For Chicago’s best coffee deal (just $1 a cup) and a tantalizing choice of baked treats, it’s hard to beat Dorothy’s Sweet Shoppe in Lincoln Square. And the best part is each order is also doing a bit of good – helping to support Gateway to Learning, the non-profit that runs the Sweet Shoppe, and the adults with developmental disabilities who staff it and bake all the products.
Gateway to Learning was founded 50 years ago by Dorothy Hough who was looking for good educational options for her two children, Suzanne and Roger Jr., who were both diagnosed with a disability shortly after birth. Not satisfied with the choices available, she founded Gateway to Learning as a school in 1974 and led the organization for nearly three decades. As it grew, and the children it served got older, Gateway to Learning added a range of adult services -- training programs (culinary, hospitality, etc.), employment services, and case management -- to its K-12 program.
When Kathryn Lavin joined as Executive Director in 2018, however, the organization was in the midst of major change. A shift in education policy and funding in the 2000s away from separate educational programs toward inclusivity, pressed Gateway to Learning to close its K-12 program in 2017. And in that same year it lost its beloved Executive Director, Cheryl Hennelly, who had been at Gateway for over 30 years, to cancer.
“We had to make a huge cultural shift,” recalled Lavin. “We were dealing with the shift in Federal Government policy along with the trauma of the loss of a key leader. In addition, we needed to understand the business aspects of our organization. We had multiple conversations with the board and our leadership team regarding the fact that just because we were a non-profit, didn’t mean that we had to finish each year with zero net revenue.”
Partnership with Kellogg Board Fellows Program
To help bring about this transformation, Lavin initiated a strong partnership with the Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and its Golub Capital Board Fellows program. “We’ve had five fellows and each of them shared our passion for our mission and left an indelible mark on the organization,” said Lavin.
“Patton (Callaway ’20) was our first fellow. She looked at board processes and how they needed to be streamlined,” recalled Lavin. “When I joined Gateway to Learning, I found the board to be extremely dedicated, yet, seeking guidance about how to better their roles and support the organization. For example, they were meeting 9 times a year, which, in my opinion, is way too much for an organization with (at that time) about a $1M annual budget.”
“She came at a great time, bringing an outside perspective and objectivity. She helped us to reset the commitments, the directors and committees, roles.” Continued Lavin: “There was also no evaluation in place for the Executive Director. She created a well-defined 360 process for us that is still in place.” “Patton was so amazing and insightful,” agreed Katie Dunne, Gateway to Learning’s Board Chair. “I felt like, ‘How did we find this person?’ When we learned we could have someone like her each year it was a wonderful gift.”
Callaway was just as enthusiastic about the experience: “Kathryn, Katie, and the Gateway team helped me learn what it takes to operate a board effectively through a time of transition,” recalled Callaway. “I had the opportunity to apply these learnings not long after when I served as the Chief of Staff at Oak Street Health, supporting the CEO and board through CVS Health's acquisition of the company. I'm so grateful to the Gateway team for all they do - it was an honor to be a part of such a wonderful organization and pillar of the Chicago community.”
Next up was Kevin Kosiewicz ‘21, who started just before the pandemic. “He has an amazing ability to analyze numbers,” said Lavin. “He joined the finance committee. When COVID hit, he created a cash flow calculator that was vital for helping us get through the pandemic. When we got PPP and retention funds from the government, we were able to use it to evaluate the use of those funds and track our expenditures.” At end of the fellowship, Kevin was invited to join the board, and continued to serve as a key leader on the Finance Committee.
The third fellow, Zoe Yeros ’23, is “electric” observed Lavin, who described how they came up with her project. “We’d been approached by an organization about a potential merger, yet the board declined to explore further. When I raised the issue as to the reasons why, we realized we didn’t have an objective basis to evaluate the offer. We needed a strategic roadmap to help guide our decisions and to define our values.”
“Zoe developed the ‘Bridge to Gateway’, a graphic that encapsulated our whole organization on a single page, with our 5 core values, as well as the pillars, beams, and guardrails that make up our strategy and key initiatives. She then created a template we could use to evaluate program ideas using the Bridge.” This creative effort was chosen as one of the finalists for the best Board Fellows project of that year’s cohort.
As Gateway to Learning began preparations for its golden anniversary, it presented a natural opportunity for the next fellow. “Nan (Nandita Baloo ‘24) was also very interested in strategy, but when she learned we were getting ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary, she said she wanted to get involved with it. She worked with our Development Committee to launch planning for this big milestone.” This was on top of her main project which was helping the organization develop metrics on how to invest the employee retention funds it received from the government in ways that would forward the mission. “But what makes Nan so unique,” Lavin continued. “Is that in addition to her project, she’s been here frequently volunteering.”
Gateway to Learning’s newest fellow, Leo Morais de Souza ‘25 from Brazil will officially start this Spring, but he’s already been engaged. “I’m extremely happy to join Gateway this year!,” said Leo. “I have a younger sister with Down Syndrome, and my family and I have always been involved in various initiatives to help her and others in our community live their best lives. So, when I first read about Gateway’s mission and programs, I immediately wanted to be a part of it. From my first conversation with Kathryn and Katie, I’ve felt how impactful their work at Gateway has been and how deeply interested both of them were in ensuring that I have the best possible experience as a Board Fellow. After visiting Gateway and attending the 50th Anniversary Gala, I felt energized by the positive impact Gateway has on the participants’ lives! Right now, I’m talking to board and staff members to better understand how I can be most helpful to Gateway. I’ve been working in management consulting for the last four years and can’t wait to start leveraging what I’ve learned there to help Gateway.”
These skills could potentially come in handy in supporting a second social enterprise that Kellogg students helped to create for Gateway to Learning: Barley’s Biscuits. A team of students from the Kellogg Impact Consulting Club (KICC) was charged with coming up with a business strategy that could employ at least five of Gateway to Learning’s clients, making dog biscuits. They did a feasibility study and business plan for selling dog treats made from the grain waste product donated from a local microbrewery. A follow-on project developed a marketing plan and go-to-market strategy for the biscuits, which are sold in the Sweet Shoppe or online (https://www.barleysbiscuits.com/).
Reflecting the keys to success of the board fellow’s partnership, Lavin said “it’s important to recognize the “caliber of the people you’re getting. These aren’t summer interns; they’re leaders and subject matter experts who want to have a positive impact on the organization. We’ve spent a lot of time up front trying to understand what each fellow wants to get from the experience along with what skills they want to develop and how this fits in with what the organization needs, so it can be win-win.”
“I give Kathy a lot of credit for the success of the fellows,” observed Dunne. “At no point did she say here’s the project, go do it. Rather she identified a few key areas the intern could help the organization and then gave them the freedom to explore and identify what was a best fit for their passion and capabilities. It has been a really effective, interactive process.”
As board chair, Dunne has sought to pay forward some of the advice and support she got from mentors when she started her career as a lawyer in a large firm to the board fellows she has mentored: “I want to be someone they can talk to about their career goals and lives, along with their work at Gateway.”
According to Alli Henry, Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Impact and Director of the Golub Capital Board Fellows program at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a nonprofit partner’s investment in their Board Fellow is directly correlated to the depth of their Fellows’ impact on the organization. “We find that the nonprofit partners who get to know and appreciate what their Fellows bring to the table not only provide the closest mentorship and the most enriching learning opportunities, but they also get the most impact back from their Fellows. We are grateful for partners like Gateway who invest alongside us in training the next generation of civic leaders.”
Summarizing what the fellows have meant to Gateway to Learning, Lavin observed: “The word that comes to mind is ‘gratitude’. I’m so grateful for their wisdom and the impact they’ve had. They have shifted our understanding of our non-profit as a business and in the process, educated our board and leadership. She added: “A key part of our commitment to DEI, is encouraging diversity of thought. The fellows bring a new generation’s perspective to our organization.”
Dunne agreed fully: “Each of the fellows has been a huge value-add for the organization. They understand the latest in technology and A.I., capabilities we don’t have in-house, and help us use these tools to improve our work. They have consultant brains who just want to dig in and solve problems.”
