed in 2020.
I spent about 23 years working in conservation and environmental coverage and there was some extent the place I spotted that my ardour for New Hampshire — this humorous, quirky state within the northeast nook of the nation — prolonged effectively past my look after a spot, which I expressed by conservation work.
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So one other very huge affect was my predecessor, Lewis Feldstein, the previous president of the New Hampshire Charitable Basis, whom I had recognized personally and professionally for about 10 years. He had twice requested me to work for the muse, and the third time he requested got here at an ideal second as a result of I used to be considering that it was time to increase my work past conservation.
As for private influences, I’ve received to say my dad and mom. My father was a public college educator and my mom was a volunteer for social justice and worldwide relations causes, in order that mannequin of doing work apart from attempting to make some huge cash was instilled in me early on.
What’s the perfect piece of recommendation you’ve acquired?
I’m going to provide you a pair — these are from my father. All of them start with “As you become older, you’ll…”
The primary is, “As you become older, you’ll remorse your acts of omission greater than your acts of fee.” I actually consider that. We clearly all have regrets, however I believe it’s the occasions I didn’t take that probability that follow me.
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One other one got here from him, and it’s, “As you become older, you just about turn out to be extra like your self.” I by no means knew what that meant till I began getting older. I take it to imply that you simply’ll most likely get higher on the good components and also you may worsen on the dangerous components [laughs]. It’s associated to a different bit of recommendation, which I’m certain you’ve heard, which is, “Don’t attempt to be anybody else however your self, as a result of everybody else has already been taken.”
What makes you optimistic concerning the state of philanthropy? Pessimistic?
What makes me optimistic is, over the past 5 years, there have been sincere and daring critiques of philanthropy, and considerate individuals within the discipline are actually paying consideration.
I believe the books from 2017 to 2019 — Anand Giridharadas’ “Winners Take All,” Robert Reich’s “Simply Giving,” Edgar Villanueva’s “Decolonizing Wealth,” and Phil Buchanan’s “Giving Achieved Proper” — all raised essential questions on energy and philanthropy being fueled by a basically inequitable financial system. These points are being mentioned all over the place now.
I used to be additionally actually taken with the Monitor Institute’s report that got here out final summer time referred to as “What’s Subsequent for Philanthropy within the 2020s.” I believed they did an extremely incisive job of summarizing the seven huge shifts in society and the financial system and the 4 edges that philanthropy has to push to take care of relevance and influence.
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I really feel like philanthropy is beginning to acknowledge that we have now an obligation to do way over simply make grants. We have now an obligation to take dangers and have a perspective about among the actually huge, sweeping challenges going through the nation on this planet, like earnings inequality, racial injustice, local weather change and erosion of democratic norms. Philanthropy will all the time attempt to alleviate signs, however to make an actual influence, we’ve received to give attention to techniques and long-term root causes.
As for what makes me pessimistic, I simply surprise if we’ll do sufficient. There’s numerous dialog and commitments being made, however will we observe by, or will we fall again on “It’s ok?” I say this as a result of there aren’t the sorts of exterior components that power philanthropy to do higher that we see within the personal sector with market competitors, and even the nonprofit sector, the place leaders have to determine the place their budgets are coming from yearly.
What’s the final nice ebook you learn?
That is going to sound uncommon, however I’m going to say “Isaac’s Storm” by Eric Larson. It’s concerning the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. This ebook is about hubris, doubt, social justice and the constraints of science and authorities as they have been constructing out what turned the Nationwide Climate Service.
After I learn a ebook like that, it’s to be taught one thing about historical past, however there are such a lot of threads in that story that really resonate with us at the moment, together with local weather change and our incapacity to cope with the ability of pure forces.
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Any parting ideas?
I’d have had a really totally different expertise being the president of the muse if I hadn’t spent the primary two-thirds of my profession working within the nonprofit sector. We fund about 2,000 nonprofits a yr, and I noticed firsthand over the past two years how nonprofits held the communities in New Hampshire collectively, much more so than the personal or the general public sector, and I simply have an enormous appreciation for that work.
ALBANY, NY (NEWS10) — A strong second half powered the UAlbany women’s basketball team to their third conference victory in as many contests on Thursday night.
COACH COLLEEN MULLEN: “To start the game, New Hampshire had great defensive intensity and pace. Once we settled in and started moving the ball, we were able to capitalize with our inside-out game. In the second half, we had solid offensive execution and grinded out multiple defensive stops. This was a great team win on both ends.”
KEY STATS
Graduate student Kayla Cooper led the team with 20 points, six rebounds, three steals, and three assists while shooting over 50% from the field.
Fellow graduate student Jessica Tomasetti followed with nine points and five rebounds. The point guard also shot 50% from the field.
Junior Gabriela Falcao tallied a team-high two blocks.
As a team, the Great Danes totaled nine steals with 19 points off turnovers.
The UAlbany defense did not allow any singular Wildcat to surpass seven points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Graduate student Lilly Phillips scored the first basket of the game after a combined four scoreless possessions.
That defensive nature continued throughout the rest of the half.
New Hampshire gained a 9-5 lead within four minutes of action but the Great Danes quickly answered to tie the score in the next two minutes.
UAlbany ended the quarter with a one-possession advantage, 14-11.
Throughout the second quarter, the Great Danes allowed just two field goals for five Wildcat points.
Four different Great Danes scored in a defensive quarter to make it a 24-16 game at halftime.
The second half was a different game – UAlbany nearly doubled its score from the first half in the third quarter alone.
The Great Danes began the third with a 12-2 scoring run. Ten of those points were scored in just two minutes and 23 seconds.
Kayla Cooper and Jessica Tomasetti combined to score 10 additional points and close the third quarter with a 22-point advantage, 46-24.
Cooper and Tomasetti scored all but three of the 22 points in the third quarter. Cooper tallied 12 alone.
Following two fourth-quarter layups from senior Laycee Drake and Phillips, the Great Danes held a 26-point lead.
UAlbany continued to extend their lead throughout the next seven minutes of action. The largest lead of the contest came with 1:24 left – 29 points (59-30).
The Wildcats got the final say to make it a 27-point decision, 59-32.
NEXT: The Great Danes will close out the week at home against Maine on Saturday (Jan. 11).
Gov. Kelly Ayotte used her first speech as New Hampshire’s 83rd chief executive Thursday to call for “common-sense cooperation” as the state tackles issues ranging from housing, to education, to the state budget.
In her roughly 45-minute long inaugural address, Ayotte simultaneously lauded New Hampshire as a model for the rest of the nation, but warned that pressing concerns — financial and otherwise — would require policymakers to make difficult decisions in the coming months.
You can watch Ayotte’s full inauguration speech here.
“I could not be more optimistic about our future, but at the same time we have real challenges that we have to take head on, if we want to keep our state moving in the right direction,” Ayotte told a crowd in the State House’s Representatives Hall that included current lawmakers and state officials, as well as several former governors, congressmen, and other political veterans.
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“Whenever we talk about cuts, just like a family making hard decisions, there are things we can’t skimp on: protecting our most vulnerable and serving those most in need.”
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, forecasting upcoming state budget negotiations
Ayotte said she’s proud the state ranks high in categories including freedom, public safety, and taxpayer return on investment, but said slowing tax collections and the end of billions of dollars of federal aid dictates that the state “recalibrate” its spending.
“Whenever we talk about cuts, just like a family making hard decisions, there are things we can’t skimp on: protecting our most vulnerable and serving those most in need,” Ayotte said.
Ayotte’s speech was light on specifics — she called for few clear policy initiatives or spending cuts — but she did announce one new state initiative: a Commission on Government Efficiency, or COGE, to help identify ways to spend less state money. The committee will be led by former Gov. Craig Benson, who nominated Ayotte to be New Hampshire attorney general in 2004, and businessman Andrew Crews, a longtime political donor to Ayotte.
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Ayotte told the Democratic leaders of the New Hampshire House and Senate that her door would always be open to them. She meanwhile asked GOP legislative leaders to “marshal our Republican majorities over the next two years to deliver on the promises we made to keep our state moving in the right direction.”
Ayotte called public safety her “absolute top priority” and said she expected Republicans to pass a ban this year on so-called sanctuary policies, which aim to protect undocumented immigrants from criminal penalties. She also said the state needs to further tighten its bail policies, and boost police retirement benefits to make it easier to recruit officers and keep them on the job.
She identified housing as another top issue and said the state needs to “get serious” by modeling good behavior to cities and towns, by enforcing a 60-day turnaround on state permits for new housing projects. She also promised to “strengthen new and existing partnerships” between the state, cities and towns and the private sector to get new housing units built.
Ayotte also highlighted education, and said while New Hampshire’s current rate of pupil spending was “wonderful,” lawmakers need to “keep it up” while simultaneously expanding the state’s voucher-like school choice program. Ayotte also promised to ensure students can learn and teachers can teach without distraction by banning cell phones in the classroom.
On other issues, Ayotte promised to expand the state’s ranks of mental health providers, strengthen anti-suicide efforts, oppose a controversial landfill proposal in the town of Dalton, and veto any new abortion restrictions.
More digs at Massachusetts — but also a welcome
After framing her gubernatorial campaign last year as a rebuke of Massachusetts, Ayotte also used her inaugural address as another chance to take digs at the Granite State’s southern neighbor.
Ayotte criticized policymakers there for what she described as out-of-control spending, tax hikes, and lax immigration policies. But she did say New Hampshire welcomes Massachusetts residents as shoppers and visitors.
One of Ayotte’s biggest applause lines was addressed to Bay State business leaders.
“To the businesses of Massachusetts: We’d love to have you bring your talents to the Granite State,” she said. “We’re happy to show you why it’s better here.”
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Ayotte extended a similar invitation to Canadian businesses, saying they would be especially welcome in New Hampshire’s North Country.
Lawmakers say they’re ready to get to work
Lawmakers past and present attended Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s inauguration.
Republicans in both legislative chambers will enjoy sizable majorities this session, and the party’s leaders say they’re ready to use those numbers to advance the policy goals Ayotte laid out Thursday.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne praised the governor’s speech and said that along with the expansion of Education Freedom Accounts, his caucus will focus on “addressing issues of affordability across all sectors: housing, healthcare, electricity, you name it.”
He expressed optimism about Ayotte’s proposed COGE initiative to make government more efficient, but acknowledged that trimming the state budget could cause tension as lawmakers seek to protect their favorite programs.
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“Everything we do is someone’s favorite pet project, so we’ve got to figure out who is going to get sent to the chopping block,” he said.
Osborne added that while his majorities are larger this session than last term’s near evenly split House makeup, he knows there will be disagreement within his own caucus.
“The more willing that we are to let people do their own thing, for things that are important to them, the more we’re going to be able to band together and get things done together, as well,” he said.
Sen. James Gray, a Republican from Rochester who leads the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters it was too early in the budgeting process to forecast where the state may trim to balance its books. He said he plans to work with Ayotte to advance her campaign promises.
With a 40-seat disadvantage, House Democrats will have little ability to set the legislative agenda this session, but Minority Leader Alexis Simpson of Exeter said she was grateful that Ayotte expressed a willingness to work across the aisle. She said Democrats would focus on ensuring any budget reductions don’t end up harming the state’s neediest residents.
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“We feel these budget cuts at the state level will lead to higher costs at the local level, so we’re really working on making sure the vulnerable populations that Gov. Ayotte spoke about really are protected in this budget,” Simpson said.
Simpson also said she hoped for bipartisan collaboration on housing, mental health services and other issues.
Notable political faces fill the room
Gov. Chris Sununu attends the inauguration of his successor, Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
Thursday’s inauguration ceremony brought out a crowd of high profile political figures in the state, past and present.
Outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu received a sustained round of applause when he entered Representatives Hall, and was again thanked by Ayotte during her speech for his eight years of service to the state.
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Others present included former Congressman Charlie Bass and Scott Brown, a former U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts and ambassador to New Zealand, who was also New Hampshire’s 2014 Republican U.S. Senate nominee. Also in attendance was former Gov. Maggie Hassan, who now serves in the U.S. Senate after unseating Ayotte in 2016.
Former Gov. Craig Benson was seated in the chamber, as was Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais, who entered the room to cheers.
Four of the five justices on the New Hampshire Supreme Court were in attendance, as were federal judges for the District of New Hampshire. New Hampshire Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald swore in Ayotte, while she was flanked by her husband and two children.
Members of the Executive Council were also sworn in during Thursday’s proceedings.
New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte will deliver an inaugural speech Thursday in which she is expected to project a message of post-election unity.
Ayotte, a Republican, is expected to emphasize her desire to get to work for all Granite Staters regardless of party affiliation.
“You have my word that each and every day I will work on your behalf to do what’s best for all of us. For all of New Hampshire,” she’ll say, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks that her team shared with The Boston Globe.
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Ayotte is expected to say New Hampshire needs to “get serious about housing production” in light of the current “crisis” around the constrained supply of homes. She’s expected to voice support for expanding the state’s Education Freedom Account program. And she’s planning to laud the budgetary approach state leaders have taken in recent years, including the elimination of the interest and dividends tax.
“New Hampshire is a wonderful, beautiful state,” she’ll say. “And protecting what makes us unique is so much more important than one person or one party. … I could not be more optimistic about our shared future.”
Inauguration Day ceremonies are slated to begin at 11:30 a.m., with a livestream available.
Do you know Kelly Ayotte’s background? Here are 10 facts, including a few you may have missed.
As she takes office, Ayotte’s allies and foes will be watching closely, including to see how her policy positions play out in these six areas.
The festivities around Ayotte taking office include a first inaugural ball on Saturday, Jan. 11, at the Omni Mt. Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, and a second inaugural ball on Saturday, Jan. 18, at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Manchester. Tickets to both events are sold out, though a waitlist is available.
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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
